Sports | NCAA football In Football, the South Rises Again Nothing tops college football in the South By Katherine Thompson Posted Dec 5, 2008 7:03 PM CST Copied On Saturday, the two winningest active coaches in the SEC, Steve Spurrier of South Carolina and Phillip Fulmer of Tennessee, will be playing for fourth place in their division. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File) With Alabama and Florida getting set to play for what is likely to be a national championship berth tomorrow, the Wall Street Journal looks into what has been giving the juggernaut Southeastern Conference its recent momentum. It's not just great coaching—although that helps—but a combination of culture, politics, and growing wealth in the region. In the South, where football is king, two-thirds of governors and senators are SEC alumni. This gives the teams some high-powered advocates, helping secure lofty coaching salaries and keeping local media scrutiny in check. And despite the low average incomes of the SEC states, their schools have some of the best fundraising in the nation. Read These Next A Delta flight got wild with an allegedly unruly passenger. FBI parts ways with the ADL over Turning Point USA controversy. A Trump coin looks to be in the works, with legal questions swirling. Virginia's Dem nominee for AG is in hot water over 2022 texts. Report an error