SEC Spring Meetings: Winners/Losers

The SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fl. weren’t low on discussion.

To make it a quick read (and to not try and tread on too much old ground, The SEC Football Blog brings you a (not completely complete) list of winners and losers from the three days of meetings. If you have any more, please comment!

WINNERS

The supporters of tradition: The SEC voted for the 6-1-1 schedule to stick around for the next half a decade, meaning that the century-old Auburn-Georgia and Alabama – Tennessee rivalries stay intact. And so does the LSU vs Florida game, which has been going for a mere 41 years, which is just a smidgeon shorter than how old Les Miles is (and yes, we’re being kind).

Lovers of a 4-game play-off: The SEC voted for a four-team play-off. God only knows what it’s going to look like, though.

Steve Spurrier (press conference): You might not like Steve Spurrier, but his press conference on the Tuesday was fantastic. In about 20 minutes, he managed to butcher Florida State (aren’t they No.1 every year), quickly work out an idea for a play-off, not seem too upset about losing Arkansas as a permanent opponent (the Gamecocks will get Texas A&M instead), but got upset about not paying players as well as the idea that non-conference games counted towards end-of-season divisional records.  And numbers-wise, he beat Coach Cal of UK 20-1 on journalist attendance (although we can guarantee that one Kentucky journalist probably didn’t complain too much about having an exclusive interview, as we wouldn’t!).

The SEC presidents and ADs: The current 12 schools – Texas A&M and Mizzou haven’t formally been voted in yet, we hasten to add, are pocketing a tidy $20.1 million from the SEC – a total of $241.1 million. We could use the change, boys! Oh, and can you imagine the green they’ll get from the SEC Network?

The SEC Coaches: For making a stand and voting unanimously FOR paying players. No, it probably won’t mean too much. But you know what? It might get a ball rolling. And Spurrier led the charge on this – although some members of the media felt that it was simply Spurrier trying to get media attention.

Mark Richt: While others were losing their cool about the 6-1-1, he was straight down the line with his message: UGA wants to keep the Auburn rivalry.

Dan Mullen: Came up with a very common-sense idea of having a ‘Final Four’ for college football. The Texas Stadium in Arlington wouldn’t be big enough for all the people who’d want to go to THAT week of games, would it? He also got that permanent rivalry with Kentucky, which can only be good for the Bulldogs win column.

Concussion-worriers: Dan Jones, the Chancellor of Ole Miss, is going to head up a committee to look into concussions, which should be interesting – and worrying for football fans the world over if their findings are more productive than that of the NFL.

Texas A&M president Loftin: Making a comment like: “Texas is now SEC territory” (well done, Aggies president R.Bowen Loftin) will make you beloved to your other 13 members. Especially as they then venture into your state and continue to steal your best talent.

…And Horse lovers: Not remotely anything to do with football, but now equestrian is a sport starting 2012-3. Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina, and Texas A&M will field teams. The SEC Football Blog can reveal that Baylor, Brown, Cal State Fresno, College of Charleston, Cornell, Delaware State, Kansas State, New Mexico State, Oklahoma State, Sacred Heart, South Dakota State, SMU, TCU and UT-Martin all have Division-I programs. Baylor won this year’s National Championship. Now, I bet you didn’t know that. I can see the jokes start flying.

LOSERS

Les Miles: He didn’t get his way about playing Florida every year, which he wanted NOT to happen. The topic of his rage? Mississippi State’s permanent deal with Kentucky. Brought forth a lot of queries about the LSU side and Miles’ recruiting. We get the reason why Les Miles was freaking out – a loss to Florida could well derail LSU’s SEC and National Championship hopes and he didn’t want that to happen -but come on…

Steve Spurrier (paying players): The coaches’ unanimous vote wasn’t carried through by the ADs and Presidents, unsurprisingly. But hopefully, this will get through to the NCAA.

Nick Saban: His quote about ‘self-absorbed people’ (everyone thinks he was pointed at Big Ten head Jim Delany) got people asking the question: Should Nick Saban – a guy with a not-exactly unblemished record in that department –  be the one saying a comment like that? I can bet that that the PR guys at Alabama probably shivered when he said it, particularly at some of the comments spat back at him over Twitter.

The University of Tennessee: Despite having a consistent rivalry with Alabama, it’s not going to be much of one if Alabama continues to recruit and win the way it does and Tennessee continues to falter. We’ll bet that some Tennessee fans probably wanted to forgo tradition and get paired off with an easier team, say Ole Miss. Or Texas A&M.

And….James Franklin: For the record, this is what the Vanderbilt coach said:  “I’ve been saying for a long time, I will not hire an assistant until I’ve seen his wife. If she looks the part and she’s a D-I recruit, then you’ve got a chance to get hired. That’s part of the deal.” He followed this up with: “There’s a very strong correlation between having the confidence, going up and talking to a woman, and being quick on your feet and having some personality and confidence and being fun and articulate, that it is walking into a high school and recruiting a kid and selling him.” (Thanks, Baltimore Sun, who then called him a ‘used car salesman). Although Franklin tried to play this down as a joke, it didn’t endear himself to a lot of people – particularly those desperate for a story. He apologised over Twitter later on – “Skills is what I am looking 4.As a husband & father of 2 daughters I regret the way I conveyed my message!” but by then he’d written the headlines that the outraged brigade will feast on every time Vanderbilt doesn’t pick up one of those five-star recruits they always seem to get.

Who else do you think should get on the list? Comment below!!!