The honorable Ben Koo over at Awful Announcing put up a thoughtful, lengthy column about an issue near and dear to our hearts -- mindless conference rooting. Whereas we usually don't get very far before making an inbreeding or illiteracy joke, Ben, naturally, is much more cerebral in his dissection.

For example:

While it was the SEC fans with their chant, a head scratcher for most sports fans who don't cheer the NL West or AFC East when one of their member teams has a breakthrough, the media cracked the code of capitalizing on this regional zeal.

The regional tribalism of college football give a blanket of security that loudmouth analysts, voters, writers, bloggers, and radio personalties to throw out any disparaging comment they want knowing that they are likely safe from any accountability.

AP writers can vote a team number one even after losing a game. If any team had a good season, it was deemed they would have "3-5 losses in the SEC" although Texas A&M and Missouri seemed to have not imploded as believed. Hypothetical arguments abound in college football that nobody cares about anywhere else - "If so and so played so and so, they'd lose by 2 touchdowns." It's unprovable, but yell it loud enough and people will take your hot take seriously.

It's an interesting read if you've got the time and interest in the subject.