I guess what it all boils down to is no matter how bad life gets, SEC fans will always have their passion for their team no matter how short of a short distraction it may be and knowing that your fellow SEC schools will always share a special bond good or bad (see Katrina & April tornados), we are always linked together by history. This is just my humble opinion, and hope it makes some sense to you. Side bar read up on the 1925 national championship it will explain allot about our mind set of good v. evil. RTR!
First off, props on your passion for the University you seem like a lifelong fan. The whole SEC thing is an us against the world mentality, if that makes sense. I was deployed for about 5 years on and off after 9/11 and it seemed we were always with units from the North and believe it when I say they were a-holes. I understand that it is acceptable in the North to be brazen and obscene but as Southerners we take offense to such actions, esp. when it is directed at us. We endured countless comments about trailer parks, our education system, dirt roads every Southern steriotype you can imagine, Well it seems like the only thing that would shut them up was and re-instill our pride was when we directed the "conversation" to the SEC dominance in football. It was the only thing that would shut them up. (see next message)