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Southeastern Conference |
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Southeastern Conference |
| Southeastern Conference (SEC) |
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| Established: 1933 | |
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| NCAA | Division I FBS |
|---|---|
| Members | 12 |
| Sports fielded | 17 (men's: 8; women's: 9) |
| Region | Southern United States |
| Headquarters | Birmingham, Alabama |
| Commissioner | Michael Slive (since 2002) |
| Website | http://www.secsports.com/ |
| Locations | |
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a college athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I in athletic competitions; for football, it is part of the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A). The conference is one of the most successful financially, consistently leading all conferences in revenue distribution to its members including a record $132.5 million for the 2008–2009 fiscal year.[1] The Southeastern Conference was also the first to hold a championship game (and award a subsequent title) for college football and was one of the founding members of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The current commissioner of the Southeastern Conference is Michael Slive.[2]
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The SEC was established on December 8 and 9, 1932, when the 13 members of the Southern Conference located west and south of the Appalachian Mountains left to form their own conference.[3] Ten of the thirteen charter members have remained in the conference since its inception: the Universities of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi ("Ole Miss"), Tennessee, and Auburn, Louisiana State, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt Universities.
The other charter members were:
In 1991, the SEC expanded from 10 to 12 members with the addition of:
The two new teams joined for the 1991–92 basketball season. At the same time, the SEC split into two divisions——a Western Division comprised of most of the schools in the Central Time Zone, and an Eastern Division comprised of the schools in the Eastern Time Zone plus Vanderbilt (which is located in the Central Time Zone, but is in the Eastern Division to preserve its rivalry with Tennessee). Additionally, as five of the twelve schools are located in the Eastern Time Zone, one Central Time Zone school would be required to be placed in the Eastern Division. This divisional format is still in place today as well as preserving all in-state rivalries within the conference (Alabama and Auburn being the other rivalry that could have been split).
Also in 1992, the SEC was the first conference to receive permission from the NCAA to sponsor an annual championship game in football, featuring the winners of the conference's Eastern and Western divisions.[4] The 1992 and 1993 SEC Championships were held at Birmingham's Legion Field, and have since been held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.[4]

The SEC televises football games across various networks during the fall. SEC coverage is primarily provided by CBS and the ESPN family of networks, which includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ABC. Fox Sports Net also has rights to air seven live football games over the course of the season.[5]
ESPN reported paying $2.25 Billion for broadcast rights of SEC football games beginning in the 2009 season and running through the fiscal year 2025.[6]
Games scheduled for airing are generally picked two weeks before they occur, with a few matches that are selected by CBS and ESPN prior to the season.
CBS has the first pick for a game and selects the highest-profile game to broadcast to a national, over-the-air audience. The CBS game is usually broadcast at 3:30 ET, but CBS will not air an SEC game during the first two weeks of the 2009 season.[7] Some weekends, CBS will air a doubleheader of SEC games.[8] CBS also has the rights for the SEC Championship Game.
ESPN will air several SEC games each week among its various channels, with Saturday time slots generally at 12:00 ET, 7:00 ET, and 7:45 ET, and some SEC games will be shown on Thursday nights. In previous years, Raycom Sports (formerly Lincoln Financial and Jefferson Pilot) offered regional coverage for an SEC game of the week at 12:30 ET, but the new ESPN contract eliminated Raycom's live coverage of SEC games. Instead, beginning in 2009, games at this midday time slot will kickoff at 12:21 ET, aired by the newly branded SEC Network.[9] SEC Network is not a standalone channel; its games will be aired on various stations syndicated through ESPN Regional TV.
The currently scheduled Fox Sports Net games are set for 7:00 ET.[7]
For games not selected by any broadcast provider, certain schools may offer regional pay-per-view.
As of 2008, all SEC schools are affiliated with XM Radio, offering their radio broadcasts to an audience on XM. According to SiriusXM, the Southeastern Conference will not be included as part of the "Best of XM" package deal for Sirius customers.
