Is bigger and newer better in the SEC? Yes, it is

Urban Meyer and the Gators are getting used to celebrating at the end of championship games. (Icon SMI)

The Southeastern Conference is a runaway train of commerce, something that would have been unthinkable forty or fifty years ago. The question that this development asks is simply is it better? The answer depends on how you look at it.

In the 1960s and ’70s the conference had legendary coaches named Bear Bryant, Shug Jordan, Johnny Vaught and a young Vince Dooley. Currently the conference has someday-to-be legendary coaches named Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, Les Miles and Nick Saban. The first group produced 11 national championships. The current crew has five and counting.

This could be a tossup by the time the current group is finished. Although it seems unthinkable to old timers, but as far as coaches go, this is the best era of coaches in the history of the conference. Numbers alone won’t measure which era is better because while the old legendary coaches probably stayed at their jobs longer than today’s coaches will, today’s coaches have the advantage of having longer seasons and so many more bowl games available. It’s hard not to make a bowl game these days, where in the older days you had to have better seasons to be a bowl team.

The one thing that is probably not open to debate is the older coaches were far and away the more colorful characters. Today’s coaches are CEOs and most act like it. In the old days, coaches would often spend time with reporters beyond the time that was required. Today it is unthinkable to find a coach who will relax enough to spend leisure time with reporters.

The SEC once had something called the Skywriters tour where 30 to 40 sportswriters and broadcasters would get together on a chartered plane and fly to each SEC campus to watch practice and interview players and coaches before the season started. It was not unheard of to find a head coach spending hours at the Skywriters’ hotel in the hospitality room telling stories and tossing back an adult beverage. Johnny Majors loved it when the Skywriters would spend the night in Knoxville because he would stay until the sun came up.

Today’s coaches do not feel comfortable enough with reporters to even think about wasting time just enjoying the company of anyone from the media, and it’s hard to blame them. With the intrusive approach to journalism that many media members have today, a coaches’ offhand comment can become tomorrow’s headline.

The Skywriters tour has given way to the Football Media Days, where a coach and two players fly to Birmingham usually on a private plane where they are escorted to the meeting surrounded by an entourage. They go from room to room to answer any questions reporters have. It’s over in a couple of hours and then the coach is back in the air and on campus in time for practice. It’s fast, efficient and impersonal, just the way the coaches like it.

 

The coaches are not the only change in SEC football. Where once the on-campus stadiums were smaller and more intimate, they have grown into monstrous edifices that dominate the campuses. They are showplaces of southern football.

Students and fans used to watch Georgia football games from the railroad tracks that run behind the South end zone. It was a quirky, unique aspect that made game day at Georgia special. But it is no more. Stadium expansion blocked the view and a Georgia tradition became a thing of the past.

You used to be able to sit in the press box or the upper rows of Neyland Stadium in Knoxville and see the Tennessee River. Now all you see is more and more seats as the Tennessee Vols’ football palace grew to become the first SEC stadium to seat more than 100,000.

While stadium expansions might have had some negative effects, the overall impact far outweighs them. More and more people get to see games, which means more and more money for the schools in ticket sales, concessions, souvenir sales, etc. With more games added to the schedules and the larger stadiums, the money is rolling in and the coaches are cashing in as salaries have grown into the seven-figure range around the league.   

With the possible exception of colorful characters, it is hard to argue that this is the best era of SEC football. It certainly is a runaway train that shows no sign of slowing down.