Customer Reviews

Bragging Rights: A Season Inside the SEC, College Football's Toughest Conference

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I did not attend an SEC school but consider myself a passive follower. I do live in Memphis which was featured in the book and am subjected to how ingrained football culture is to the South. This book does an exceptional job of relaying this and while the author is a fan, he covers some of the taboo areas and allows the reader to make some judgements.

The writer discloses early that his father played football and he played baseball at Tennessee. I think he did a fair job of not being overly biased although clearly there are more stories about Tennessee and semi-negative stories about their chief rival, Alabama. Be forewarned that this book does not cover all schools but instead focuses on selected short stories. Schools covered are Tn, Fl, Ala., Ga., Vandy, Auburn and LSU with at least one featured chapter.

Exceptional chapters covered Steve Spurrier and Phil Fulmer, coaches at Fl and TN. I learned a lot about football from these chapters and came away with greater respect for both men. The Florida/Tn and Florida/GA rivalry are covered in depth and present a great backdrop of what players, fans and coaches endure at an SEC football weekend. Also, the chapters on the Vandy player and Vandy coach give you greater respect for their outlook on football.

The chapters that create the most controversy will be on recruiting. He follows the recruiting of a nationally ranked Memphis player, Albert Means. Needless to say, it is not too positive with allusions of cheating but no real proof. The most controversial chapter is 6 where he highlights a wealthy Memphis businessman, Logan Young, who is supposedly buying players for Alabama, and Roy Adams, a talkative, obsessed fan for Tennessee who likes to get close to players, real close. This chapter highlights everything that is wrong with college football with these grown men's obsession with 18 year old boys. Clearly Logan Young loses the writer's popularity vote as the Alabama fan who supposedly buys players. But here is where the writer's research fails him. Mr. Adams, the other fan, who clearly enjoys being the center of attention, brags about being close to players and can't understand why past TN coaches have been rude to him about his meddling with players. I'm surprised the author did not explore this issue and question what this individual's "real" agenda is. He admits to having players over to his house and it wouldn't take much research to find this out. As stated in the book, the writer took a lot of his information from Internet chat lines. Maybe a little more time should have been spent interviewing people in Memphis about this individual and players that had been to his house. Logan Young would still have come across poorly but I suspect most readers would be outraged by the other gentleman's interests.

The writer does a good job of trying to act like an impartial observer and while it's clear that he loves football, in the last chapter he touches on how this obsession can be negative for fans and players. It's a business. And all for "Bragging Rights" so one fan can say for a short period of time, "I'm better than you."

The author, and many others, will argue that the SEC is *the* conference for college football. It is a conference of strong rivalries and tough attitude. It's also, as Ernsberger looks at, a conference of athletes who happen to be students, rather than the collegiate student-athlete. He brings up the warts - problems with recruiting, low graduation rates, questionable ethics with athletic departments overseeing athlete tutoring. But these are more of a bookend to the story - a story of rivalry, of politics, of winning above everything else. This is where the heart of the book is, and where Ernsberger comes across as the privelaged observer, rather than someone with an axe to grind. He's not in awe of everything, but he's not out to rip back the veneer of college football either.

Arguably, the book does have it's leanings. Only about half the conference is really explored with many of the schools getting the short shrift and barely a mention. But if you have never been to a big SEC rivalry game, he tries to capture the mood both inside and outside the stadium. You see the lead up to the Auburn-Alabama game (though strangely, he never seems to refer to it by it's common moniker of the Iron Bowl), and the Cocktail Party (Georgia vs. Florida). One of the strengths of the book is that he spends time with all level of participants in this spectacle - the players themselves, the caching staff, the boosters, the administration, the fans and the alumni. The picture drawn shows that everyone is partially to blame for the state the conference is in.

As a passive spectator of the SEC especially after moving to Atlanta, Ernsberger drew together a lot of what swirls around into a coherent package. Everything you need to know? No. A damning expose? No. An interesting overview - yes. This is why you want to read the book.

Being from Ohio, I grew up on the Big Ten and always thought they were the best that college football had to offer. Reading this book about the SEC has changed my mind! It is the premier conference in the country as far as teams being competitive from top to bottom. Ernsberger really captures the heart and soul of southern football. Big Ten fans are mild to the SEC wackos! It's great reading for any college football fan.

If you're already a fan of SEC football, most of what you read will not come as particularly insightful; although it is interesting to read passages regarding Alabama's recruitment of Albert Means, which may have played a part in the NCAA's investigation. There are some factual discrepancies here and there, but if you're looking for an introduction to SEC football, this is a great place to start...for those of you that are already big fans, there may not be much here for you.

To the guy in Bradenton: Before you start ranting about the author's lack of geographic knowledge, you might want to do some fact finding of your own. Hartsfield (not Hartsville) is the name of Atlanta's (international) airport.

I think I have read almost every book about football written, and I was excited to find a read about my favourite conference. Before I reached the third chapter, I knew I would be dissapointed..... I have never seen someone butcher a topic of such interest to me. Say what you like about Fienstein, but at least he can string two sentances together. Save your money and buy A Civil War. It ten times better.

An extremely well written book that pulls no punches when dealing with College football. Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in intercollegiate football irrespective of the conference. The author has great command of the English language and a subtle sense of humor in writing about this controversial subject of big time college recruiting and the power that big time college football has over college administrators.

This is a rollicking, rip-roaring romp through America's toughest football conference. Even rabid fans will be interested in the author's access to off-the-beaten-path aspects of SEC football. There is little attempt to describe game action but instead Ernsberger goes into the locker rooms, film studies, and parking lots of conference schools. There is a little emphasis on Tennessee(the author is an alum) and Auburn(perhaps the best storyline) but even Bama fans will enjoy this book. The only real criticism is that Ernsberger makes too many factual errors. Dates, names, and scores are frequently wrong. If facts pertaining to your team are incorrectly reported; how can you trust the reports on other teams, players, or coaches?

Ernsberger might as well have written about women's volleyball in the SEC since he's got at the very least 10 factual errors that I uncovered. Calling Kevin Faulk "Marshall" Faulk twice and Nick Saban "Lou" is unforgivable and that is why he gets a big NEGATIVE from me. I am a big Bama supporter as well and I found his commentary regarding the Capstone to be orange-biased.
Maybe Mr. Ernsberger should be wearing convict orange on the cover? Don't bother folks. Save the $ for tickets.

As an objective observor with no strong ties to any particular SEC school, I found this book very poorly written. He tries to write a Feinsteinesque account of a season in the SEC, but fails miserably. For one, he feels the need to constantly write about his own feelings about people- these are irrelevant in any well written book. Also, he makes Vandy coach Woody Widenhofer out to be the best coach in the SEC, a rather interesting thing to do considering the Commodores never had a winning season before he was fired this fall. But Ernsberger does this kind of thing a number of times- including a chapter where he ranks the abilities of the SEC coaches- begging one to wonder: what makes him qualified to do this. But the book's main problem is that it is boring- the chapters aren't connected to each other, and it keeps the book from flowing in any logical fashion. It was a good topic, but it was not a good job.

What a disgrace to the country's finest football conference. Ernsberger may as well be cheeseburger...Calling Kevin Faulk "Marshall" doesn't give this book much credibility. Besides, it reads like a TN alum wrote it. If you're into the SEC like I am try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". It's a good read on the entire SEC. Again, Ernsbeger should be drawn and quartered for this sacrilege. Go Gamecocks!