During the 2007–2008 fiscal year review meeting, there was discussion among SEC leadership about the possibility of starting a TV network dedicated to its conference, much in the same way the Mountain West Conference and Big Ten Conference have done with the mtn. and Big Ten Networks, respectively. A decision was made to postpone the decision until at least the following year.[10]
In August 2008, the SEC announced an unprecedented 15-year television contract with CBS worth an estimated $55 million a year. This will continue the relationship the SEC already has with CBS, which puts the SEC in the unique position as the only conference to have its own exclusive national television network of the big three networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC) to display the SEC's events.[4] In the same month, the league also announced another landmark television contract with ESPN worth $2.25 billion or $150 million a year for the life of the contract, which is for 15 years. It is the longest and wealthiest contract among all television deals among the major conferences. With these contracts, the SEC has the richest television deals in the country and will make the SEC the most nationally televised and visible conference in the country with the coverage that is provided by these contracts.[11][12]
The office of Commissioner was created in 1940[13]
| Years | Commissioners |
|---|---|
| 1940–1946 | Martin S. Conner |
| 1946 | N.W. Dougherty (Acting Commissioner) |
| 1948–1966 | Bernie Moore |
| 1966–1972 | A. M. "Tonto" Coleman |
| 1972–1986 | Dr. H. Boyd McWhorter |
| 1986–1989 | Dr. Harvey W. Schiller |
| 1990–2002 | Roy F. Kramer |
| 2002–present | Michael Slive |
The SEC currently has twelve member institutions in nine Southeastern states.[14] The geographic domain of the conference stretches from Arkansas to South Carolina (west to east) and from Kentucky to Florida (north to south).
The conference is divided into two geographic divisions: the Eastern Division and the Western Division. The twelve current members of the Southeastern Conference are:
| Institution | Location (Population) |
Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Year Joined | Nickname | Mascot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Division | |||||||
| University of Florida | Gainesville, Florida (108,655) |
1853 | Public | 49,679 | 1932 | Gators | Albert and Alberta |
| University of Georgia | Athens, Georgia (111,580) |
1785 | Public | 34,885 | 1932 | Bulldogs | Hairy Dawg, Uga |
| University of Kentucky | Lexington, Kentucky (270,789) |
1865 | Public | 27,209 | 1932 | Wildcats | The Wildcat, Scratch, Blue (live bobcat) |
| University of South Carolina | Columbia, South Carolina (127,029) |
1801 | Public | 27,488 | 1991 | Gamecocks | Cocky, Sir Big Spur (live rooster) |
| University of Tennessee | Knoxville, Tennessee (173,890) |
1794 | Public | 27,739 | 1932 | Volunteers, Lady Volunteers | Smokey |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Tennessee (607,413) |
1873 | Private / Non-sectarian | 12,093 | 1932 | Commodores | Mr. C |
| Western Division | |||||||
| University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa, Alabama (90,221) |
1831 | Public | 28,807 | 1932 | Crimson Tide | Big Al |
| University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, Arkansas (72,000) |
1871 | Public | 19,194 | 1991 | Razorbacks, Lady Razorbacks | Big Red, Boss Hog, Sooie, Pork Chop, Tusk |
| Auburn University | Auburn, Alabama (54,348) |
1856 | Public | 24,137 | 1932 | Tigers | Aubie, War Eagle VII |
| Louisiana State University | Baton Rouge, Louisiana (224,097) |
1860 | Public | 25,215 | 1932 | Tigers, Lady Tigers | Mike the Tiger |
| University of Mississippi | Oxford, Mississippi (14,051) |
1848 | Public | 17,546 | 1932 | Rebels | Colonel Reb (unofficial) |
| Mississippi State University | Starkville, Mississippi (24,187) |
1878 | Public | 18,601 | 1932 | Bulldogs | Bully |
The Southeastern Conference sponsors championships in many different sports.
Under SEC conference rules reflecting the large number of (male) scholarship participants in football and attempting to address gender equity concerns (see also Title IX), each member institution is required to provide two more women's varsity sports than men's. The equivalent rule was recently adopted by the NCAA for all of Division I.[15]
While South Carolina and Kentucky field men's soccer teams, the conference does not sponsor the sport; both schools in 2005 joined Conference USA for the sport.[16]
Before expansion, each SEC school played six conference games. Five of these games were against permanent opponents, developing some traditional rivalries between schools, and the sixth game rotated around the other four members of the conference.
