Tackling The SEC’s Dirty Image

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The SEC has an image problem.

Despite four straight national titles.  Despite Mike Slive’s attempts to clean up the league.  Despite the fact fewer league schools are on probation now than have been in quite some time.

The SEC has a real image problem.  Or so say a few Southern writers.


Sparked by a column from Mark Wiedmer in today’s Chattanooga Times Free Press, I did a little Google search this morning.  I searched the terms “SEC image,” “SEC dirty,” and “SEC cheat.”

Here’s what I found:

* Wiedmer’s column which is titled “SEC Can’t Shake Its Dirty Image.”

* Nine days ago a column from John Adams of The Knoxville News Sentinel titled: “Masoli Situation Bad For SEC Image” ran.

* Back on July 26th, an informal survey done by ESPN.com’s Dana O’Neil found most of the coaches she talked to believe the SEC to be the cheatin’est  league in college basketball.

And that’s it.


In his column, Mr. Wiedmer makes some fine points, I grant you.  Among them:

* The current agent crisis has hit Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina (though he fails to mention that other schools have also been involved).

* The NCAA is interested in football shenanigans at LSU and Tennessee.

* Kentucky has been named in rumors that it paid a basketball recruit $200,000 for his commitment.

Wiedmer doesn’t even get into the Masoli mess.  Or Alabama’s recent textbook scandal.

But it doesn’t seem that media members or fans outside of the Southeast are using those examples to paint the entire SEC with a broad brush.  Perhaps that’s because a quick check of the other BCS conferences would show that every league has its own skeletons in its own closets.

Does anybody from Chapel Hill to Southern Cal want to talk about agents right now?

Would folks in Miami or West Virginia want to point fingers regarding recent NCAA allegations?

And while John Calipari draws accusations like my windshield draws bird dung, does anyone at Indiana (recent probation) or Arizona (recent penalties) or Kansas (recent ticket scandal) want to throw stones?

As for repeat offenders in multiple sports, can anyone match Oklahoma’s recent run of bad pub?


Prior to Slive’s arrival, the SEC was viewed as a league heading down the same pike that eventually helped lead to the implosion of the old Southwest Conference.

Now the SEC is known more for its television contracts and football success than it is for its off-the-field secrets.

Case in point: ESPN.com is running a front-page story from Pat Forde today titled, “SEC Has No Peers On The Field.”

Still, a few writers and radio hosts around the SEC continue to promote the fact that the SEC isn’t a league filled with angels and Boy Scouts.  Fair enough.  But a glance around the country reveals there’s plenty of ink to go around when it comes to negative headlines and NCAA rumors.

The SEC’s image problem seems to exist mainly among its own people.  Folks elsewhere apparently have their own problems to worry about.