[DaKCMan AP]

SEC >>> all others

SEC Domination - More than Football
Dave Matter
Columbia Daily Tribune Sunday, June 10, 2012

...We all know that Missouri is joining the country's elite conference for college football. But the Southeastern Conference's dominance doesn't end on the gridiron. Yesterday, the SEC captured its eighth and ninth NCAA team championships for the 2011-12 academic year when the LSU women and Florida men won the outdoor NCAA track and field titles.

The other seven reigning SEC national champions are Alabama football, softball, women's golf and gymnastics; Florida men's indoor track and women's tennis; and Kentucky men's basketball. The SEC record for single-season team national championships is 10, set in 1998-99. With four baseball teams playing in the NCAA super regionals as of yesterday — Arkansas, Florida, LSU and South Carolina — the league has a great chance at matching that record.

How's this for supremacy: In the last five years, the SEC has won national titles in 15 of its 20 sports and 28 NCAA titles overall. The league is so rugged in some sports, four of this year's national champions didn't win their league title: Alabama football, gymnastics and women's golf and Florida men's outdoor track, which finished a distant fourth at last month's SEC Championships. Remember, Alabama's football team didn't win the Western Division last season, much less the league title.

That sound you just heard across Columbia was a collective gulp.

The SEC's domination of outdoor track and field is especially impressive. Since 1987, an SEC team has won the men's NCAA outdoor title in 17 of 26 years. The women? Also 17 of 26.

For Missouri coaches about to step foot in the country's most treacherous conference, their worst mistake would be ignoring the obvious. This won't be easy.

They can probably all take a lesson from track and field Coach Brett Halter, whose teams are in for challenges unlike most others wearing the black and gold. Halter describes SEC track and field as the Mt. Everest of college sports. And he can't wait to climb.

"Hey, I'm a big mountain guy," Halter said this spring. "I want to climb the biggest peaks. If somebody literally gave me the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest, I'm going, knowing one out of every 10 people die in the descent. But it's there, man. And we can get to the top. We may not have the best satellite technology, the best thermal gear, the best Sherpas. But it's there. And I can go. There's the opportunity. That's kind of where we are..."

It's about time to follow your Sherpa, Tiger fans. The road's about to get steep.

Reach Dave Matter at 573-815-1781 or e-mail dmatter@columbiatribune.com.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/...e%3A+Sports%29

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