BREAKING: Mike Slive To Retire As SEC Commissioner

Mike Slive

Mike Slive's tenure as SEC commissioner will be coming to an end.

In a statement released by the Southeastern Conference Slive announced he will step down as commissioner on July 15th, 2015.

“I have been blessed in more ways than I can count and I will have as much passion for this job on my last day as I did on my first,” Slive said in a statement released by the SEC.

Health concerns are the reason why Slive has decided to retire.  He will be beginning treatment for a recurrence of prostate cancer.

“I consider my health situation a temporary detour in a remarkable road that has allowed me to meet amazing people, experience incredible events and celebrate historic victories." Slive said.  "I will relish my final year in this position and look forward to being the biggest fan of the SEC for many years to come.”

The recurrence of cancer was discovered
in August subsequent to a surgical procedure on his back.

Slive's prognosis is good.

Slive's 13 years as SEC commissioner has seen unprecedented growth and revenues.  With the billion dollar plus TV contract with ESPN and CBS and the launching of the SEC Network the crowning jewel of the Slive era will be the seven consecutive BCS National Championships in football.

The SEC Network Becomes Official: Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money

Mo money, mo money, mo money.

Yes, the new SEC Network from your friends at ESPN has been made official. The Network will being in August of 2014 of course, since that would be in time for the 2014 season.

And yes, while it's going to be an expensive undertaking, it's going to make the already rich football schools of the SEC even richer. Though apparently neither ESPN or the SEC want to say HOW rich they'll become from this.

So, now some of the details. At least the ones they've released:

--Yes, we already mentioned the Network starts in August of 2014. Duh! Just in time for the football season.
--The SEC Network and ESPN have a media rights agreement that runs through 2034. ESPN will run all SEC programming on all platforms through that time. Each school will apparently produce their own content as well.
--No comment was given when asked about the ownership split. This will be interesting to find out.
--Your 1st Cable/Satellite company to sign on: ATT U-Verse. So there is distribution. No word on anyone else signing on. 
--As of right now, the plan is for the Network to run 45 football games in the 2014 season. Which is apparently 3 games a week for 13 weeks. 
--In addition, the plan is for 160 basketball games, 75 baseball games and other minor sports to all be televised or broadcast on the SEC's digital network
--They are shooting for clearance 1st in the states with SEC schools (11 of them) and then will work for national clearance 
--Studio HQ--Charlotte, where ESPN already has some facilities. 

Here's the ESPN Press Release if you'd like to read it. The link is RIGHT HERE

Your SEC Coaches/No Fighting reported

The football programming will not be top shelf, despite their arguments that it will
. You won't get the Alabama/LSU football game on the SEC Network. You might see the Tuesday rerun, but you won't get the game. All you are getting is the former Raycom Saturday Noon game. Best we can tell, CBS won't be losing the main Saturday game and ESPN isn't gonna fork over their prime time Saturday night games either.

But--you will get more basketball, more baseball, gymnastics, tennis and other sports along with coaches shows.

So there's that.

This of course the SEC fan is great news. In most SEC states, they'll eat this shit up. But financially, it will be hard for anyone to compete with them for a long time because as we all know, that money could never be used for anything other than facilities and uniforms...right.

But the Network has a shelf life.

The Sports TV Network model of revenue is eventually going to change and the question is: How long will that money be around.

To explain: If, say, Comcast decides to add the network at $1.50 per subscriber. Guess what? If it's on the "Primary Tier" of channels, you are paying for it. Even if you don't like SEC Football. Or if you aren't a Sports Fan. Your cable bill goes up.

Imagine living in Chicago and finding out on your latest bill that yes, you are funding the SEC. Well, guess what, that's exactly what you are doing. You may have no interest whatsoever in This Week in Alabama football, but congratulations, you're help footing the bill for the show.

At some point, the model is not going to be sustainable anymore. We don't know when. Heck, we have ATT U-Verse at home, featuring the Longhorn Network, a network we'll NEVER watch.

But in the meantime, congratulations SEC Fan, you've got your network. And your network will be worth $25-$28 million per team. No, none of your students will see any of it, the football program will, but that's okay. And yes, it will be available in most of the southeast. But just remember where that money is coming from. Not from ESPN, not from the League, no, most of it is coming from YOU.

SEC Network To Come On Line In 2014

Send your resumes and demo tapes, kids...

