The Southeastern Conference rules the college football landscape.  That’s not just a boast from a site called MrSEC.com.  That’s a fact that even Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney admits.


“The SEC, based on what they’ve accomplished in the last four years, has clearly separated themselves from the rest.  We’ve got a pretty good head-to-head with them going over 15 years, 10 years and five years, but that’s not at the championship level.” — Delaney, August 2010


“The SEC has demonstrated over a period of time that they’re the strongest conference.  The rest of us are looking to close the gap, but we’ve still got a little ways to go.” — Delaney, January 2011


Five BCS championships in a row… won by four different schools.

Seven BCS championships in the 13-year BCS era… won by five different schools.

The SEC has now defeated the ACC (once), Pac-10 (once), Big Ten (twice), and Big 12 (thrice) to capture those BCS crowns.

The league boasts unrivaled parity as well.  Six different schools have won the SEC since 1998.  In that span no SEC school has repeated as league champions.  Not one.  Winning the SEC is akin to winning the Super Bowl in the NFL — everyone is gunning for you the next year. 

By comparison:

* Ohio State has won a piece of seven of the last nine Big Ten titles

* Either Oregon or Southern Cal has won a piece of the Pac-10 title for 11 years running

* Either Texas or Oklahoma has won the Big 12 title in nine of the past 11 seasons

* The ACC champion has been either Florida State or Virginia Tech in 16 of the past 19 years


So what makes the SEC different?  Why is there more parity?  Why is there such dominance at each season’s end?

We’ll give you three quick, rather obvious reasons:

1.  Coaches

2.  Money

3.  Talent


The Coaching Advantage

Would it surprised you to learn that five of the nations’ 10 highest-paid coaches last year worked in the SEC?  Or that eight of the league’s 12 coaches were ranked in the top 20 nationally in terms of salary?

Here’s another: Of the 24 coaches who made $2 million in salary last season, nine call the SEC home.

A football-mad populace drives SEC presidents and ADs to chase the best coaches in the land.  Massive television contracts with CBS and ESPN allow league schools to land those big-name coaches… and pay them top dollar.

In the past two months, Arkansas has boosted Bobby Petrino’s average salary to more than $3.5 million.  Mississippi State has increased Dan Mullen’s pay to an average of $2.65 million per year.  Florida hired highly-coveted first-time coach Will Muschamp for $2.7 million per season.  Vanderbilt was rumored to have offered several million to Gus Malzahn before settling on James Franklin. 

And what type of salary jump will Gene Chizik receive at Auburn?

The nation’s top coaches toil in the Southeastern Conference.  That’s Reason One for the league’s success.


The Money Advantage

The SEC’s cash reserves are not only used to pay coaches their enormous salaries.  All those television dollars and bowl bonanza bucks also fuel the league’s facilities race.

Arkansas and Tennessee are preparing new and improved football complexes.  Alabama just added 10,000 seats to Bryant-Denny Stadium.  Mississippi State is thinking about stadium expansion, too.

Currently, eight of the SEC’s 12 football stadiums hold 75,000 fans or more.  The bigger the stadium, the more money comes in.  The more money comes in, the bigger and snazzier stadiums and football complexes become.

Forbes magazine posted this week the 2009-2010 financial figures provided by the SEC’s schools to the US Department of Education.  Numbers can be fudged, of course, and no two schools break down their expenses and income exactly the same way, but these numbers are still as close as we come to learning the real profit margins for SEC programs.

Looking only at football budgets, here’s what Forbes found for the 2009 football season:

The schools of the SEC spent a combined $239,448,630 on football during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.  Their total athletic spending equaled $908,910,514.  So more than a quarter of every sports dollar spent in the SEC went toward football.  And the SEC spends more on athletics — period — than any other conference in the nation. 

Last year, nine of the 21 biggest athletic budgets in the country belonged to SEC programs (Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Arkansas in that order).

The Big Ten had six school ranked in the top 21.  The Pac-10 and Big 12 each had two schools make that list.  The ACC had one.  The Big East none.  Notre Dame made the list as an independent/Big East hybrid.

As long as the money is rolling into the SEC via television contracts and the league’s football championship game, the money will continue to roll back out by way of facility upgrades, recruiting budgets and coaches’ salaries.

Cash (and a willingness to spend it) is Reason Two behind the SEC’s success.


