The holiday season is a time for us to be with our loved ones, and appreciate the time we have with them.

More importantly, it’s also the time for SEC fans to show their true colors. Two examples of that this week reminded us that when it comes to holiday priorities, well, that’s just a little different in the South.

For South Carolina fans, it was another frustrating December. Clemson is still Clemson, and even worse, a 4-8 coach has a buyout that’s too rich to pay. Life could be better for Gamecocks fans.

Then again, life could also be a touch worse.

After all, South Carolina did have that magical, baffling afternoon in Athens. When Rodrigo Blankenship’s kick sailed wide and the stunning double-overtime upset was complete, you can bet it was the best moment for Gamecocks fans in recent memory.

So naturally, 1 Gamecocks fan wanted to remember that moment in a different way. What better Christmas gift could one get than a framed picture of the moment when Georgia realized it blew a game as a 3-touchdown favorite to South Carolina:

My goodness.

A few things stand out with that. For starters, it’s one thing to get a photo of South Carolina celebrating that monumental win. It’s another to get a photo of Georgia’s misery. And to be clear, it’s actually not a photo so much as it is a screen shot. You can see the ESPN logos on the framed picture.

It implies that seeing Georgia suffer was just as rewarding as — if not more rewarding than — South Carolina pulling off a miracle victory. SEC trolling truly is next level. Getting that sucker framed is just that.

The more savage move would’ve been to gift that to a Georgia fan. Then again, I’m not sure that would’ve ended well. It would’ve made for a fantastic video, though.

If we’re being honest, I once received a Christmas gift that trolled a certain MLB team that I wasn’t a fan of. I loved it. It was a t-shirt that I wore with pride because unlike just rocking simple team gear, it had a double meaning behind it. It showed where my allegiances lied, and like most high school kids, I was all about that. In hindsight, was it petty and immature? Absolutely.

Is it petty and immature for a fan of a 4-8 team to troll a team that won 3 straight division titles? Definitely. Is it still something we should all be able to laugh at?

Man, I hope so.

That’s a lotta straight cash, homie

I write about ticket prices here a fair share because nothing shows how much one cares about SEC football quite like showing the financial commitment to it. I’m always interested in tracking the secondary ticket market because it can tell us a lot about a game, and how a fanbase feels about a game.

There are zero questions about how LSU fans feel about the National Championship being played in New Orleans on Jan. 13. None. The cheapest ticket available on Stubhub as of Wednesday morning was a whopping $888. Most tickets in the upper level are up for  more than $1,000 a pop.

And if you want the premium seats, good luck with that.

According to Darren Rovell, one fan dropped $54,407.50 (assuming he didn’t mean $54 million) for 7 tickets. That’s $7,772.50 per ticket.

I don’t want to assume anything, but let’s just say I’d be absolutely stunned if that wasn’t an LSU fan. After all, the Tigers haven’t been to a National Championship in 8 years. That’s not a long drought, but it is compared to a Clemson team that’ll be playing for a national championship for the 4th time in the past 5 years.

The fact that the purchase was made on Sunday tells me that this has been in the works for a bit. It’s a bucket list purchase. The fact that this is in New Orleans perhaps makes it that much better of an opportunity. If this is a local LSU fan, it’s not like he has to shell out thousands of dollars for hotels and flights, though I suppose money isn’t much of an issue for this person.

Can you imagine what their tailgate is like? The world’s best shrimp po’ boys, jambalaya and gumbo will probably be there. At least, I hope so.

It’s still hard to imagine shelling out that kind of cash for an experience like that. I hate to be that guy, but what if LSU loses? Like, what if Clemson does to LSU what it did to Alabama last year? I highly doubt that’ll happen, but that’d be an extremely steep price to pay for such a deflating result.

At the SEC Championship, I was fortunate enough to be invited to sit in a suite with a group of Georgia fans. I know, sick brag. It was pretty cool as a neutral observer. But I kept thinking about how I’d feel shelling out tons of money to watch my team get trucked. My mind instantly goes to, “How many months’ rent would that have paid?” Or, “That’s a down payment on a house.”

The latter applies to these National Championship tickets. You could buy a decent used car with each of those tickets. You can buy a luxury car for the combined price of all of them. Again, that’s my brain, not the person who made this purchase.

But that’s the cautious, pessimistic side. After what we saw against Oklahoma, I’m guessing the person who purchased these tickets isn’t lacking confidence when it comes to LSU’s chances against Clemson. I’d love to get his prediction/life story. I’m guessing he hasn’t missed many opportunities to see this special Tigers team.

And to see LSU possibly close it out with a national title for the first time in 12 years? Well, I suppose that’s an “empty the piggybank” event unlike any other.

One thing is for sure — it definitely means a lot (of cash).