The Ess-E-Cee and the four letter are about to announce their network collaboration next week... and it will be the most valuable network in the history of college conference sports networks...

((Insert evil laugh here))

Smith and Ourand from Sports Business Journal sayeth quote:

The SEC and ESPN plan to formally announce the creation of an SEC channel on Tuesday. The two parties have begun to reach out to key constituents to let them know about the 12:00pm ET announcement at the Atlanta Hyatt. University presidents, ADs, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, ESPN execs and the conference's corporate sponsors are among those being invited to the news conference. The SEC and ESPN have been working on plans to form a channel since the fall of '11, and the new channel is expected to launch in August '14.

The channel is expected to have its studio headquarters in Charlotte at the ESPN Regional Television offices, while the primary sales outlet will be based in Atlanta.

This means that those of you who are used to seeing all that ancillary programming on other non-ESPN networks will have one more year of it. The contracts will then expire and the programming will roll over appropriately to SEC Network.

So, every press conference... every practice... every event past, present, or future... during football season will roll over to SECN...

You'll get baseball, gymnastics, basketball (men's and women's), track, all of that stuff... rolled over to the control of the monolith out of Birmingham...

Enjoy the next-to-last ever conference football title game that won't have an ESPN fingerprint all over it in some way...
((HT: ESPN America/SEC/youtube))

The New SEC Network: All They Need is More Money

((ht: sports.yahoo.com))

Like they needed another money printing license.

According to a report by Yahoo Sports reporter Pat Forde, commissioner Mike Slive told him the SEC will debut their own, self-encomapssing TV Network in about a month.

Yes, those who follow the Southeastern Conference say, "They already have a network".

Well, no actually they don't, they have a digital network, lots of programming that they have to contract out to run.

They want something akin to the "Big Ten Network" or the "PAC-12 Network". Those networks, available to cable and satellite subscribers make their respective conference's a lot of money.

Read more from Mr. Forde's report on Yahoo Sports RIGHT HERE

No, this quite honestly isn't a game changer, it's been expected for a long time.

The reasons Conference do this are rather simple. They net money based on TV homes. Well, okay, actually subscribers.

They convince carriers, (ie: Comcast Cable, DirecTV, U-Verse etc) to pay for clearing the network, the carrier in turn adds that fee to your overall bill. So even if you aren't an SEC fan, if the network is on your top tier of channels, congratulations, you just made the SEC even richer. And, if the hundreds of millions the Big 10 gets for their network is any indication, the SEC is sitting on a pot of gold.

This also comes about as the conference begins renegotiating their TV deal next year. Forde's article and general speculation assumes that ESPN will buddy up with the league for this and will pay handsomely to be a part of college TV's most popular and lucrative conference.

So enjoy what you've got, expect your cable or satellite bill to go up, but in return, you'll get the leagues 3rd level games and a whole bevy of baseball, women's basketball and other less revenue generating sports.

Mike Slive wins: BCS Cartel agrees on new playoffs

We think this name will go away...for now

Don't think for a minute that this was about anything other than the quest for more money.

By now, you've probably heard that the BCS commissioners (ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC) and Notre Dame...have agreed that they should do a 4-team playoff at the end of the college football season. (No, Notre Dame hasn't sniffed a potential championship game in decades)

And no, they didn't release a lot of details because they said "The University Presidents" need to agree on it.

Like they are going to say no...

The commish's put on a show to say they are unified. The show included Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick reading the "Statement".

And yes, it includes the "Big Bowl Games" too. The "Top 4" matchups will take the place of the "Traditional" conference allegiances. And the "Championship" game. That will be up for bidding.

This will go to the highest bidder. The highest bidding cities and highest bidding networks. And the "BCS" will make a gazillion dollars from this. More than the trillion they currently are. No, they haven't said "Where" this game will be played, but it won't be at a "Bowl Game" site.

It also means SEC Commissioner Mike Slive wins. Slive was a big proponent of a 4-team playoff with the 4-best teams, not conference champs only.

Despite resistance by BCS and Big 10 mafioso Jim Delany, Slive got his wish.

So....what does this mean to you College Football fan?

Not much. Chances are, unless you are an alum or fan of a power team in the above mentioned conference, it means nothing to you. The plan does not detail how a potential "Outsider" like a Boise State, would get treated in this setup. And because we consider all the people involved in this deal as incredibly greedy, we suspect it will be incredibly hard for someone outside the cartel to get in.