From 1992 through 2001, each team had two permanent inter-divisional opponents, allowing many traditional rivalries from the pre-expansion era (such as Florida vs. Auburn, Kentucky vs. LSU and Vanderbilt vs. Alabama) to continue. However, complaints from some league athletic directors about imbalance in the schedule (for instance, Auburn's two permanent opponents from the East were Florida and Georgia——two of the SEC's stronger football programs at the time——while Mississippi State played Kentucky and South Carolina every year) led to the SEC reducing the permanent opponents to only one per team.
Under the current format, each school plays a total of eight conference games, consisting of the other five teams in its division, two schools from the other division on a rotating basis, and one school from the other division that it plays each year. All permanent inter-divisional games, with the exception of Arkansas vs. South Carolina, were played annually before SEC expansion in 1992.[17]
The following table shows the permanent inter-divisional opponent for each school listed by total number of games played (records through the completion of the 2009 season with Western Division wins listed first)[18]:
| Western Division | Eastern Division | Series Record |
|---|---|---|
| Auburn | Georgia | 53–52–8[19] |
| Alabama | Tennessee | 47–38–7[20] |
| Ole Miss | Vanderbilt | 46–35–2[21] |
| LSU | Florida | 23–29–3[22] |
| Mississippi State | Kentucky | 17–20[23] |
| Arkansas | South Carolina | 10–7[24] |
| Overall Inter-Divisional Record | 194–179–21[25] | |
Other league athletic directors have advocated discarding the current format and adopting the one used by the Big 12 Conference, where teams play three teams from the opposite division on a home-and-home basis for two seasons, and then switch and play the other three teams from the opposite side for a two-year home-and-home. However, the potential loss of such heated (and profitable, as the games are often shown on national TV) long-standing rivalries as Auburn-Georgia, Alabama-Tennessee, and LSU-Florida have scuttled such plans on the drawing board. The loss of the annual rivalry between Nebraska and Oklahoma has led some Big 12 athletic directors to make a push to adopt the SEC format for the Big 12. The Atlantic Coast Conference followed the SEC's lead and went one step further, adopting the permanent rival format for both football and basketball (in the latter sport each school is designated two rivals).
Interestingly, before the institution of divisional play, many of Auburn's yearly rivalries were with teams in the East (Florida, Georgia and Tennessee), while Tennessee's yearly rivalries were with teams in the West (Alabama, Auburn and Ole Miss).
| # | SEC | Records | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | 813–316–43 | 71.20 |
| 2 | Tennessee | 783–333–53 | 69.25 |
| 3 | Georgia | 733–389–54 | 64.96 |
| 4 | LSU | 710–387–54 | 64.12 |
| 5 | Auburn | 696–400–47 | 62.95 |
| 6 | Arkansas | 657–451–40 | 58.97 |
| 7 | Florida | 656–374–40 | 63.18 |
| 8 | Mississippi | 615–468–35 | 56.83 |
| 9 | Kentucky | 567–558–44 | 50.38 |
| 10 | South Carolina | 535–535–44 | 50.00 |
| 11 | Vanderbilt | 556–557–50 | 49.96 |
| 12 | Mississippi State | 491–534–39 | 47.04 |
The SEC Championship Game pits the SEC Western Division representative against the Eastern Division representative in a game held after the regular season has been completed. The SEC was the first conference in the NCAA to hold a championship game in football, which was made possible by the conference's expansion to twelve members with the addition of the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina in 1991. (The first championship game was during the 1992 season.) As of 2009, eight of the twelve SEC members have played in the Championship. Ole Miss is the only team from the SEC West to have not played in the SEC Championship Game, and Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and South Carolina have failed to play in the game from the SEC East.
The first two SEC Championship football games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Since 1994, the game has been played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. The team designated as the "home" team alternates between division champions; the designation goes to the Eastern champion in even-numbered years and the Western champion in odd-numbered years. As of 2009, the Eastern division of the SEC leads the Western division in overall wins in the championship game 11 to 7.
