SEC football: It means more.

There was a time when people in these parts would hear that slogan and react with a roll of the eyes or a slight chuckle.

But underneath it all, they knew even then there was truth behind the conference bravado.

All of that hardware doesn’t lie.

With that said, I doubt you will ever hear many SEC chants coming from the stands at Royal-Memorial Stadium over these next eight weeks. However, we did hear them directed at Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark inside AT&T Stadium last December as the Horns were busy throwing up the deuces — and other digits — after celebrating a conference title win over Oklahoma State. The win was their final football game as part of the league they joined in 1994.

It means more in the SEC, but the Longhorns aren’t just happy to be a part of the most powerful football league in America. They want more than success by association.

“(The slogan) matters, but I feel like at Texas, when you take this job, it just means more here, too,” coach Steve Sarkisian said during his Monday media availability. “There's a standard here that is very high and there's an expectation of performance, and it's not just in football, it's in every sport.

"For us, whether it was the Big 12 or the SEC, there's an expectation that we're going to compete for a conference championship, year in and year out, and there's an expectation that we're competing for a national championship.”

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Now that the 4-0 Horns are in the SEC and sitting at or near the top of the two major polls, there has to be sense of belief given how routinely they have dominated their first four opponents.

Sarkisian knows that all the big dogs don’t play in the SEC, but if we’re putting it in canine terms, it’s unquestionably the toughest wolf pack in college football.

From the time Texas ceased being a national championship contender — we remember it as the 2009 national title game when quarterback Colt McCoy was injured early in the 37-21 loss to Alabama — to the hiring of coach Steve Sarkisian 12 seasons later, SEC programs have owned college football.

Over that span, the conference has won nine national championships and produced the most pro draft picks. Want to take it a step further? Since Texas’ 2005 national championship, SEC teams have danced in the winner’s circle in 13 of the last 18 title games.

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It means more now that the Longhorns are about to play their first SEC game since their exodus with Oklahoma from the Big 12, a move that’d been three years in the making.

The fans understand the spotlight is much brighter than it was in 2011 when Texas A&M defected from the Big 12 to the SEC, but the Aggies have been largely a middle-of-the-pack football member, aside from the steaming hot cup of Joe that was the Johnny Manziel era of 2012 and 2013 and the COVID season that produced a 9-1 record and an Orange Bowl win, the highlight of the overpaid Jimbo Fisher tenure.

The year 2021 changed the league dynamic because the Big 12’s two biggest programs decided to join a much greener pasture, operative word "greener," as in money. Thus began a three-year wait before we would get the opportunity to see how the Longhorns would not only match up with SEC competition in 2024, but how they would deal with the rigors of a schedule normally loaded with top 10 teams.

We won’t get any answers against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, who limp into Austin with a 1-3 record under first-year coach Jeff Lebby. He announced this week that starting quarterback Blake Shapen, a Baylor transfer, has been lost for the season after suffering a shoulder injury in last week’s 45-28 loss to Florida, handing over the starting job to true freshman Michael Van Buren.

Stay tuned after the bye week when the Horns follow their annual Red River Rivalry matchup against Oklahoma with the showdown of showdowns at home against the Georgia Bulldogs, owners of two national championships over the last three seasons.

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At 4-0, the Horns have been the most dominant team in the country, beating opponents by an average of 42 points. The competition is about to ramp up, but they are prepared because their journey has been one of learning from previous experiences, from a 5-7 nightmare in Sark’s first season to a 34-24 road win over Alabama in 2023, the biggest of his tenure.

“(The Alabama win) helped us to understand that this is what it takes to do what we need to do, and this what it takes to beat the caliber of an (opponent) like Alabama because that was a great team we faced in Tuscaloosa last year,” said linebacker David Gbenda.

For locker room leaders like Gbenda and center Jake Majors, whose father grew up in Alabama cheering for the Crimson Tide, their final college season is shaping up to be one sweet ride before they begin preparation for what they hope will be long NFL careers.

Majors has some SEC blood flowing through his veins though he admits he quietly cheered for the Horns the night Colt went down against Dad’s Tide.

Dad eventually came around when his kid became a Longhorn. Well, sort of.

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“He always tells the joke about when we played Alabama those two years, he only wore a white shirt, because he still loves Alabama,” Majors said. “But you know, he loves his son, so I don't give him any crap on it. I think it's just a cool thing that him and I have going on, and I always get the last laugh on it.”

Their team has the look of an SEC champ, but looks don’t win games, and the locker room understands the concept of having to strap on that hard hat and tool belt each week, be it against a heavy underdog like Mississippi State or perennial title contender like Georgia.

To a player, they have this noticeable confidence, taken from the man running the show. Sarkisian built this culture over time and not through some short winning streak or one Sugar Bowl win over Georgia that led to the belief that the Horns were back when in the national conversation when in reality, they weren’t.

They won’t say it publicly, but the 2024 Texas Longhorns believe they are the best team in America.

The fun part will be proving it over these three months.

To the fans. To the media.

And most important, to that pack of wolves lining up to take their best shot at the would-be top dog.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Golden: It means more in the SEC but Texas football wants more