SEC muscles get bigger… not the Wall Street SEC
This week, in Hoover, Alabama, the Southeastern Conference is in the midst of its annual football media days. Over 1000 media credentials were issued. SEC commissioner, Mike Slive, in his presentation of the state of the SEC, reminded everyone of the overseas bank accounts loaded with conference cash.
Last summer the Southeastern conference stuck an historic deal with TV sports specialist ESPN - $2.25 Billion over 15 years. For the 12-school league, that is $15 million per year for each institution. Throw in the CBS / SEC deal of $800 million, and almost lowly Vanderbilt and lowly Mississippi State will each get about $17 million annually just from television. Both contracts will net the SEC and its member schools an average of $200 million a year.
In contrast the ACC has two years left on its television contracts at about $37 million yearly. Notre Dame, who years ago negotiated its own contract with NBC, receives $9 million a year. It is reported that Big Ten schools receive $7 million per school from the Big Ten Network and another $9 million from their ABC contract. Oh, by the way, Georgia just signed a marketing rights deal with IPS Sports worth $92.8 million
The playing field just got very unlevel. Fair or not, the SEC has a competitive advantage over everyone else.
More money means newer and better facilities and heftier recruiting budgets to lure better athletes. More money means more million dollar head coaches and the highest assistant coaches’ salaries in the country. The tables have somewhat turned as SEC head coaches can now command a bigger financial package than the NFL guys.
The big payouts mean that the SEC should dominate the national championship landscape year in and year out, and not only in the sport of football. There are already some millionaire basketball coaches in the conference as well.
The combined CBS and ESPN contracts also mean far more media coverage than anyone else. The SEC will control the amount of press conferences and sports talk we view daily. Could the SEC turn into the MLCF, Major League College Football, and everyone else the minor leagues? Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big 12 fans will certainly be offended by such a notion, but well spent cash can separate one from the crowd.
Have we lost our whole perspective about amateur sports? Sure, the professional sports leagues have (and should have) a whole different philosophy about sport. In the pros, it is a business. The use of a kid’s game to support a vast array of professions - players, coaches, general mangers, ticket sellers, concessionaires, agents and on and on. The name of the game is WINNING. The name of the game is make money. Should this be the same philosophy of collegiate sport schools and leagues?
Heck, the SEC may be better off financially than the NFL, because a college football program doesn’t pay the major performers – those weekend gladiators who are at college to learn about calculus, English literature, and physics.
Yeah, Man. It’s all about the money and has nothing to do with education. We are screwed up in this country when it comes to sports, rock stars, Facebook, and texting.
Hoover, Alabama? All the hotels in the Bahamas must have been booked up.
July 23, 2009
