re: To the Newbies (Arky and Carolina fans)

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Baylor coach Grant Teaff and Houston athletic director Rudy Davalos initiated a proposal to bring LSU, Oklahoma or some other top program into the SWC.

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I remember when that happened. I was laughing when I read it in the paper.

Craig O'Neill is crazy!

so how many conference championships have Arkansac and South Carolina won since they joined the SEC almost 20 years ago?

Craig O'Neil! That shite was awesome

It was Sept of my senior year of college when Carolina got invited to join the SEC, so I know the story well. And I used to know Derek Dooley when he worked in Atlanta for a Columbia based law firm. I had the opportunity get the story straight from his dad one evening when he came to our flag football game.

Prior to joining the SEC, Carolina played UGA every year w/ a home & away series. When the SEC went to 7 games, UGA began to alternate Clemson and Carolina, but that only caused the series to be dropped a year because of the SEC expansion. It was widely known that the SEC was going to expand for months w/ at least 2 teams so they could hold a championship game. Ark had joined a month earlier. FSU was widely speculated, but at some point Bowden publicly stated FSU wasn't interested. During the interim, it's was reported that the ACC approached us to see if we would be interested in re-joining before we committed to the SEC. NC State was pushing us to re-join and Clemson was willing to go along. We said we'd rather be in the SEC even though we had not been formally invited. The ACC hadn't really started their formal expansion process, but reached out to FSU when we gave them the cold shoulder because wanted to get on the expansion bandwagon. I've heard it speculated that FSU learning of the ACC's interest pushed them to turn down the SEC because they had an option.

To add a little background, the ACC was willing to let us rejoin in the late 70's before they invited Ga Tech, but Duke & UNC added a bunch of penalty stipulations that made our relationship even more loathing. Making the situation even rockier, the ACC had a policy when we dropped out in 1971 that none of the conference schools were to play to us. However, the SC Legislature passed a law requiring the Clemson and Carolina to play each year or they wouldn't receive state funding and the athletic directors could be criminally charged. The policy got rescinded and later on we would usually play 4-5 ACC schools every year in football.

Although Carolina wasn't the SEC's first choice, we may have been the impetus for expansion. During 1980s, we competed in Metro Conference for all sports except football. We had been in discussions with Florida State, Virginia Tech, Penn State and maybe Pitt to form a football conference. We had played FSU & Va Tech every year. During the discussions, Penn State learned they could join the Big 10, which started unraveling the plans.

In 1988, Carolina hired Dick Bestwick to be the AD. Bestwick had prior served as Vince Dooley's right hand man in UGa's athletic department and handled all the SEC relations. I think he had also worked in the SEC office at one time. Upon getting the job, Bestwick had conversations w/ Dooley and the SEC about the potential of Carolina becoming a member. The SEC hadn't thought of expansion, but was intrigued with the idea. Bestwick left Carolina after only a year because of health reasons and returned to UGa to work under Dooley. While at UGa, he and Dooley were instrumental in pushing Carolina to be invited in 1990.

Dooley liked Carolina because UGA always had a good relationship w/ the school. He said the Gamecocks were the toughest team UGA played in 1980 when they won the National Championship. My gut was that he respected but didn’t see a threat from Carolina and felt that they would be the best compliment in the east. At that time, Steve Spurrier had not coached a game at UF, so UGA and Tennessee were the top dogs for eastern schools. Clemson was dominating the ACC during the 80’s because they were cheating like a banshee. The story is that Herschel only chose UGA after winning a long bidding war against Clemson. I think UGA felt there was more to fear from Clemson and Clemson was happy w/ their role in the ACC. And UT may have had problems w/ Clemson too, because the two recruits that got Clemson hit with major NCAA sanctions in 1982 were from Knoxville. However, since the NCAA forced Clemson to fire Danny Ford and FSU joined the ACC, Clemson has not won an ACC Championship.

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Arkansas is to Texas (21-56) as LSU is to Alabama (23-44-5)

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FIFY

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But I have no memory of that being our last SWC game

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It wasn't. There were three more after that. It was the last one in Fayetteville. The last SWC game was against Rice in Little Rock.

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omg, this is some epic butthurt shown by Texas! What a bunch of pussies! I'm so glad I only have memories of Arkansas playing in the SEC.

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Many here probably have stories of the final days being in the SWC. I was in my second year at the Flagship and road tripped with Rey Pygsterio/many others to Austin for that game. Brutal. Sat in the student section no less. Sigh...

For us

Football None.

basketball and baseball. 5