Shelley Meyer says friends are easier in Big Ten than SEC

When the City of Columbus, Ohio embraced Ohio State Buckeyes head football coach Urban Meyer three years ago, they also did his family, namely his wife Shelley. It appears that Shelley has fully embraced Columbus and the Big Ten culture as well because, as she told Natalie Williams of AL.com, it’s easier to be friends with people in the Big Ten than it is in the SEC.

In the SEC, I did not get to know the wives very well and there’s a reason for that,” Shelley Meyer said. “The coaches aren’t good friends either, mostly because it’s so competitive. They’re really standoffish with each other. It’s almost like, ‘I can’t get too close because they might steal my ideas or something.’

“It’s different than that in the Big Ten. Coaches are more cordial.”

It should be noted that Urban Meyer was the head coach of the SEC’s Florida Gators for six seasons before taking a year off and then joining Ohio State, and his wife’s words are not far off. The SEC is definitely the most competitive conference in all of college football, with all but two of its fourteen teams finishing with winning records last season. Not for nothing but if I or anyone else were the coach of an SEC football team, chances are that fraternization with the, for lack of better word, enemy would be minimal at best.

But things are different in the Big Ten, with only a couple of intense rivalries existing between the 14 teams in the conference. Thus, having friendships definitely could be easier since not everybody seems to be in national championship contention year after year.

Here’s hoping that the Meyers continue to build friendships and, more importantly, championships in Columbus for many years to come!

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*Featured Photo (above) credit to Eleven Warriors

Former Hokies WR Joshua Stanford walks on at Kansas
Former Hokies WR Joshua Stanford walks on at Kansas