SEC Media Days

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said recent headlines across the country have laid bare the darker side of major college sports so much that they have "lost the benefit of the doubt." Read more:


Slive manages a conference that most agree is the strongest in the country. Most of the nation's highest paid coaches do battle here. The SEC teams play in the largest, most glamorous stadiums in the country. The SEC champion has been the National Champion for the past five years. I guess one could say the league "knows football". It has the largest TV football contract (see below) of any conference. Money is rolling in from everywhere. But the SEC schools can't stay totally within NCAA rules. Currently LSU was just slapped with a one-year probation for recruiting violations. Tennessee and Auburn are awaiting verdicts from the NCAA for the same reasons.

It seems that the only private university in the conference, Vanderbilt, is also the only squeaky clean school as per the NCAA. Vanderbilt also has the poorest won-lost record ever. Wonder why? Well, Vandy admits real students. Those students take real courses and they all graduate, unlike the situation at other schools. Isn't this the way it should at all colleges?

Some coaches disagree with Slive's suggestion that the score on the required sixteen high school core courses be raised from 2.0 to 2.5. Come on, man. Who needs to be able to read as long as he can catch a pass or sack a quarterback. Those academically challenged kids put fans in the stadiums and a check mark on the left of the won/loss column.

The bottom line is that college was never meant to be for everyone. The opportunity to attend should be there for everyone who works and maintains a high school average that warrants college admission. Athletes should meet the same admissions standards as every other applicant.

College should be for learning and preparation for life and a career. A college's name and its facilities (Sports Palaces) should not be used to promote or perpetuate professional sports teams. The only difference between SEC football and the NFL is that SEC players aren't paid obscene salaries. The obscene salaries in the SEC are paid to the coaches.

Does anyone recall an Ivy league school being sanctioned by the NCAA? How many FCS schools have been put on NCAA probation? Big money brings big pressures and big temptations.

And, Folks, money is what it is all about.