re: Univ. of Florida's athletic dept. is miles ahead of the rest of the SEC

quote:

---

I dare say the economic downturn affected places like Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ark. as bad if not worse than what happened in Florida.

---

Well, it hit those areas hard, but not like Florida. I don't live in Florida any more but I lived there then.

Florida had a far worse real estate bubble, far worse mortgage industry scandal bubble, far worse tourism drop-off impact, far worse biotechnology bubble, far worse federal dollar evacuation than any of the other southern states. On top of that, it had a major drought and fires all over that destroyed multiple years of key crops in its agricultural industries. It was a horrible period for the state of Florida.

quote:

---

I dare say the economic downturn affected places like Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ark. as bad if not worse than what happened in Florida.

---

It is hard to say for Arkansas actually. You have to remember that huge chunks of our odd little state are effectively deader then dog mess economically and have been for a couple of decades.

For NW Arkansas it was more like a six month long hiccup and then back like nothing happened. The economic engines that drive growth there are harder to kill then cockroaches, which is why the area has been in a weird boom period of more then 30 years.

I can't speak for the rest of the South but I think Florida had it worse then Arkansas did for the Great Recession and its aftermath. Large amounts of the the Eastern part of the state were economic wastelands before the crisis while Little Rock and the Western half bounced back faster then most of the country.