HOOVER, Ala. — This used to be the week America's most self-congratulatory college football conference would gather for a fresh round of pomposity. It was served up in large, Southern-sized portions, and washed down over four days with an intoxicating champagne of success.
It's not simply the flair with which the SEC has held its annual preseason media event that lent itself to arrogance, or the sheer size (the SEC famously announces how many media members attend each year), but also the steady stream of proclamations over four days about the SEC's singular and exclusive greatness.
During the seven-year stretch in which the SEC owned the national championship and set the agenda for all of college sports, it was difficult to mock or even dispute the way this league carried itself into every season.