Southeastern Conference

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a college athletic conference which operates in the southeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I-A.

Rivalries in Other Sports in the SEC

The top athletic priority throughout the SEC is football, with one glaring exception. Kentucky, which has one of the most storied basketball traditions in the country, is also one of only two Division I-A schools to earn more revenue from its basketball program than its football program. (The other is Arizona.) Vanderbilt also places more emphasis on basketball vis-a-vis football than most other SEC schools, though not at the level of UK.

Related Topics:
Kentucky - Basketball - Arizona - Vanderbilt

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Despite the conference-wide emphasis on football, several rivalries have developed in other sports:

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• Kentucky-Louisville, men's basketball

:This rivalry, unlike most that involve SEC schools, is relatively recent. For nearly 60 years, UK refused to schedule U of L in the regular season in either basketball or football. After a pulsating U of L victory over UK in the final of the 1983 Mideast Regional in the NCAA basketball tournament, pressure mounted on UK to schedule U of L; Cardinals supporters went so far as to propose a law mandating that the two schools schedule one another. The bill was never introduced, as a basketball series began in the 1983-84 season. The rivalry added a new edge in 2001 when the Cardinals hired former Wildcats coach Rick Pitino (although he was not hired directly from UK). An annual football game between the two schools was added in 1994. Unlike most in-state rivalry games that end the regular season for both teams, the UK-U of L football game had been the season opener for both until 2006; starting in that year, the game will only open the season when it is played in Louisville.

Related Topics:
1983 - 84 - 2001 - Rick Pitino - 1994 - 2006

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• Kentucky-Indiana, men's basketball

:A historic "border war" between two of the sport's giants.

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• Kentucky-Florida, men's basketball

:This has become a major rivalry in recent years with the rise of the Florida basketball program under Billy Donovan, a former UK assistant under Pitino.

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• Tennessee-UConn, women's basketball

:The Lady Vols have historically been one of the nation's dominant programs in that sport. Starting in the mid-1990s, UConn has emerged as Tennessee's main rival for national prominence. The Huskies won four national titles between 2000 and 2004; in three of those years, their victim in the NCAA final was Tennessee.

Related Topics:
2000 - 2004

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• Alabama-Mississippi State, men's basketball

:Not only are these two schools are the closest to one another geographically within the SEC - a mere 95 miles separate them - but their respective head coaches, Mark Gottfried and Rick Stansbury, often battle each other for the same recruits.

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• Alabama-Georgia, women's gymnastics

:These two storied programs have often butted heads for not only SEC titles, but NCAA titles, as well. There is also allegedly a personal rivalry between the head coaches.

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