"Always everybody lookin' for some respect." -- Extreme

"No respect." It's all anybody in sports ever wants to say anymore.

"Nobody thought we could do it." "It's us against the world." "We like for folks to underestimate us."

Every player, every fan, every school, every team, every year. Half the time, the player/fan/school/team is right and they do surprise folks. The other half of the time they wind up sounding pretty ridiculous.

So I wasn't surprised to see that mantra once again start up among some UT football players this spring. Everybody does it.

But no current Vol should be upset about a lack of respect. Not coming off of a losing season. Not when there are still a lot of unanswered questions, especially on offense.

"If you could just see us practice," it's been said. But there's the rub. These guys may have set the woods on fire in practice, but no one is allowed in to take a look. All fans and media can go on is what the coaches are telling them about practice. And this spring, that was basically, "we're too inconsistent on offense."

"Us against the world," makes for good pre-season talk. But I'm guessing most Vol fans would prefer an "us against California" mentality for now.

"Show me your bright lights and your city lights, all right." -- David Lee Roth

The "no respect" thing even carries over to talk of conferences. Listen to talk radio or read a message board and everyone in the South believes the SEC gets short-changed when it comes to national publicity and national respect.

There's one major reason for this (so, yes, I think there is some truth to the argument): television viewers.

The SEC has fewer big TV markets than the Big East, Big 10, Big 12, ACC, and Pac-10.

That's why the ACC, Big East and Big 10 tournaments were on ESPN while the SEC tournament was on regional syndication via Jefferson-Pilot. ESPN can get more viewers playing to the bigger audiences of the Northeast, East Coast, Midwest and West Coast.

I've got a TV show here in town. We get more viewers when we talk about UT football than when we talk Indy Car racing. So guess what we spend more time on.

Newscasts are the same way. Networks and local stations will get more viewers with "the bird flu is coming, we'll show you how to build your own plastic bubble for protection" than they will with "it's been a pretty quiet day, folks."

Same thing with college sports coverage. The SEC's biggest markets are Atlanta, Orlando and Nashville (and Atlanta and Orlando are also ACC markets).

So SEC ratings will be lower nationally (on average) than a Big 10 game that will wrap up the Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Minneapolis markets. Ditto New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC for the Big East. Boston, Miami, and Charlotte in the ACC. Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, and St. Louis in the Big 12. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Seattle in the Pac-10.

That's the main reason other conferences get more coverage, more highlights and more talk from the national networks. That's why ABC (tied to the Big 10 and the ACC in football) consistently does better national numbers than the SEC on CBS.

It's not a "we hate the South" thing. It's a "let's talk to the biggest audience thing." If the SEC had incorporated Texas, Texas A&M, Miami and Florida State as rumors in the early '90s had suggested, then Dallas, Houston, Miami, Tampa and an all-SEC Orlando would have made the SEC America's top draw. But it didn't happen. Instead, the SEC added Columbia and Little Rock while the ACC has added Boston and Miami.

More viewers equals more coverage and talk. And the SEC just isn't a "big city" league.

"Say sour grapes, you can laugh and stare. Say sour grapes, but I don't care." -- John Prine

There's been some talk this week from UT fans that Florida wasn't "the best team in the country," just "the best team in tournament." Does that mean the Lady Vols weren't "the best team in the country" when they won the 1997 national title with 10 losses? Would East Tennesseans be making the "best team in the tournament" comments if the Vols had won it all this year? Of course not.

The national champ in basketball is decided by a tournament. If you win the tournament, you're the national champ. So it's more fair to give the devil, er, the Gators their due and move on. Otherwise, the folks in Florida will be left to say -- wait for it -- "Nobody respects us."

"And everybody knew you didn't give no lip to Big John." -- Jimmy Dean

Speaking of "no respect," LSU's John Brady deserves a raise. Just ask him. He won the SEC regular season title and he took his team to the Final Four. Yet he's making about half of what Bruce Pearl is going to make and less than Pat Summitt's currently salary.

Too bad Brady chose to talk about it in public, though, because that's not a real smart thing for a coach to do.

The next time his team underachieves, I bet he'll hear a whole lot of Tiger fans saying, "so this is why we gave you a raise?" In terms of bad luck, this could be the worst move by a Brady since Greg wore that Polynesian tiki to go surfing.