2008 SEC Discussion

[craigblitz]

My Goodness, I am just now catching up on some of the college football threads and didn't realize al lthe talent the SEC is losing because injuries. Does Florida have anyone left? Wow... I hope these kids the best in healing quickly and getting back to 100%

[bkochmc]

Raycom loses Southeastern Conference - Charlotte Business Journal:

Raycom loses Southeastern Conference

Charlotte Business Journal - by Erik Spanberg Senior Staff Writer

A new 15-year deal between the Southeastern Conference and ESPN puts a gaping hole in the portfolio of Charlotte-based Raycom Sports.
Raycom, which includes the sports syndication companies formerly known as Jefferson Pilot and Lincoln Financial, has been the 12-school SEC?s TV syndication partner since 1986. The current deal expires after the 2008 football season and the 2008-09 basketball season.

The business of sports syndication gives a company the rights to televise the games and sell advertising in exchange for a rights fee, in this case paid to the SEC. Raycom Sports then negotiates with TV stations across the Southeast to carry the game telecasts, the "syndication" part of the arrangement. SEC football games televised by Raycom Sports are watched in more than 1 million TV households each week.

ESPN and its various offshoots will gobble up all SEC games not controlled by flagship network CBS beginning next year. ESPN is paying an average of $150 million a year for 15 years, according to SportsBusiness Journal, a sister publication of the Charlotte Business Journal.

Continued...

If divided evenly for all 12 schools (not all of the money will be divided between the schools as the conference will keep a piece of that pie) that's $12.5 million/year per school. My two cents:

1) Ntre Ame hangs it's head, sobs, and wishes their NBC contract was that much (They get $9 million annually).

2) For those that have not completely shunned ESPN get ready for even more slobbering over the SEC by their wonderful personalities.

[redbenn]

Originally Posted by bkochmc

Raycom loses Southeastern Conference - Charlotte Business Journal:

If divided evenly for all 12 schools (which it won't be as the conference will keep a piece of that pie) that's $12.5 million/year per school. My two cents:

1) Ntre Ame hangs it's head, sobs, and wishes their NBC contract was that much (They get $9 million annually).

2) For those that have not completely shunned ESPN get ready for even more slobbering over the SEC by their wonderful personalities.

[rocketman]

Pete Fiutak with a little hypothetical:

Scout.com: 2008 Kickoff Cavalcade of Whimsy, Part Three

1. The SEC and the national title

No one’s saying LSU, once it got healthy after over a month off, wasn’t the best team in America in 2007. However, with eight months to let last season digest, that regular season loss to Arkansas becomes more and more inexcusable. The Tigers had everything on the line against a mediocre Hog team at home, and lost. Yeah, it was tripe overtime, but a loss is a loss no matter how it happens. It keeps getting glossed over, but if Pat White doesn’t get banged up, West Virginia beats Pitt and LSU goes on to beat Hawaii 65-0 in the Sugar Bowl (at least we then would’ve gotten Georgia vs. USC in the Rose Bowl). Of course, the Tigers needed Missouri to lose to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game, too. Combine that with the luck of the league in 2006 when USC lost to UCLA so Florida could get in against Ohio State, and now there’s an important theoretical discussion that needs to be had.

If the SEC really is the best conference in the country (even though the Big 12 has to be in the fight this season), then will the league get the automatic benefit of the doubt no matter what? Let’s say, for example, Ohio State goes unbeaten. Considering that would mean the Buckeyes would win at USC and at Wisconsin, few could reasonably argue against putting them in the national title game. Now, let’s say Clemson beats Alabama 17-13 in the opener, blows through an ACC that appears to be mediocre, and finishes 12-0 with a 24-21 win over South Carolina before winning the ACC championship. Now, let’s say Georgia pulls an LSU and wins the SEC title with an impressive 35-10 win over Auburn, but lost in triple overtime both at LSU and against Florida in the regular season. Each would be far more acceptable losses than LSU’s defeats to Kentucky and Arkansas last season, and you’d have a huge segment of the world assuming that UGA is the best team in America.

And then the chaos would ensure.

You’d have an Ohio State team that almost no one in believes can beat an SEC champion like Georgia until it actually happens, and an unbeaten Clemson team that didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Do you still put Georgia in the national title? Would a two-loss SEC champion be more deserving of a national title shot than the unbeaten champion from the ACC? If you’re looking for a plus-one to be put in place some day, this is the scenario you need to be begging for.

[Gatorubet]

Originally Posted by bkochmc

Raycom loses Southeastern Conference - Charlotte Business Journal:

If divided evenly for all 12 schools (not all of the money will be divided between the schools as the conference will keep a piece of that pie) that's $12.5 million/year per school. My two cents:

1) Ntre Ame hangs it's head, sobs, and wishes their NBC contract was that much (They get $9 million annually).

2) For those that have not completely shunned ESPN get ready for even more slobbering over the SEC by their wonderful personalities.

3) Ubet saves money on ESPN Gameday

[bkochmc]

Originally Posted by Gatorubet

3) Ubet saves money on ESPN Gameday

OR...

ESPN puts all SEC games on ESPN GameDay to help recoup some of that $150 million each year.

[osugrad21]

Dispatch

Rob Oller commentary: Smug SEC fans should stop whining, enjoy success

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 3:14 AM
By Rob Oller


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Jim was on fire. Not engulfed in flames, mind you, but burning all the same. A match had been struck on his anger, by the mere mention of the Southeastern Conference. Sometimes it takes getting away to come away with a new perspective. Spend enough time following Ohio State football and you'd swear the Buckeyes have become the sole punching bag for college football fans living beyond the borders of the Big Ten. It has become fashionable to hate Ohio State.
A recent trip West, however, turned up another villain in the mix: the SEC. The arrogance of that deeply Southern conference wears on those whose allegiances lie outside of Dixie.
Fans such as Jim, a Salmon fisherman in Bodega Bay, Calif., have no use for the SEC, which he thinks resembles a fashion show diva strutting the runway.
"I can't stand it," said Jim, who grew up in the East before relocating to Pac-10 country about 30 years ago. "They think they're soooo better than everyone else."
Cont...