Road to Game Day: Week 14, Atlanta

↵This could be it for us. And if it is, it will be quite a way to go out. The Road to Game Day adventure is coming to a close, and we’ve learned a few things this year:
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↵1) Most big match-ups fail to live up to the hype. We’ve seen blowouts: USC-Ohio State, Alabama-Georgia, Oklahoma-Texas Tech to name a few, and there is nothing more defeating than dropping $400 on a pair of tickets to a game that’s over at halftime. As college football’s traveling Switzerland (we’ve been pretty much neutral at every big game we’ve seen), we never get the euphoria of watching our favorite team dump 50 on its rival, but get spared the sucker-punch of watching it happen when it’s our favorite squad. The neutrality takes away the risk, but definitely takes away some of the reward as well.
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↵2) When the big game pays off, it’s worth every penny. Looking back at the Texas-Oklahoma game (and the Texas Texas-Texas game that we should’ve gone to), those tickets were worth the money. There is an excitement level in the air at a big time college football game that you just can’t find in the NFL regular season. It doesn’t matter than Phil or I haven’t followed OU or Texas football before, the game at the Cotton Bowl was the closest thing to electric as I’ve seen since the epic Notre Dame-USC game four years ago. Even the neutral field added to the aura, giving each team half a stadium to call home.
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That brings us to the SEC Championship tomorrow. Two completely contrasting styles of play will collide, the hard-nosed running attack of Alabama versus the speed and explosiveness of Florida. Two completely vilified coaches, Nick Saban – hated by the state of Louisiana, most of south Florida, and pretty much the entire Southeastern Conference, and Urban Meyer – hated by the state of Georgia, most Notre Dame fans, and pretty much the entire Southeastern Conference will match wits, battling in a de facto semi-final BCS match-up. Nearly most importantly, two gigantically arrogant fan bases will showdown in downtown Atlanta tonight, Alabama fans with their Southern Belles and their Southern Comfort, and Florida fans with their jean shorts and their longnecks… complete with the mullets that cover them.
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↵We’ve had the chance to see both of these teams destroy an opponent. Alabama with their ruthless efficiency, hung a 31-0 lead on Georgia by halftime. Florida, with their ruthless Vegas efficiency, kicked a garbage field goal at the end of the game against Miami to cover the 22.5 point spread. But if Vegas knows anything, even with all the hype and excitement surrounding this game, we’re probably going to see a lopsided battle. Which is why for the very first time, Road to Game Day took a flight to the game. While it’s against our nature, and the very spirit of our journey, we learned one more, very important, thing on this 22,000-mile adventure.
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↵3) Driving across the state of Texas again will turn us insane.↵