Pleased to meet you
claritin Just how engrossed are the fans of Alabama and Auburn -- and the rest of the teams in the SEC -- in the religion of college football? For 12 consecutive years, Birmingham has been ESPN's No. 1 market for college football broadcasts. For 10 straight years, the Crimson Tide have led the SEC in average attendance (101,722 in 2012). For 15 consecutive years the SEC has been the top-drawing conference in the nation (last year an average of 75,538 fans attended each SEC game). In 2012, the conference's stadiums were filled, on average, to 96 percent of capacity. And fans in the Yellowhammer State put their money where their allegiance is: Alabama is second only to Nevada in the amount of money its residents bet on sports (college football being the most popular), despite the fact that, unlike in Nevada, gambling on sports in Alabama is illegal.