FAYETTEVILLE -- The SEC bills itself as the conference where "It just means more."
And it does. So much more from its decidedly football first origins that it can distort its fans' perceptions of other sports even as the SEC excels in them like it does on the gridiron.
Take baseball. Three of the eight teams playing for the national championship starting today and Sunday at the College World Series in Omaha hail from the SEC.
Yet we know the fan bases of at least two, Arkansas and Mississippi State, earlier writhed in end of the world bad football weekend despair.
The Bulldogs' baseball boosters in Starkville, Miss., did have cause for early alarm.
Conduct issues prompted Mississippi State firing popular 2017 super regional finalist Coach Andy Cannizaro with the 2018 season just February underway.
The highly preseason picked Bulldogs floundered. They wallowed 5-10 last in the SEC West while Arkansas, 10-5 led the West rolling into Starkville from April 20-22.
The Razorbacks rolled in but reeled out, swept in three.
Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn reported hearing from a fan so distraught she vowed never attending another Razorbacks game.
Should she break her vow attending their next one as it will be vs. Texas Sunday in Omaha following Mississippi State vs. Washington tonight.
The irony isn't lost on these SEC West co-champion Razorbacks never ceasing believing in themselves but also become Mississippi State believers.
"We knew they were a better team than their record showed," Arkansas junior right fielder Eric Cole said. "Especially when they are playing good teams. They kind of rise to the occasion like sweeping Florida (the 2018 SEC Overall and East champion and reigning national champion on Arkansas' side of the CWS bracket). Now that they are in Omaha, it just shows how strong this conference really is."
That football fan mentality filters into every SEC sport, Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn acknowledged noting before that series: "I tried to tell people that Mississippi State was a very good team. They just had some dysfunctional things, a lot of distractions at the beginning of the season. But they had good players, good talent."
Van Horn still thinks his Hogs are better but says baseball beats odds more than does football.
"It's a different sport than football where usually if you don't turn the ball over and you are bigger and better you're going to hammer them," Van Horn said. "In this game there's a lot going on with bases on balls, and balls that don't drop in that you hit hard and base-hits that are just flared. It's just a different dynamic."
The fan fervor remains the same and for that these Razorbacks are appreciative whatever the temporary frustrations.
"Fans are going to be fans," Arkansas pitcher Isaiah Campbell said. "And we have the best fans in the country."
They stayed 11,000 strong intact last Monday night at Baum Stadium celebrating postgame Arkansas' 14-4 Super Regional final over South Carolina.
Obviously to them it just means more.
Sports on 06/16/2018