What we want to see from the SEC Meetings
It’s the 2022 SEC Meetings in Alabama this week, and there’s going to be a list of ‘interesting’ topics that are going to be brought up.
NIL, more NIL, more NIL, Texas and Oklahoma, more NIL, more NIL, should we add and ninth game?, Will there be a play-off within a play-off? More NIL.
But what do we want to see?
- A solution to the 8-game/9-game problem.
While most conferences don’t get away with playing an 8 game schedule, the SEC has somehow managed it year after year. Nick Saban – for all his many faults – has been proposing nine games for YEARS and it seems only Kirby Smart has backed it up. Probably because other SEC schools in the East or West don’t like the idea of playing a Georgia or Alabama more regularly, but don’t tell them that, because they’ll just YELL AT YOU THAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND GOSHDARNED SEC FOOTBALL.
2. Some Pod Stuff
Added into the scheduling, the whole idea of Pods were brought up in SEC chat when Texas and Oklahoma joined the club last year. Because Texas and Oklahoma could join the West and Alabama and Auburn to the East, but doesn’t that make the East more top-heavy with Georgia and Florida already there? We need a solution or some evidence of a solution. Not the line: “We’ll look at it”.
3. (Hints of) Texas and Oklahoma’s arrival time
Texas and Oklahoma coaches won’t be the SEC meetings and we’ll probably not get a peek at ADs etc, but representatives WILL be there, and probably to chat. They’ll come out with the line: “We are still part of the Big 12 until 2025.” The Big 12 ain’t going to be kicking out Texas and Oklahoma until 2025. UT and Oklahoma don’t seem to be in any hurry to pay their monstrous ‘break-fee’ of $80 million total. UT also will lose out on ESPN money for the Longhorn Network, although that will nicely filled up by SEC money. But the arrivals of Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida (and BYU) in 2023 will really crowd the plate in terms of teams in the Big 12, and both schools can afford to leave ASAP, money or not.
4. Someone talking candidly about NIL
No-one feels sorry for coaches and having to negotiate NILs. But the transfer portals- even if NIL money wasn’t as stake – is an absolute pain-in-the-behind. Trying to keep a player in the team for a season and then trying to keep him there, on top of recruiting talent and getting YOUR OWN talent, on top of the ‘usual stuff like Xs and Os’ is definitely a pin in the neck. And although SEC coaches are getting paid $10 million a year and no-one’s feeling sorry that they might be out-earned by Arch Manning when he comes to town, it’s a royal headache for coaches organizationally. And it will lead to more burn-out and worse mental health in the future.
WHAT WE REALLY WANT THEM TO TALK ABOUT (BUT’S NOT GOING TO BE)
- The thoughts of gun control.
In the SEC, the best-paid public servants are college football coaches. The Governor might get the mansion and some campaign donations, but the college football coach gets the ****ing mansion AND the big salary, mostly thanks to Jimmy Sexton.
But in all of this the shootings in Uvalde has haunted a country. SEC coaches were very loud during the George Floyd protests in 2020, but will this translate into people talking candidly about gun control in 2022, when all but Louisiana is run by Republican Governors. And I know the coaches will use the vomitously-used “Thoughts and prayers”, but AT LEAST CAN SOMEONE ANSWER THE DAMNED QUESTION. Winning college football games matters more than where people stand politically, so why not give them a shout!
IT WOULD BE HILARIOUS IF THEY TALK ABOUT….
Who they side with in the Jimbo Fisher – Nick Saban scrap.
I’m taking Kirby and Billy for Saban, and Brian for Jimbo. Eli Drinkwitz would stay out of it and stir the pot like a latter-day Spurrier, albeit with less talent.
Whether they actually want Texas and Oklahoma in the Conference.
Only once would I love a coach to say: “Have you BEEN to Norman? The place is a dump. Who would want to go there?” or “Austin is full of damned hippies and Californian turds thinking they are relving Dazed and Confused”.
Whether they take joy in seeing another SEC coach lose a game.
Screw this respect stuff, boys. Show how competitive you are.