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
Yankees, Cowboys and … SEC Conference?
With bloated television deals, merchandising superiority and on-field dominance, the Southeastern Conference might just compete with the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys with its national prowess.
By Jeremy Fowler
Orlando Sentinel
December 1, 2009
GAINESVILLE — The most attractive national sports brands can be defined — at least partly — by their bank statements.
The Dallas Cowboys are worth a reported $1.6 billion.
The New York Yankees are valued at $1.3 billion.
The Southeastern Conference?
Try an estimated $3.87 billion and counting.
As Florida and Alabama meet in Saturday's Southeastern Conference Championship Game, the most powerful conference in college sports will have another venue to strengthen its mighty moniker.
Through the power of 12 teams, the SEC can rub shoulders with any sports power because of its $2.25 billion television deal with ESPN over 15 years, an extra $825 million from CBS and other growing profits such as licensing sales, regional marketing and bowl revenue.
When asked whether the SEC should be compared to the Yankees and Cowboys, commissioner Mike Slive said, "That's pretty illustrious company."
"The goal was to make and create an appreciation for not just football, but for the quality of athletes and competition that reaches outside of the southeast region," said Slive, who took the job in 2002. "We wanted to expose the league throughout the country."
Consider the plan a success.
Collegiate Licensing Company, which ranks the top marketing/licensing schools in the country, confirmed the SEC raked in more than $720 million in merchandising sales in the 2008-09 fiscal year. The Big 12 is far behind at around $500 million.
"There's a sense of loyalty with the league," said Joe Hutchinson, CLC vice president. "Fans support their teams until the end."
The league distributed $132.5 million among its 12 schools in 2008-09, equating to $11.1 million each. The new television deal with ESPN alone will provide $17 million per school starting this year. In comparison, the Atlantic Coast Conference makes about $37 million total for its football deal with ESPN.
From Florida to Vanderbilt, SEC teams are getting the equivalent to a Bowl Championship Series payout before even playing a game. It's contractual television stability that might go unparalleled for decades. The league's closest competitor is the Big Ten, which has a 25-year, $2.8-billion deal as part of the Big Ten Network that is worth less annually.
The SEC has dished out approximately $1.583 billion to its schools since 1980, and the league paid out $37 million in bowl money last year. Only the Big Ten has made more money off Bowl Championship Series appearances than the SEC since 1998, making $212 million to the SEC's $204 million.
Other prominent revenue streams last year included $14.3 million for the SEC Football Championship Game ($14.3 million), the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament ($4.1 million) and the NCAA Tournament ($23.1 million).
The $3.87 billion doesn't include ticket sales in a league that's 98 percent sold out for football games with five stadiums of more than 90,000 capacity and only two that hold less than 60,000. Many SEC schools have regional marketing deals such as Florida's 10-year, $100 million agreement with Sun Sports.
"It's commitment, weather, fan base, great universities, success athletically – it's truly a national stage because of all those factors," said C.M. Newton, former Kentucky athletics director and long-time SEC basketball coach. "You give the commissioners a lot of credit. They've really elevated this league over the years by hiring good people and making business-savvy decisions. The strong commitment has been there from day one."
The SEC has long been a national brand since before the days Joe Namath and Bear Bryant blazed through the competition in the early '60s.
The recent football success has elevated the SEC's run to new heights.
Either Florida or Alabama will go to this year's BCS title game, giving the league a chance for a fourth straight championship and five out of the past seven years.
Slive parlayed athletic success to financial stability with recession-proof television deals that broadcast almost every football and men's basketball game on one of its various regional or national outlets. The deals have enhanced the SEC's digital platforms online and created an SEC academic network.
"When you combine their on-field results with the tradition, it's hard to deny the SEC," said Mike Aresco, executive vice president of programming for CBS Sports. "The league always had the tradition and the success, but it keeps growing in an environment that's more competitive than ever."
The SEC isn't without its headaches, though.
The league endured one of its most tumultuous football regular seasons because of relentless criticism of football officials who botched games with calls. Four different coaches — Florida's Urban Meyer, Arkansas' Bobby Petrino, Tennessee's Lane Kiffin and Mississippi State's Dan Mullen — criticized calls that either decided an outcome or affected a game.
Slive suspended the officiating crew that made league-acknowledged incorrect calls in the Georgia- LSU and Florida-Arkansas games. Slive strengthened the punishment for criticizing officials from a reprimand to a suspension or fine.
Slive said he will revisit all officiating policies in the offseason in an effort to avoid the 2009 mess.
"It certainly didn't help (the brand)," Slive said. "Anything that takes away from the success of our teams is not going to help us. They are diversions."
Certainly things could have gone worse in 2009 now that Florida and Alabama, both undefeated, are meeting in their second straight SEC title game in what's easily the game of the season in college football.
Both programs epitomize the power of the south — in dollars and tradition.
"Compare the SEC to other areas of the country, like the Northeast or West Coast, the pro teams often dictate a lot of the interest," Hutchinson said. "The pro influence is not as concentrated in the South. In the South, it's about SEC football."
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