  We consider large Wilson loops with quarks in higher representations in SU(N)
Yang-Mills theories. We consider representations with common N-ality and check
whether the expectation value of the Wilson loop depends on the specific
representation or only on the N-ality. In the framework of AdS/CFT we show that
<W_R> = dim R exp -sigma_k A, namely that the string tension depends only on
the N-ality k but the pre-exponent factor is representation dependent. The
lattice strong coupling expansion yields an identical result at infinite N, but
shows a representation dependence of the string tension at finite N, a result
which we interpret as an artifact. In order to confirm the representation
independence of the string tension we re-analyse results of lattice simulations
involving operators with common N-ality in pure SU(N) Yang-Mills theory. We
find that the picture of the representation-independence of the string tension
is confirmed by the spectrum of excited states in the stringy sector, while the
lowest-lying states seem to depend on the representation. We argue that this
unexpected result is due to the insufficient distance of the static sources for
the asymptotic behaviour to be visible and give an estimate of the distance
above which a truly representation-independent spectrum should be observed.
