By 10 o'clock last Monday night, as my heater braced for another night of arctic air, I discovered via social media that Kentucky and Vanderbilt were playing in Monday's NCAA National Championship football game.
You can throw Missouri, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Texas A&M in there, too. Shoot, might as well include eight of the non-SEC football powers — excluding mighty Alabama, upstart Georgia and also-rans Auburn and LSU, of course.
Who knew?
The dominant Southeastern Conference will crown another football champion tomorrow night. I believe Alabama and its stout NFL-like defense will defuse Georgia's good running backs. (But I also still believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, so what do I know?)
Go ahead, America; feel free to pile on.
Fact is, and facts are what we judge things by, the SEC has produced 10 NCAA football champions since 1998. That's eight more than the Big 12 and Big 10, in case you're wondering.
Starting with Tamaurice Nigel "Tee" Martin's incredible '98 run with Tennessee, the Crimson Tide (four), LSU (two), Florida (two) and Auburn have all won national championships.
To quote the late Dennis Green, "They (SEC) is who we thought they were!" (He didn't actually call the Chicago Bears the SEC when he delivered that quote in 2006, of course, although someone will probably dispute that, too).
Yeah, it's a dominate group. No one can dispute that, or the awesome tradition that comes with a league that's been playing football on a regular basis since the 1930s.
Frank Sinkwich, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Johnny Majors, Steve Spurrier, Les Miles, Nick Saban. Tradition.
But is it the best college football league? Well ...
What you can't dispute about the SEC is the loyalty and money. They have both.
According to a report, the SEC took in more than $527.4 million in total revenue in 2014. That was four years ago.
Arkansas and South Carolina joined the fray in 1992. Missouri and Texas A&M came calling in 2012.
The old Southwest Conference, which I believe died a slow death in the '80s, punctuated by the SMU scandal, forced Arkansas to look elsewhere. Though I believe they'd be a perfect fit in the Big 12 (more reason than ever than to want to crush the Texas Longhorns), they are happy in the SEC.
Any why shouldn't they be. The SEC is THE power conference in college athletics.
But can the Razorbacks (or anyone else not named Alabama, Georgia, Auburn and LSU) play for a football championship one day?
"SEC! SEC! SEC!"