SEC Media Days

On July 16, 2014, in Sporting News, by admin

SEC LogoHoover, Alabama is one of those special places steeped in SEC traditions.  It is the home of the annual SEC Baseball Tournament and even boasts the third longest golf course in the world at the Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa.

Hoover is also home to the Wynfrey Hotel which has been a traditional meeting spot of choice for the movers and shakers in the SEC for awhile now. All of the secret entrances and exits have been mapped out for years. 

Actually, the famous old Wynfrey Hotel has been bought out and is now known as the Hyatt Regency Birmingham. But those secret staircases are still there for those hoping to avoid the crash of media waiting to pounce on anyone with a familiar face who enters the main doors. 

This year the place is especially abuzz as anticipation builds for the opening of the long awaited SEC Network which will kick off in August. SEC President Mike Slive opened the gathering, officially known as SEC Football Media Days 2014, with his annual ‘State of the SEC’ address, and it’s a good bet that he was smiling broadly as he gave his report.

The SEC has never been stronger and stands on the threshold of a major financial and popularity breakthrough with the introduction of the SEC Network in conjunction with ESPN. 

Each of the 14 member Universities of the Southeastern Conference were represented by their Head Football Coach along with three selected players from each school’s football team.

The annual get together at Hoover went for four days from July 14th through July 17th with each day spotlighting three or four of the member teams. SEC Coordinator of Football Officials Steve Shaw made a presentation as did the new SEC Network General Manager Justin Connolly to whom the audience gave their undivided attention.

The one speaker from outside the SEC was the Executive Director of the new College Football Playoffs, Bill Hancock, who is under a lot of scrutiny this year with his attempt to set right the past inequities the BCS. College sports fans everywhere are really in hopes that the new system will work better than the old one.

The SEC has won the NCAA National Football Title 9 times in recent memory.  That’s way more than any other conference. However, under the new playoff setup, one of the ‘Power5’ conferences is going to be left out of the playoffs, but it hardly seems likely that the absent conference will be the SEC, which indeed does rule!

 

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