The post-season bowl game tie-ins for the SEC for the 2009 season are:[27]
If the SEC champion is selected to participate in the BCS National Championship Game, the Sugar Bowl is not required to pick the SEC runner-up but may select any eligible BCS team. However, since the game was moved to a standalone basis in 2007, the Sugar Bowl has selected an SEC team, and since 2008 has chosen the SEC runner-up (the 2007 Sugar Bowl featured LSU, who was not the SEC runner-up but was an eligible BCS team).
Under SEC guidelines, unless the Sugar Bowl selects the SEC runner-up, the Capital One Bowl must then pick the SEC runner-up if that team has won two or more games than the next team in the selection order. The SEC runner-up has not played in the Capital One Bowl since Arkansas following the 2006 season.
At this point, the SEC is second in BCS Bowl appearances, with 19 appearances, and first in all-time wins and winning percentage, with 14 wins and a .722 winning percentage. The BCS Bowls include the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, and the BCS National Championship Game.
Since the advent of the BCS National Championship Game format, the SEC is a perfect 6–0 in those games. The SEC was 2–0 in the games where the National Championship Game was played as part of the traditional New Year's Day bowls, and since 2007 (when the game was moved to a separate contest one week later) the SEC has participated in all four games and has won all four. Interestingly, the SEC team was ranked #1 only twice going into the game (the first contest featuring Tennessee in 1998 and the most recent featuring Alabama in 2009); the other four times the SEC team (LSU twice and Florida twice) was ranked #2.
The SEC members have long histories. Some of the football rivalries involving SEC teams include:
| Teams | Rivalry Name | Trophy | Meetings[28] | Record[28] | Series leader | Current Streak | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Auburn | Iron Bowl | James E. Foy, V-ODK Sportsmanship Trophy | 74[29] | 40-33-1[29] | Alabama | Alabama Won 2[29] |
| LSU | Alabama–LSU rivalry | — | 73[30] | 45-23-5[30] | Alabama | Alabama Won 2[30] | |
| Ole Miss | Alabama–Ole Miss rivalry | — | 56[31] | 45-9-2[31] | Alabama | Alabama Won 5[31] | |
| Tennessee | Third Saturday in October | — | 91[20] | 46-38-7[20] | Alabama | Alabama Won 3[20] | |
| Arkansas | LSU | The Battle for the Golden Boot | The Golden Boot[11] | 54[32] | 19-34-2[32] | LSU | LSU Won 1[32] |
| Texas[12] | The Big Shootout | — | 77[33] | 21-56[33] | Texas | Texas Won 2[33] | |
| Texas A&M | the Southwest Classic[13] | — | 66[34] | 39-24-3[34] | Arkansas | Arkansas Won 1[34] | |
| Auburn | Georgia | The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry | — | 113[19] | 53-52-8[19] | Auburn | Georgia Won 4[19] |
| LSU | The Tiger Bowl[14] | — | 43[35] | 19-23-1[35] | LSU | LSU Won 2[35] | |
| Florida | Florida State | Florida–Florida State rivalry | The Governor's Cup | 53[36] | 32-19-2[36] | Florida | Florida Won 5[36] |
| Miami | Battle for the Seminole War Canoe | The War Canoe Trophy[15] | 54[37] | 26-28[37] | Miami | Florida Won 1[37] | |
| Georgia | The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party[16] | Okefenokee Oar | 87[38] | 39-46-2[38] | Georgia | Florida Won 2[38] | |
| Tennessee | Third Saturday in September | — | 39[39] | 20-19[39] | Florida | Florida Won 5[39] | |
| Georgia | Georgia Tech | Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate | The Governor's Cup | 104[40] | 60-39-5[40] | Georgia | Georgia Won 1[40] |
| Kentucky | Indiana | Kentucky–Indiana rivalry | —[17] | 36[41] | 17-18-1[41] | Indiana | Kentucky Won 1[41] |
| Louisville | Battle for the Governor's Cup | The Governor's Cup | 22[42] | 13-9[42] | Kentucky | Kentucky Won 3[42] | |
| LSU | Tulane | The Battle for the Rag | The Tiger Rag[18] | 97[43] | 66-22-7[43] | LSU | LSU Won 17[43] |
| Ole Miss | The Magnolia Bowl | The Magnolia Bowl Trophy | 96[44] | 55-38-4[44] | LSU | Ole Miss Won 2[44] | |
| Mississippi State | Ole Miss | The Egg Bowl | The Golden Egg Trophy | 106[45] | 42-58-6[45] | Ole Miss | Mississippi State Won 1[45] |
| Ole Miss | Arkansas | Arkansas–Ole Miss rivalry | — | 55[46] | 25-29-1[46] | Arkansas | Ole Miss Won 1[46] |
| South Carolina | Clemson | The Palmetto Bowl | The Hardee's Trophy | 107[47] | 38-65-4[47] | Clemson | South Carolina Won 1[47] |
| Georgia | The Border Bash | — | 61[48] | 14-45-2[48] | Georgia | Georgia Won 2[48] | |
