By Cory McCartney

	A view of The Swamp Seven, a bus named after its seven owners, and former Heisman winner Danny Wuerffel. Photo by Cory McCartney

I made my way over to a collection of motor homes that seemed drastically out of place next to the backdrop of graffiti and rusted fences, but it didn't seem to have any effect on the Florida-heavy crowd that had descended on the ATL. Yes, this was the Gators' party and that's because "They only had to drive four hours," Razorbacks fan Tom Cooper of Virginia Beach said. "This is like a home game for them."

Which would explain why Cooper, Guy Legge (who made the trip with Cooper from Virginia Beach), Ron Gillkey and a small group of Arkansas fans were seemingly engulfed by Gators fans as they tailgated on the back of a Gilkey's Hummer H3. But despite being outnumbered, Gilkey said the raucous Razorbacks crowd would make itself heard.

"It takes two of them to make one of us," he said, before bellowing out a chant of "Woooooooooo, Pig! Sooie!" in between sips from his glass of Remy Martin.

While the Razorbacks fans may have brought the noise, possibly the greatest sign I'd seen on any tailgate excursion this year, which said "We Love [Casey] Dick," referring to Arkansas QB -- it was the Florida faithful who brought the party and the craziest fans. From an orange bus called Swamp Seven (named after its seven owners, and Gators' Heisman winner Danny Wuerffel), to fan Danny Bernstein, who was clad in blue-and-orange checkered pants and face paint, John Piowaty, the "Elvis Gator," who wore a Elvis Presley-in-Las-Vegas style jumpsuit that featured a "U" on one side of his chest and an "F" on the other and the self-described "Swamp Things" and their orange and white striped overalls, the Gators dominated the pregame scene with their showmanship.

It may have been Florida and Arkansas' party, but it was without doubt a full-fledged SEC affair. I encountered fans sporting LSU and Tennessee gear, as well as five Georgia fans who told me they come every year regardless of who plays, and while they weren't rooting for anybody in particular, Anthony Lee couldn't pass a chance to take a stab at the Bulldogs' rival. "We don't care who wins, just as long as it's not Florida," he said.

Leaving the tailgate scene and relieved the party was alive and well, I ventured into the circus known as the SEC Fan Fest inside the Georgia World Congress Center. I watched fans take their cracks at football-themed games like the Field Goal Challenge, The QB Pass Challenge, Flag Football, my personal favorite, Fourth-And-One (where fans wore a harness with a rope attached to the back and ran before diving toward the goal line) and of course a driving range, because seriously, what's football without a driving range? But despite all the fun and games inside the SEC Fan Fest, the two longest lines were for beer and the bathrooms.

Watching a fan play a Chick-fil-A version of the legendary Price Is Right game Plinko that offered up drinks and fries as prizes, it dawned on me: there was a football game set to start outside this indoor carnival.

I made my way out of the Congress Center, past chants of "Go Gators" and "Pig Sooie, Razorback" and settled myself in to watch the Gators stake their claim at a trip to Glendale to play Ohio State for the national title

But as I left the stadium area, some six hours after the Gators had been crowned SEC champions for the first time since 2000, I was thinking of the mystical powers of Hunter's FSU hat, which was now 11-0 at Gators' games, when I couldn't help but laugh. There was the Luetjens' motor home, the only vehicle still parked in the lot - still sitting next to those railroad tracks.