For the moment, Auburn is the center of the college athletics universe with stories about Cam Newton, Nick Fairley and the rest of the Tigers running nationwide, and for good reason. Auburn is No. 1 in the country, and one game away from a BCS title berth.
But football isn’t the only game on the plains: it’s just the only one that sparks any interest.
Ask the students on campus how Auburn’s men’s basketball program is playing, and most will say, “Oh, we’re playing basketball?”
Why, yes, as a matter of fact you are, although not very well.
While the football team is undefeated entering this weekend’s SEC Championship matchup against South Carolina, the basketball team has already lost to Columbus State (Georgia, not Ohio), UNC Ashville, Samford, Campbell and Jacksonville, and entered December an abysmal 3-5. But it wouldn’t have mattered if they had gone undefeated and were battling Duke for the top spot in the polls. The SEC is football first, last and always. With the noted exception of Kentucky, a transition state with more Midwestern sensibilities than its down-home neighbors in the deep south, the SEC views basketball as a nice pastime between bowl season and spring football practice.
High school signing day attracts more interest.
Think that’s an exaggeration? Take Alabama as an example: the Coleman Coliseum at the University of Alabama seats 15,043 people, but the Tide’s average basketball attendance is 11,350. The spring football scrimmage in Tuscaloosa attracts north of 91,000 fans every year. And Alabama has a good basketball program, second only to Kentucky in total SEC tournament victories.
Teams with losing records, like 3-5 Auburn, could hand out tickets on the street and not fill the house.
Frankie Sullivan, a junior guard at Auburn understands it. “Yeah, there is more of an importance on football in the SEC and in the state (of Alabama) but we’re all part of the Auburn family,” he said. “We show nothing but love for those guys on the football team, and once they’re through playing they come out and support us. We try to support everybody, but, you know, more people watch football so it’s going to get more attention. That’s alright. When we win, more people will watch us.”
That is a fine sentiment, but it isn’t always accurate. Florida won back-to-back NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, and while enthusiasm for the basketball Gators shot up for awhile, all the hardwood hardware was forgotten once Urban Meyer led the football team back into the Swamp.
“Our sport has been locked into a one-month window,” Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan said. “When we start practicing you're dealing with the playoffs for pro baseball. Then you've got college football and the NFL. That takes you to February. It's not until the middle to February, right around Valentine's Day, that people start focusing on college basketball. There will be about four weeks where everybody's focusing on college basketball.”
That is certainly the case in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, the meat of the SEC where SEC football coaches are paid millions and expected to win championships while basketball coaches are expected to put on a respectable show and not embarrass the school.
That is one of the reasons Georgia chose not to interview Bobby Knight, the winningest living coach in men’s college basketball, even after Knight expressed an interest in leading the Bulldogs. Wins be damned, Knight would have detracted from the football program. Bulldog Nation would not stand for that.
Even when SEC schools go deeper in the NCAA tournament than the basketball-rich ACC -- something that has happened more often in recent years than N.C. State, Virginia and Maryland fans care to admit -- fans and alumni in the SEC give the hoops program a nice pat on the back before heading to the football field to see who’s starting at right tackle.
“There isn’t the focus (on basketball) but the pressure is still there,” Sullivan said. “We don’t try to compete with football, but we put pressure on ourselves to try to prove ourselves that the SEC is as good as anybody. That’s an internal thing. We love basketball in the SEC.”
Good thing, because with all eyes on the Georgia Dome this weekend, those who play basketball in the SEC might be the only ones who love it right now. They’re certainly the only ones who are watching.