| North Carolina | Battle for "Carolina" | — | 55[49] | 17-34-4[49] | North Carolina | South Carolina Won 1[49] | |
| Tennessee | The Halloween Game[19] | — | 27[50] | 4-22-2[50] | Tennessee | Tennessee Won 1[50] | |
| Tennessee | Kentucky | The Border Battle | The Beer Barrel[20] | 104[51] | 72-23-9[51] | Tennessee | Tennessee Won 24[51] |
| Vanderbilt | Tennessee | Tennessee–Vanderbilt rivalry | — | 103[52] | 28-70-5[52] | Tennessee | Tennessee Won 3[52] |
Each year, the conference selects various individual awards. In 1994, the conference began honoring former players from each school annually with the SEC Football Legends program.
In 1982, the SEC Skywriters, a group of media covering the Southeastern Conference, selected members of their All-Time SEC Team for the first 50 years (1933–82) of the SEC.
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Coach: Paul Bryant Offense |
Defense |
Teams play a 16-game conference schedule, facing each team from its own division twice and each team from the opposite division once. Before expansion, teams played a double round-robin, leading to an exhausting 18-game conference schedule. Not surprisingly, no team ever ran the table when the conference schedule featured 18 games; three teams went 17-1 (Kentucky in 1970 and 1986, LSU in 1981). Since the league slate was trimmed to 16 games, Kentucky has gone undefeated in SEC play in 1996 and 2003.
The SEC Men's Basketball Tournament (sometimes known simply as the SEC Tournament) is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the Southeastern Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The tournament is most often held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, though sometimes takes place at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tennessee or the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida.
Prior to moving to the Georgia Dome, the tournament was most often contested at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, home of the SEC's headquarters and centrally located prior to the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina. Other sites to host include on-campus arenas at Kentucky, LSU, Tennessee and Vanderbilt, and the Orlando Arena.
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Several men's basketball rivalries have developed in the SEC (westernmost SEC team listed first):
The SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year is awarded to the player who has proven himself, throughout the season, to be the most exceptional talent in the Southeastern Conference. Various other awards, such as the best tournament player in the SEC Tournament and all conference honors are given out throughout the year.
The SEC Baseball Tournament is the conference championship tournament in baseball SEC, first started in 1977. It is a double-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records. Since 1998, the tournament has been held at Regions Park in Hoover, Alabama and contested under the format used at the College World Series from 1988 through 2002, with two four-team brackets leading to a single championship game. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.
In addition to the winner of the SEC Baseball Tournament, the Southeastern Conference usually gets several at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.
Several baseball rivalries have developed in the SEC:
Besides football, men's basketball, and baseball, there are a number of other sports in which the Southeastern Conference actively competes.
| University | Endowment as of 2008[55] |
|---|---|
| Vanderbilt University | $3.48 billion |
| University of Florida | $1.21 billion |
| University of Alabama System | $1.00 billion[56] |
| University of Arkansas | $876 million |
| University of Tennessee System | $867 million[57] |
| University of Kentucky | $831 million |
| Louisiana State University System | $593 million |
| University of Georgia | $572 million |
| University of Mississippi | $495 million |
| University of South Carolina | $438 million |
| Auburn University | $378 million |
| Mississippi State University | $350.5 million [21] |
Since its founding in 1932, and the first full academic year of competition in 1933, SEC members have won a total of 161 team national championships.[58]
The Southeastern Conference sponsors eight men's sports and ten women's sports, and awards a conference championship in every one of them.
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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