That way they don't have to share the money with someone outside the group.

On the good side, it will eliminate...for now, some of the bias in the choice of "The Best Teams'. The question of it being either a "Committee, Computer or Poll" has yet to be answered.

We have no idea when this "Championship" game will be played. Though we suspect it will be like the 2012 BCS title game and be played in mid-January.

In the long run, this really only changes a few things. It does NOT do what should be done and that is BLOW UP the current bowl system. In fact, it barely addresses that cesspool of greed and blackmail.

Yes, it will eliminate debate as to whom the "Best of the Best" is, but it still subjects schools that aren't in it to having to play in Bowl games in far away places where there fans won't go and the Bowl forces the schools to pay for unused tickets. (Look this up in "Death to the BCS by Dan Wetzel---an revealing book if there ever was one")

And...think of this, not rich College Football fan, if your team does get to the title game, not only do you get to pay for one trip to a "Far Away" bowl, now you'll pay for 2, and the second one will be on VERY short notice.

Because these guys all want "Money for Nothing":

The SEC/Big 12 Bowl: Galactic Realignments Trump Card?

The Image/From secsports.com

Before you read this story, you should breeze through the story below it on the OSG Sports website.

You know, the one that talks about only what could...or couldn't be the biggest move thus far in the history of College Football's "Galactic Realignment".

It's the story of 2 of the 4 so-called "Power Conferences", the SEC and the Big 12 agreeing to put on a bowl game that may...or may not feature their conference champs. The name "The Champions Bowl" and it will be offered to a rotation of cities with "The Highest Bid".

But College Sports are about competition...not profit.

Ha!

It may put the champs of each conference against each other in a bowl game at a "To-Be-Determined" location...if they aren't in the soon to be agreed upon playoff. Or it may put the conference runner-ups there.

Your press release from the SEC RIGHT HERE

As we all know, there is zero chance the champ of either the SEC or Big 12 isn't in the upcoming 4-game College Football playoff, but it is theoretically possible.

What we like the most about this is the collective call out by SEC Commish Mike Slive and outgoing Big 12 commish Chuck Neinas, of Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany, the man most responsible for the current mess that is the BCS. And really, we sort of get that he's protecting the Rose Bowl by trying to center any playoff around it. But to those of us on the East Coast and in the South, that bowl game isn't as big as Delany thinks.

The other potential bonus here is it may render some of the other trivial minor bowls irrelevant or hopefully end them. Sorry folks, the "Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl" or the "Champs Sports Bowl", they benefit nobody...other than the people that put the game on.

Don't for a MINUTE, believe the whole line of crap given by bowl officials: "It's a chance for the players to be rewarded for a great season". BULLSHIT (sorry for the language). Going to a bowl game for a 6-6 record is not a reward. It is not for the fans. Most fans don't want to buy a $1500 ticket package to see their mediocre team in a bowl game. They don't.

It's for the people who put on said bowl game to make money. For those who don't know, bowl games make tons of money off sponsorships and the unused team tickets.

Yes, that's right, unused team tickets. Ask the University of Connecticut about the $1.6 million it owed the Fiesta Bowl a couple of years ago about that.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.

What this means is fairly simple.

There is going to be a College Football playoff in 2014. And it is going to involve the "Top 4" teams in the country. (They are still trying to determine how to determine that)

The rest will sort out to bowl games.

We don't know which bowl games will survive this. But honestly a little "Survival of the Fittest" there won't be such a bad thing.

The other big thing is "Realignment". While we too laughed at the "FSU interested in Big 12" stories, suddenly, that takes on a different tone". Look for the Big 12 to be back at 12 teams...or more...very soon. Your prime candidates...anybody in the ACC and Louisville in the Big East.

What it is going to mean to anyone outside the Big 10, Big 12, SEC and Pac 12 is...well, enjoy your bowl game, you won't be playing for the title. Unless you are one of the 4....which you won't be.

And so the trump card is played. The stars will realign. The game will change. And it will never be the same.

Thanks for indulging me by reading this. Think about what I'm saying. It's true....oh...it's true, you know its true.

Ess-E-Cee And Big 12 Meet New Year's Day In 2014...

It's the equivalent of the Citrus Bowl just swapping out the 12/10 for the 10/12.

