sec's reach extends beyond its title game
The winner of Saturday's matchup between No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama will be crowned the Southeastern Conference champion, but that is far from the most important plot line surrounding the contest. The SEC, widely accepted years ago as the nation's top college football conference, holds such overwhelming authority on the college football landscape that the basic purpose of its highest-profile game is a mere backdrop to other, more pressing issues.
Consider: Saturday will mark the final conference game in the storied collegiate career of Gators quarterback Tim Tebow; Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram and Tebow are two of the top contenders for this season's Heisman Trophy, an award that could be decided based on their performances Saturday; not only will the winner of Saturday's game advance to the Bowl Championship Series title game, but Florida and Alabama are so highly thought of that the loser may still get there, as well.
Only in the SEC, many observers feel, could so much additional weight be tied to one conference championship game.
"One of the reasons the SEC is perceived as the best conference in the country is they have the most stories," said Gerry DiNardo, an analyst for the Big Ten Network. "There's always something to be said about almost every school in the conference. As opposed to Iowa. Iowa is going to run the football. They play great defense. It's in the middle of America. I mean, it's a story for them, but it doesn't transcend through America with as much interest."
DiNardo served as a head coach in the SEC for nine years during the 1990s (four seasons at Vanderbilt; five seasons at Louisiana State) and said he felt even then that the conference ranked supreme. That much hasn't changed in the past decade, he said; only now, more college football fans know it.
Ever since 1991, when former commissioner Roy Kramer expanded the conference to 12 teams, separated it into two divisions and thus established the prerequisites for a conference title game, the SEC has remained the vanguard of product exposure among its peers. The most recent example was put forth in 2008, when the SEC signed a 15-year, $2.25 billion deal with ESPN that coincided with a 15-year, $825 million contract the conference agreed to with CBS.
The agreements, which went into effect this season, could provide as much as a $100 million revenue surge for the SEC, which compiled a record $132.5 million in revenue during the 2008-09 fiscal year. The SEC's television revenue by far ranks it ahead of any other conference in the country.
"They've been on the forefront of understanding what their fan base wants, what their advertisers would like to see, how sponsors would be able to activate around it," said David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California. "So part of that is being able to demonstrate the deep penetration that they have in the media, that these games are not to be missed."
The SEC's maximized national exposure is reflected in the sustained recruiting success the conference's teams have shared. Mike Farrell, the lead college football recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said that of the nation's top 10 recruiting classes, five or six each season typically reside in the SEC.
Farrell attributed that in part to the talent-laden region in which the conference is based. He also pointed to the aggressive recruiting styles SEC teams routinely employ, as well as to the "football-is-religion mentality" of the fans in SEC states. But one other factor matters most.
"Just the fact over the years that the SEC has produced so many first-rounders, so many Heisman Trophy winners, so many big-time NFL football players -- kids want to grow up and play in that, and they want to play against the best," Farrell said. "So that's usually where [the best players] end up going."
In December 2005, a highly touted quarterback from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., named Tim Tebow made his college decision on national television. Ball caps from Florida and Alabama -- his top two choices -- rested on a table in front of him. He slipped on the Gators hat and then proceeded to win two national titles and a Heisman Trophy in his first three seasons in Gainesville.
"Alabama did everything that they could to get him, and it really came down to closer to 55-45 in Florida's favor," Farrell said. "People had assumed it was 80-20 and this was all for show. But he was interested in Alabama big time. Had he put on a different hat, we could be looking at a whole different landscape of college football. I think it's kind of fitting that he ends up playing Alabama in his last SEC game for the championship."
A Florida win on Saturday would propel the Gators to their third national title game in four seasons. An Alabama win would help atone for the perfect season Florida ruined in last year's conference championship game. Either way, the contest will provide plenty more SEC stories to tell.
Source: Washington Post
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