In the SEC, it just means more. However, that phrase has clearly begun to make its way north of the Mason-Dixon line, as students from the Northeast continue to flock to the South in record numbers.

According to The Sunday Times, as relayed by Fox News, SEC colleges and universities saw a 91 percent increase in undergraduate students from the Northeast between 2014 and 2023, with South Carolina alone seeing an increase of over 90 percent.

“All my friends are from [New] Jersey, [Philadelphia], New York, Maryland,” Sean Carroll, a 21-year-old South Carolina senior from New York, told The Sunday Times. “People always ask me, ‘was it a culture shock?’ but there’s so many people from the north that you don’t even realize you’re in South Carolina. It’s just so trendy.”

It’s not just South Carolina, either. Applications to Southern schools have increased by more than 50 percent since 2019, while their Northern counterparts have seen increases of only 30 percent.

If this trend continues, the article suggests Southern schools may have to drastically reduce acceptance rates to simply keep pace.

Whether it’s the football, the weather, the hospitality or likely some sort of combination of the three, there’s no question anymore: people want to live and go to school in this part of the country.