God, family and [insert your college football team here].
If you’re from the South, you know what I’m talking about. There’s a direct correlation between your favorite team’s record and your overall happiness. And there’s a feeling of emptiness from January to Labor Day weekend.
Some fan bases down here take football more seriously than others. But aside from Vanderbilt, there’s not a big gap separating No. 13 from No. 1 on our list of the most loyal SEC fan bases.
What exactly makes a fan base more loyal than another one?
There’s home-game attendance, which has been on a decline across the nation in recent years. There’s also road-game attendance, which I would argue is the ultimate measuring stick of just how loyal a fan base is.
But beyond attendance numbers, there’s the overall passion for your program, which is harder to measure. Aside from Alabama, every SEC team has had a bad season or stretch of seasons since 2010. How did their fans react? Did they lose interest or were they still glued to their televisions every Saturday? Do they stop wearing their team’s apparel following a loss? Stop giving thanks for their program at the dinner table?
Again, hard to measure, but here’s a list of what I consider to be the most loyal fan bases in the SEC from least loyal to the most:
SEC worst-to-first series: College towns | head coaching jobs | stadiums | helmets | logos | live mascots | traditions | uniforms