The Talent Advantage

Spending the most money and hiring the best coaches are signs of commitment from the SEC’s schools toward football excellence.  But Reason Three for SEC superiority is all about luck.

No region of the United States produces more NFL draft picks than the nine states encompassed by the Southeastern Conference.  Oh sure, there’s great recruiting in California and Texas and Ohio and Pennsylvania, but no region can match the Deep South.

Let’s look at the total number of eventual NFL draft picks produced by each SEC state’s high school system over the past 23 years:

In case you’re wondering, those 1,818 drafted players from SEC states account for 29.5% of the 6,160 players drafted into the NFL since 1988.  Nearly one-third of the NFL’s talent comes from the nine-state SEC region.

For comparison…

On average, SEC states produce 79 NFL draft picks per year.  The Pac-12 states produce about 47.  The Big Ten states about 45.

With the population of the country shifting further toward the Sun Belt every year, there’s no reason to think that the SEC states won’t continue to produce more NFL talent than other regions of the nation.  If SEC schools can keep that pro talent home, they will continue to rule in college football.


In the end, the SEC’s dominance is as easy to explain as 1-2-3:

The Coaching Advantage
The Money Advantage
The Talent Advantage

LSU has received a commitment from defensive tackle Mickey Johnson from St. Paul’s High School in Covington, La.

Johnson chose LSU over Arkansas and Tennessee. He’s the 22nd commitment for LSU’s 2011 class.

Johnson’s commitment to LSU could be a sign that the Tigers are out of the running for Timmy Jernigan, a highly-touted defensive tackle from Lake City, Fla.

Jernigan has been strongly considering Florida and Florida State. Tennessee is also in the picture. Volquest.com reported on Thursday night that Jernigan has decided to take an official visit to UT this weekend, which could help the Vols make a strong push on the last weekend before signing day.

When you see “Newton” and “NFL” in the same sentence, you probably think of Cam… the possible Top 10 quarterback pick.  But it’s Cecil — father of Cam — who continues to draw attention.

ESPN.com is reporting that Cecil has scheduled a media workout for his son on February 10th in San Diego.  Newton has been in California this week working with quarterbacks coach Georgia Whitfield to perfect his drop from under center.  His coach has been “blown away” by the results so far.

“Cam is ready arm-wise and footwork-wise,” Whitfield told ESPN’s Bruce Feldman.  “We’ve had a heckuva regimen, but has really made some giant strides in getting this routine from under center down.  His dad is seeing that, and saying ‘let’s go public before the (NFL) combine.’”

Every story concerning Newton at some point turns to “his dad.”  And that’s a concern for some NFL teams.  Jason La Canfora of the NFL Network reported earlier this week that some teams “are still wondering about that relationship (between Cam and Cecil).”  Front office personnel are “not just evaluating these young men, it’s their families and everyone around them that NFL teams are taking stock of as they decide whether to invest millions.”

Small tip — Since Newton doesn’t always know what his father’s up to, perhaps someone should make sure he’s aware of this workout his papa has set up for him.

The case of Tennessee basketball signee Chris Jones is getting a bit murkier as the day rolls on.

Earlier today we told you that Jones — the #10 point guard prospect in America according to Rivals — had been dismissed from Oak Ridge Military Academy in North Carolina.  Now Jones is telling his side of the story and things do not add up.

According to Jones’ coach at Oak Ridge, Stan Kowalewski: “He was dismissed from the school.  I can’t go into it just because of privacy issues. … This was not basketball related whatsoever and he is leaving the school in good academic standing.  We are helping him to transfer to whatever school that he chooses.”

But Jones had this to say to the Greensboro News & Record when asked about his departure: “It was academic. … I talked to the coaches and we decided I should go somewhere I could get better grades.  It’s not because of behavior or basketball-wise.  I need to be able to better understand my work, and I can do that at Brittain Academy.”

According to the News & Record, the website for Brittain Academy “touts a high school diploma program that allows those who register to graduate in 30 days or less.”  It also says, “The program consists of one test, and those who fail can retest at no cost.”  The site also claims that someone passed the program in just seven hours.

Bruce Pearl told The Knoxville News Sentinel that he is aware of the situation but would give no other comment.  Jones said that he’s been “talking to (UT’s coaches) all week.”  “They told me it was a great choice because the way it was looking, it didn’t look good.  But they said I’m making a good choice. … It just dawned on me.  What am I playing basketball for if I’m not going to be cleared?  I had to make a decision.”

