The presidents, athletic directors, head football coaches and head basketball coaches of all the SEC schools gather in the same place at the same time only once per year: the conference’s spring meetings. The annual event was held here this past week. A recap of what happened and a glimpse of what’s next, on five major topics:
Basketball tournament
What happened: SEC athletic directors voted unanimously to pursue the possibility of making one city the "primary site" of the league's men's basketball tournament, which heretofore has moved around. (What's the difference, you might ask, between a primary site and a permanent site? "Permanent means you go there every time. Primary means you go there most of the time," SEC commissioner Mike Slive said.)
What's next: The league will negotiate with Nashville, Tenn., and perhaps others. ("I'm not going to leave money in the room," Slive said when pressed to publicly name Nashville the favorite.) There's no rush because the tournament already is committed to Atlanta for 2014 and to Nashville for 2015, 2016 and 2019. And discussions/negotiations are pretty far along toward putting the tournament in St. Louis in 2017, Tampa, Fla., in 2018 and possibly Atlanta in 2020. So it could be 2021 before the tournament's "primary site" era truly begins.
Football schedules
What happened: After much talk about whether league football schedules should remain at eight games or expand to nine, the SEC decided to keep the schedules at eight (with one fixed cross-division opponent) through the 2015 season and figure out later what to do about 2016 and beyond.
What's next: The conference says it will analyze all options, with the goal of deciding on a long-term scheduling format by this time next year. The options include eight- and nine-game schedules, with and without fixed cross-division opponents. (Yes, that means the annual Georgia-Auburn game again will be at risk.) Even some coaches who are opposed to a nine-game schedule — and all are except Alabama's Nick Saban — figure it's inevitable if the league determines it will help put more teams in the College Football Playoff, more fans in the stands and more money in SEC Network coffers.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/05/28/2791256/nine-game-sec-schedule-a-hot-topic.html#storylink=cpy
Basketball woes
What happened: Following a season in which the SEC placed only three men's basketball teams in the NCAA tournament, the conference hired the NCAA's former tourney guru, Greg Shaheen, as a scheduling consultant and brought him to the meetings to make a presentation to the basketball coaches. Then the coaches were told to submit their proposed non-conference schedules to the conference office for review. (The thinking being: Teams that play weak schedules negatively affect the RPI of other SEC teams and thus can damage their chances of making the NCAA tournament.)
What's next: The conference is developing analytics for reviewing proposed schedules. Slive said some schedules will be given a green light (good to go), some a yellow light and some perhaps a red light (stop and redo.) Coaches generally seemed open to input from the league, although Kentucky's John Calipari offered his own formula for how more SEC teams can get into the NCAA tournament: "Probably win more games."
Stipends
What happened: SEC football and men's basketball coaches implored Slive to push hard for NCAA approval of stipends — spending money — for athletes. "We as coaches believe they're entitled to a little more than room, books, board and tuition," South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier said. The football coaches suggested about $4,000 annually per player, even though the NCAA membership has failed to approve a previous proposal for $2,000.
What's next: "I think it's very important that we let everybody in the (NCAA) know that this is an issue that really is not going to go away, and we need to satisfy it," Slive said.
Drug-test penalties
What happened: Outgoing University of Georgia president Michael Adams pushed for the SEC to "provide national leadership" by adopting a conference-wide substance-abuse policy so that athletes who fail drug tests would get the same penalties at all schools. But the idea drew limited support and was tabled.
What's next: Schools will continue to set their own policies and penalties, which will continue to vary. Some UGA fans will continue to worry that the Bulldogs are disadvantaged competitively by penalties that are among the strictest, according to studies, starting with a suspension for 10 percent of the season — one game in football — for a first violation.
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