This game, between the supposed champions of both the SEC and the Big 12 who are 10, at a yet-to-be-determined place, time, and network, will take place even if one or the other teams is involved in the new national championship playoff structure. But...that has also yet-to-be-determined...

“A new January bowl tradition is born,” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive in a news release. “This new game will provide a great match-up between the two most successful conferences in the BCS era and will complement the exciting post-season atmosphere created by the new four-team model. Most importantly, it will provide our student-athletes, coaches and fans with an outstanding bowl experience.”

“Our goal is to provide the fans across the country with a New Year’s Day prime-time tradition,” commented acting Big 12 Conference Commissioner Chuck Neinas. “This is a landmark agreement between two of the most successful football conferences during the BCS era to stage a post-season event. The creation of this game featuring the champions of the Big 12 and SEC will have tremendous resonance in college football.”

But the key paragraph in the release is the part that says that "another deserving team from the conference" would fill the space if one of the two is headed to the plus-one...

So, starting at the end of the 2014 season this new game is creating another larger opportunity for JerryWorld to be a part of the equation- the new title game goes off New Year's Night and then the stadium gets turned over for the playoffs.

More when we know more... but this is huge for the 12/10 either way...

Report: Duke and UNC to SEC?

 ((ht: dukebasketballreport.com))

You know, on April fools day, we feel a bit reluctant to report on something that is borderline incredulous to believe.

But on some levels, it sort of makes some sense.

The website "DukeBasketballReport" is reporting that the SEC is prepared to cut the heart out of the ACC...and it could happen really soon.

They quote sources that tell them the SEC is preparing to pilfer both Duke and North Carolina within the next few days.

And yes, like we said, we know this is April Fools day, so we are a bit skeptical. And if this site is pulling everyone's collective leg...well, them's fightin words.

Read the entire story from DukeBasketballReport RIGHT HERE

So...what do you think? On several levels, it would make sense. They are the two basketball "Powers" in the conference. And with the expanded ACC Footprint, they lose some identity. Sure, in football, Duke at least is over-matched. But North Carolina isn't.

But according to the story and it would be the only way something like this makes any sense for both schools, the SEC and commissioner Mike Slive, is that it is a basketball move, a move to help balance Kentucky and Florida who, realistically, have been the only 2 reasonably good teams in the conference for several years.

In the meantime, the jury is out on this one...

Missouri's conference fate could be decided Thursday

((ht: kcstar))

Well, the New York Times says they already know what Missouri is going to do. But Missouri hasn't said it.

And they won't. At least until a Thursday afternoon meeting in Kansas City by the school's "Board of Curators". Strangely, we always thought "Curators" worked in museums, but that is another issue.

Read about the meeting from KansasCity.com RIGHT HERE

Anyway, multiple reports say that Mizzou to the SEC is going to happen and will happen for next season.  Most everyone involved is--at least on the surface--trying to be quiet about it. But people are talking--as unnamed sources.

Those sources say that not only are the Tigers coming, they'll play in the SEC East, which logistically makes absolutely zero sense. But...

Remember the story we did on Saturday where Alabama said "Missouri can join the SEC if they play in the East"?

If not, here's the link RIGHT HERE

Well, apparently Tennessee feels the same way because they want to play Alabama every year. And Auburn, well, Alabama still wants to play them too. And the SEC has said you can only have one "Out of Division" rivalry game each year.

And then there is interim Big 12/10 commish Chuck Neinas saying to Mike Slive, "If you are going to an extend an invitation to Missouri, let me know."

Slive didn't comment.

We still don't understand why the SEC is settling for Missouri. Yeah, before you say it, we know, it is about the TV eyeballs. We get that.

But logistically it makes zero sense. A little bit more if they were in the SEC West, but they aren't. Sure, the teams, which make more money than god, and are expected to make more, will spend a few more bucks on travel. And Missouri will have to spend more on recruiting to move into SEC territory.

The issue to us is for the fans. It's a long trip to ask Florida fans to make. Sure, some will come no matter what. But that is a half-way around the country trip for them on the road. And the same for Georgia and South Carolina. Part of the beauty of the SEC is that so many fans "Road Trip" to games. That will all but go away for any team that would have to go play Missouri.

And yes, for what it is worth, they'll be coming to the SEC no matter what we think.