[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

I'm wondering the reason for the tradition of men wearing jackets and ties and women wearing dresses to football games in SEC schools (and other Southern schools). I'm not trying to attack it, but the idea seems weird to me because:
A) football games are very hot for the better part of SEC football season (therefore it would be very uncomfortable for the guys),

Which is part of the reason we can never understand why northerners don't dress up...it's often far more uncomfortable for us than it would be in the cold. I think there's a facebook group at Ole Miss that says it best... "the football put their best out on the field, so we try to put the best out in the stands." We may be a bit uncomfortable, but the football players are much more uncomfortable.

B) often involve drinking/messy food/activities where you could easily ruin nice clothes,

Bourbon dosn't make too big of a mess. We take great care in not making a mess.

C) the stands can be dirty since they are exposed to the elements, and

We stand nearly the whole time so the stands cleanliness isn't too important.

Is the wearing of jackets and ties and dresses only a Greek thing at these Southern schools or do most of the football fans wear clothes like that to games?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think at Ole Miss it's almost everyone not only Greek. Here, it's almost only Greek and that's important for two reasons. Greeks (and everyone else, I think) see football games as a social occasion. You have to be seen in your best when you're out. Naturally, Greeks tend to dress to impress moreso then other groups and that's where part of it comes from. Besides this, the way Greeks dress now is in part because of this is how we've been raised to dress but also because it seperates us from GDI's in a way that isn't explicit. In my opinion, that's one of the reasons why suits and ties are worn by Greeks mostly. Macallan/bows/sec/phigam can correct, but that's what I've noticed.