Brittain Academy is not on the NCAA’s official list of non-eligible, “diploma mill” high schools.

So was Jones dismissed from Oak Ridge Military Academy or did he choose to leave on his own?  Was he in good academic standing or was he in danger of not being cleared academically for college?

It depends on who you ask.

Ray Drew surprised no one on Friday afternoon when he announced his commitment to Georgia.

The defensive end from Thomasville, Ga., chose the Bulldogs over Auburn, LSU, Clemson and Miami.

The pledge is the latest in an impressive run of commitments for Georgia’s class of 2011. Georgia has recently picked up commitments from in-state prospects Malcolm Mitchell, Jay Rome and Xzavier Ward.

Drew’s commitment to Georgia seemed destined recently when word spread that he was pushing Antonio Richardson to consider the Bulldogs. That news came after defensive tackle prospect John Jenkins said Drew had already chosen his school.

The Bulldogs might not be done on the defensive side. Jenkins and linebacker Kent Turene are giving Georgia serious consideration, and defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan said yesterday that he’s favoring Georgia.

Running back Isaiah Crowell from Columbus, Ga., is another high priority from inside the state of Georgia. Crowell, who canceled a scheduled trip to Auburn, will choose between Georgia and Alabama on Wednesday. Georgia is considered the favorite to land Crowell, whose teammate and close friend, Quintavious Harrow, recently committed to the Bulldogs.

Drew, by the way, made a public plea for several highly-touted players to join him in Athens.

Georgia has 23 commitments for its 2011 class, which entered the day ranked No. 9 in the Rivals.com team rankings. That ranking will surely improve after adding Drew, who’s ranked the nation’s No. 1 weakside defensive end and No. 9 overall prospect by Rivals.

Earlier this week, we told you that Vanderbilt — though no official announcement has been made — had hired Bob Shoop (from William & Mary) and Brent Pry (from Georgia Southern) to act as co-defensive coordinators.

VandySports.com — the Rivals site covering the Commodores — has also reported that new coach James Franklin has hired former Miami Hurricanes secondary coach Wesley McGriff.  McGriff (photo at left) would be the first member of Vandy’s new staff to have recruited extensively in the Deep South for an FBS school.  In addition to Miami, he also spent two seasons on Guy Morriss’ staff at Kentucky.

As was the case with his offensive staff, Franklin apparently wants to announce his defensive hires all at once.  So until he inks a defensive line coach, expect no official announcements from Nashville’s West End.

Rumors and web reports continue to connect Kentucky receivers coach Tee Martin to the vacant receivers coach and recruiting coordinator position at Alabama.

Last night, BamaOnLine.com — the Rivals site covering Alabama — reported that Martin is at the top of Nick Saban’s list.  According to the site, Martin will interview with Bama next week.

The folks at FootballRumorMill.com also tweeted last evening:


“We continue to hear Tee Martin is a very strong candidate to become the new WR coach at Alabama.”


Martin is a native of Mobile, Alabama.  He has been at Kentucky for one season.

Seth Emerson of The Macon Telegraph advises Georgia fans this morning not to put too much stock in rumors that former Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen might become the Dawgs’ next offensive line coach. 


“The former head coach at Maryland has been linked to Georgia’s offensive line job based on the fact that a) he was spotted in Athens recently, b) he has a house about an hour away near Lake Oconee, and c) people need something to talk about.

I spoke to someone on Thursday who I’m pretty sure would know if something was up, and they didn’t give it any credence.”


Freidgen was the ACC Coach of the Year last year before being ousted — due to a lack of fan support — in College Park.  He made $2,036,306 in salary.

The chances of Friedgen stepping all the way down to a position coach’s role are very, very small indeed.

But that hasn’t stopped sites like FootballRumorMill.com from tweeting:


“We’re told Ralph Friedgen is in good position to land the OL job at UGA.  He’s one of 3 candidates.”


With talk like that floating around cyberspace, Mark Weiszer of The Athens Banner-Herald tracked down Friedgen’s agent for a comment. 

“I don’t think there’s any truth to that (rumor),” Jack Reale told him.

There is no better tournament coach in the SEC than Rick Stansbury.  Year-in, year-out, Stansbury always seems to get the most out of his Bulldogs come tourney time. 

