I'm in SEC football country ... big deal

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Tuesday night, after having dinner with friends in Columbia, S.C., I took a drive to the University of South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium.

It was just plain big, and imposing. It has 80,000 or so seats, which would put it in the top five in the Big Ten for size, so it's not like it's anything I don't see every year. But some stadiums look big, and some look big. This one looked big.

However, the surrounding area didn't seem to give it much ambience. It isn't in the heart of campus. There's a convenience store across the street.

South Carolina had its spring game Saturday. A crowd of 30,000 attended. That's a big spring game crowd. But it's a fraction of what they'll draw at Nebraska, for instance.

We hear and hear how big SEC football is in the South. It is, of course. But is it that much bigger than the Big Ten or Big 12? How many more decals of gators or bulldogs on cars do you need to be bigger than a college football Saturday in Columbus or Lincoln or State College or Madison or Iowa City?

I see the Georgia 'G' a lot down here, but certainly not as much as the Iowa tiger hawk in Iowa.

LSU is notorious for being crazy-crazy when it comes to game-day atmosphere. Hey, Louisianans, ever been to Madison?

All right, the SEC has had the last five BCS champions, spread among four different teams.

OK, advantage SEC.