Southeastern Conference

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• ¹ Played in Jacksonville. Now officially referred to as the "Florida-Georgia/Georgia-Florida Game" due to sensitivity about consumption of alcohol by college students.
• ² For decades the trophy of this game was a red, white, and blue bourbon barrel, but this practice was discontinued in 1999 following a DUI accident that killed two Kentucky football players.
• ³ For 74 years the trophy of this game was an orange, white, and blue beer keg, but this practice was discontinued in 1999 following the aforementioned DUI accident.

The relative importance of these rivalries may vary from one side to the other. For example, the Tennessee-Kentucky rivalry is much more important to UK fans than to UT fans, mainly because of UT's long history of football prominence and UK's relative weakness in that sport. (This situation is almost exactly reversed in men's basketball.)

Each school has a permanent rival from the other division which it plays each year in football (though this may or may not reflect a traditional rivalry). Each East Division school's permanent rival from the West Division:

• Florida--LSU
• Georgia--Auburn
• Kentucky--Mississippi State
• South Carolina--Arkansas
• Tennessee--Alabama
• Vanderbilt--Ole Miss

In addition to the permanent inter-division rival, each football team plays all of its five division opponents plus two rotating opponents from the other division, for a total of eight conference games per season.

Rivalries in Other Sports in the SEC

The top athletic priority throughout the SEC is football, with one exception. Kentucky, which has one of the most storied basketball traditions in the country, is also one of only two Division I-A schools to earn more revenue from its basketball program than its football program. (The other is Arizona.) Vanderbilt and Arkansas also place more emphasis on basketball vis-a-vis football than most other SEC schools.

Despite the conference-wide emphasis on football, several rivalries have developed in other sports:

Men's basketball

• Arkansas-Kentucky

The dominance of these two teams in the '90s over eveyone else in the SEC led to quite a rivalry, mostly by default of being the best two teams in the conference. The recent moves by Arkansas to rejoin Kentucky as a national powerhouse once again could make this rivalry as intense as the mid-'90s.

• Kentucky-Florida

This has become a major rivalry in recent years with the rise of the Florida basketball program under Billy Donovan

• Kentucky-Indiana

A historic "border war" between two of the sport's giants.

• Kentucky-Louisville

This rivalry, unlike most that involve SEC schools, is relatively recent. For nearly 60 years, UK refused to schedule U of L in the regular season in either basketball or football. After a pulsating U of L victory over UK in the final of the 1983 Mideast Regional in the NCAA basketball tournament, pressure mounted on UK to schedule U of L; Cardinals supporters went so far as to propose a law mandating that the two schools schedule one another. The bill was never introduced, as a basketball series began in the 1983-84 season. The rivalry added a new edge in 2001 when the Cardinals hired former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino (although he was not hired directly from UK). Current UK head coach Tubby Smith is a former UK assistant under Pitino, and reportedly recommended Pitino to Louisville.

• Kentucky-Tennessee

This rivalry, also a "border war," has historically been more important to UT fans than to UK fans.

• Mississippi State-Alabama

Not only are these two schools the closest to one another geographically within the SEC - a mere 95 miles separate them - but their respective head coaches, Mark Gottfried and Rick Stansbury, often battle each other for the same recruits.

Other sports

• Tennessee-UConn, women's basketball

The Lady Vols have historically been one of the nation's dominant programs in that sport. Starting in the mid-1990s, UConn has emerged as Tennessee's main rival for national prominence. The Huskies won four national titles between 2000 and 2004; in three of those years, their victim in the NCAA final was Tennessee. For more information, see UConn-Tennessee rivalry.

• Alabama-Georgia, women's gymnastics

These two storied programs have often butted heads for not only SEC titles, but NCAA titles, as well. There is also allegedly a personal rivalry between the head coaches.

National Championships

Since its founding in 1932, SEC members have won a total of 150 team national championships (as of June 5th 2005). Listed below are all championship teams of NCAA sponsored events, as well as the titles won in football. Conference members have won at least one title in all but two of the sponsored events, Softball and Women's Volleyball.

• Prior to 1932, the University of Alabama claimed national titles in football in 1925, 1926, and 1930.
• Prior to joining the SEC in 1992, the University of Arkansas claimed the 1964 football championship, nine titles in Men's Indoor Track, three in Men's Outdoor Track, and five in Men's Cross Country.
• Prior to 1932, former member Georgia Tech claimed football national titles in 1917 and 1928. Tech also won the 1952 title in football. The team defeated fellow SEC member Mississippi in the Sugar Bowl and finished with a record of 12-0. This came a year after Tennessee claimed its first unanimous national title in 1951, although it was also voted national champion by multiple polling services in 1938 and 1940.
• Up to 1982, teams representing member schools also claimed three AIAW Championships

By teams

*The NCAA does not recognize a National Champion for Division I-A football. The listing represents championships awarded by a variety of other organizations.

See also

• List of Southeastern Conference Champions
• List of SEC men's basketball tournament locations

External links

• Official Site of the Southeastern Conference
• LSU student newspaper article about LSU-Ole Miss rivalry
• The original AP article documenting the SEC's formation (Dec. 10, 1932)

Southeastern Conference:   Eastern Division: Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | South Carolina | Tennessee | Vanderbilt   Western Division: Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | LSU | Mississippi | Mississippi State