It’s the months leading up to the SEC Tournament that cause problems.

Last night in Starkville, Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings got his first win ever at  Mississippi State 81-74.  The win keeps Vandy in the race for the overall SEC championship.  The loss effectively slams the door on MSU’s hopes for an NCAA at-large bid.

The game was — in case you didn’t watch it — excellent from start to finish, featuring 16 lead changes.  State trailed the 19th-ranked Commodores by only three before a turnover and a Jeffery Taylor dunk salted the game away with 15 seconds remaining.

For Stallings and the ‘Dores, it’s onward and upward.  For Stansbury and State, fan unrest will only grow worse.  The Bulldogs are 10-9 overall and just 2-3 in the SEC. 

The preseason West Division favorites — by far — State was expected to jell once Renardo Sidney and Dee Bost returned from their NCAA suspensions.  But the team hasn’t.  Desperately needing wins over SEC East foes with good RPI rankings, the Dogs have lost back-to-back games at Georgia (by 22) and at home to Vanderbilt.  Florida comes to town tomorrow.  Who knows how hard MSU’s players will fight… or how many State fans will be in the arena?

Stansbury went all-in when he signed NCAA pariah Renardo Sidney in 2010.  So far that move has been a bust.  The player sat out all of last season as well as the first nine games of this season.  Upon his return he immediately drew an MSU suspension for insubordination and then got into a fight with teammate Elgin Bailey.  Bailey eventually left the program.

For all the trouble he’s meant for State, Sidney scored six points, grabbed five rebounds and fouled out of last night’s game.  Asked about his play, Stansbury said: “Sid was no factor in the game.  All I remember was him checking in and out.”

And now State fans will begin to wonder if their coach of 13 years is about to be checked out, too.

The past 13 months have been a see-saw ride for Tennessee basketball fans.  On January 1st, 2010 four Volunteers had their names splashed across television tickers and newspaper headlines when they were arrested with guns and pot in their car.  Bruce Pearl dismissed top scorer Tyler Smith and suspended the other three players.  But rather than collapse, UT’s team somehow came together and reached the school’s first-ever Elite Eight.

In September of 2010, with the world still looking rosy, Tennessee announced that Bruce Pearl had lied to NCAA investigators during a lengthy investigation of his program.  National media members called for Pearl’s head.  The SEC handed down an 8-game suspension.  But surprisingly Pearl’s team showed no ill effects.  UT knocked off Top 10 foes Villanova and Pittsburgh on the road and climbed all the way to #1 in the RPI rankings.

And then came a string of upset losses — five of them to teams ranked outside the RPI top 50 — that left everyone in Knoxville scratching their heads.  The NCAA’s letter of allegations was expected to arrive in December but that date came and went.  UT officials have yet to receive an official list of charges against Pearl.

Once again, however, things seemed to be turning around.  The Vols have now won three of their last four games and are just one game back in the SEC East.  Their only loss in that span was a hard-fought loss at Connecticut.  No shame in that.

But here’s the latest see-saw drop: UT signee Chris Jones has been dismissed from Oak Ridge Military Academy in North Carolina and no one is saying why.  Jones is a four-star point guard according to Rivals.com, the 10th best player at his position in the country.

“Chris has made major strides with us, not just as a basketball player but as a student-athlete,” Jones’ coach Stan Kowalewski told The Knoxville News Sentinel.  “I’m not at liberty to discuss the specifics of the dismissal, but it’s not basketball related.”  The dismissal is not believed to be academic related, either.

Pearl said that he was aware of the dismissal but would make no other comment.  Kowalewski said, “We’ll make every effort to help with Chris’ transfer to another school.”

Tennessee has just one other signee in the class of 2011.  Depending on the NCAA’s ruling against Pearl, the Vol program could go from the penthouse to the outhouse quickly.

If Pearl is given a suspension of a year (or more), it’s possible that a number of current Vols might transfer or leave school early for some form of professional ball (Scotty Hopson, Tobias Harris).  Now throw in the up-in-the-air status of Jones and the Tennessee roster looks anything but stable moving forward. 

Even if Jones is accepted into another high school and does graduate on time with all of his coursework in order, will someone who was thrown out of high school survive long-term in college?

The see-saw ride continues for Vol fans.