Tampa, Florida
Around the similar time Rodri carried the World Cup trophy down the aircraft steps and onto Spanish soil, Oklahoma’s Brent Venables stepped to the podium inside a convention room at the Tampa Marriott, the first coach scheduled to talk at the SEC’s football media days.
Goodbye fútbol, howdy football.
Unintentionally timed, it was nonetheless a well-choreographed calendar flip. The SEC, of course, is the league that payments itself as school football royalty, the one the place even the convention room WiFi password exalts its praises: 2026IJMM, as in It Just Means More.
It nonetheless means extra, evidenced by the logoed followers who gathered exterior the SEC Network set to rally for what is actually only a bunch of press conferences. Actual kickoff remains to be a very good month away however there stood people in staff gear, raring to get issues going.
Except the brash conceitedness that lengthy lived behind the slogan has taken a bit of successful in recent years. It should still imply extra in the SEC, however the league is attaining much less. Commissioner Greg Sankey used his opening remarks to tout the league’s achievements.
“Southeastern Conference football stays the second most-watched sports activities property in the United States, trailing solely the National Football League,’’ he mentioned, occurring so as to add, “Our football applications draw a median of 80,000 followers per sport. That’s our common quantity. This was the stat of my summer time. That is the highest common attendance of any sport in the world.’’
He additionally made point out that the SEC had received 13 nationwide championships this previous college 12 months, topping its earlier report of 10.
What he failed to say is that for the third consecutive season, the championships didn’t embrace football, the league’s longest drought since 1999 by means of 2002. And whereas it would imply extra throughout the SEC, it means most on the football subject.
The Big Ten, in the meantime, has waltzed into the SEC abyss. Its pockets lined through an absurdly wealthy media-rights deal and its geographic footprint spreading from coast to coast, the Big Ten is in near-football takeover mode. It might by no means full a whole cultural shift, with the South’s devotion to varsity football remaining unsurpassed, however it has wrested management the place it issues – with trophies.
The Big Ten has received the final three nationwide titles, spreading the wealth amongst three totally different groups. In head-to-head matchups with its convention rivals, the league is 4-0 over the final three seasons.
The Big Ten additionally leads in the all-important monetary ledgers when cash issues to everybody. In his opening remarks, OU’s Venables thanked not solely his followers however his “donor base,’’ and referred to Sooners defensive lineman Taylor Wein as “one of the lowest-paid guys on our roster.’’
Yet the Big Ten is even bankrolling higher. The SEC topped $1 billion in earnings for the first time final 12 months. The Big Ten replied with a ‘hold my beer,’ producing $1.74 billion. It has additionally mobilized its highly effective alumni, calling on the likes of Mark Cuban (Indiana), Larry Ellison (Michigan) and the OG NIL booster Phil Knight (Oregon) to make use of their wallets to show their college delight.
Kevin Warren, whose departure from the Big Ten to the Chicago Bears was largely greeted with a ‘don’t let the door hit you,’ negotiated not simply the essential TV deal but additionally led the Westward Ho enlargement that has expanded the Big Ten footprint from coast to coast. Coupled with Oregon’s on-field success (one CFP quarterfinal berth, adopted by a semifinal spot in its two years), it’s all added as much as a stable basis that reveals no indicators of weakening.
Make no mistake. In a dwindling checklist of haves, the SEC very a lot stays a powerbroker. Sankey peppered his opening remarks with the league’s stance on Congressional involvement in school football, and his perception that the NIL subject is in determined want of transparency. And when requested particularly if there have been ever actual talks about the league basically seceding from the NCAA mannequin, answered pointedly. “So they’re actual,’’ he mentioned. “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that carry them to the level of saying we should always take a look at one thing totally different. I don’t consider that may be a leverage level. I believe that’s simply trustworthy communication.’’
But if we’re speaking truthfully about leverage, it’s solely cheap to level out that the SEC at present, no less than, has much less. And maybe the greatest challenge on this SEC identification disaster: there aren’t any assurances that that is only a momentary blip.
Without sounding overly dramatic, this might very nicely be the begin of a essential transition for the SEC. One by one, the coaches right here will take to the podium, carrying fits with their acceptable team-colored ties, to put out their case for the season. There are six* new ones – Alex Golesh at Auburn, Jon Sumrall at Florida, Will Stein at Kentucky, Ryan Silverfield at Arkansas, Pete Golding at Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin* at LSU (the Kiffin asterisk denotes new to Baton Rouge, however not, clearly, to the SEC), and if there’s a true trigger and impact to clarify each the SEC’s previous struggles and lay out its future dynamics, it’s at the head coach’s desk.
It is not any coincidence that the SEC’s slight dip coincides with the retirement of Nick Saban and the precipitous falls in some of the league’s conventional energy bases. Once the bulwark of the SEC’s would possibly, Auburn has suffered by means of 5 shedding seasons and has averaged 6.9 wins per 12 months since its 2013 nationwide title. Florida, winners of two nationwide titles below Urban Meyer, has churned by means of 4 head coaches since, none ending larger than sixth in the nation.
This time final 12 months, in the lovely void earlier than precise video games had been performed, 10 SEC groups debuted in the preseason prime 25. Two (LSU and Florida) wound up firing their coaches; one (South Carolina) received one league sport; and one other (Tennessee) stumbled out of the rankings.
In the meantime, Indiana mined a diamond out of a pile of obscurity. On the last day of the season, Curt Cignetti stood amid the purple and white confetti and lofted one more trophy for the Big Ten.
“The skill to carry a nationwide championship trophy up, compete in opposition to colleagues from totally different states in an equitable style, and obtain the mountaintop of a nationwide championship, that has that means,’’ Sankey mentioned.
It in reality, doesn’t simply imply extra. It means every little thing.