Comments on: Why Is The SEC Thriving In Football, Struggling In Basketball? Money

By: BillRauhuff

BillRauhuff — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 01:02:32 +0000

I see you did not notice the HUGE arena Tennessee has and the nice arena Arkansas has as well. They both are pretty decent most years in basketball and Vanderbilt and LSU are not too shabby as well and so is Alabama. Your logic does not hold water and yes basketball will always be second fiddle in the SEC

By: BillRauhuff

BillRauhuff — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:58:45 +0000

I guess you did not noticr the HUGE basketball arena at Tennessee and Arkansas has a damn nice arena as well

By: BruceMcF

BruceMcF — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:26:24 +0000

@I4Bama There’s also Spring Football. When I was watching “The Blind Side”, when Big Mike, the hero of the movie is told he’d made the grades to play Spring Football I was like, “huh?” HS Football may be far and away the king of HS sports in NE Ohio, but there just isn’t a long enough time between when you can be sure the snow is melted and the end of the school year to fit in a second football season.

By: I4Bama

I4Bama — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:57:09 +0000

There is truth in all of this, but it also neglects the fact that basketball is treated differently by cultures outside of the SEC. In concert with this, inner cities tend to thrive on basketball and typically do not have room for football fields. Just as the south is filled with football recruits, other places produce more basketball players. I tend to think this is at least as much of a factor as structural issues in the SEC.

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By: John at MrSEC

John at MrSEC — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:47:39 +0000

@AGator

As stated there are exceptions to every rule. Of course, some up-n-comers will become great coaches.

But Florida has paid Donovan a huge amount of money to stay. He’s had offers and turned them down. And that is exactly the kind of investment I’m talking about.

Thanks for reading the site,
John

By: AGator

AGator — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:59:40 +0000

I don’t think UF got good in basketball by investing in the sport. UF stumbled onto a good coach and now that he has succeeded is paying enough to keep him from moving to another job. I doubt Florida paid Donovan much when he was first hired. He was a young guy just starting a coaching career at Marshall and wasn’t a big name. Success came before the investment. If Donovan had won national championships at any other SEC school they’d be paying him well too.

By: John at MrSEC

John at MrSEC — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 05:36:53 +0000

@rgdownie

For folks who don’t care, fans sure do light up call-in shows and messageboards to demand scalps when their teams lose. Even in basketball.

Football is definitely king, but there are many who would like to see the SEC’s basketball product improve. Speaking to those folks, we simply wanted to point out that schools making larger investments into basketball would help.

To flip things, anyone notice how Vanderbilt football has been doing since AD David Williams and the VU administration began investing more money in their program?

So for those who DO care, we believe the SEC can improve its basketball when it starts throwing more cash at the problem. That’s certainly worked in terms of hiring and keeping the nation’s best football coaches.

Thanks for reading,
John

By: John at MrSEC

John at MrSEC — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 05:31:20 +0000

@NatanElias

You’ve oversimplified my point. First, I made it clear that coaching salaries are only part of the equation. Football facilities across the league are bigger, better, and newer than the basketball facilities, too (aside from those at Kentucky, of course). It’s not just the coaches’ salaries, it’s the overall investment in the hoops programs.

And no, paying Anthony Grant an extra million won’t make him a better coach. But if SEC schools invested more money in coaching and facilities and the SEC developed a reputation as a more basketball-friendly league as a result, Alabama might have been able to get a better, more proven coach than the up-n-comer from VCU. (Not that Grant won’t prove himself to be an excellent coach long-term). Spending $4 million a year to hire a football coach, Alabama sure didn’t have to hire the equivalent of Grant, did they? Nope, they bought themselves a man who’d already won big in the SEC and was leaving the NFL. NFL or VCU? Yes, money matters.

Aside from hires doomed by timing issues (Arkansas having to hire John L. Smith as an interim, Tennessee having to rush and hire Derek Dooley right before signing day), the SEC’s football hires are usually much more impressive than the league’s basketball hires. (Emphasis on usually as there are exceptions to every rule.) Simply run down the lists of the SEC’s coaches and you’ll find that most schools have better known football coaches than basketball coaches.

But better basketball coaches would equal better recruiting. (Notice how the SEC doesn’t dominate hoops recruiting as it does football recruiting?) In turn that will equal better basketball.

Gotta invest in the product.

As for comparing the SEC’s numbers to other leagues, if there were a database of all the hoops coaches out there, I’d have done it. But I can give you this comparison — 10 SEC football coaches are among the 25 highest-paid coaches in the country. In basketball, just two SEC coaches rank among the top 10 highest paid.

But I don’t think there’s a soul out there who believes the SEC is as big a spender in basketball as it is in football, anyway.

Thanks for reading,
John

By: rgdownie

rgdownie — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:16:47 +0000

It would be great to do better in BB but when it comes down to it who cares? I think it’s great if we do well in every sport but it just doesn’t matter
that much if we don’t. I know all the athletes love there sport and God bless them. But once again it’s only football I save up my money for so I can
travel buy tickets etc etc. I don’t know about everyone else but I can only spend so much and things are getting tighter as it is. I can only see so many and go to so many play off games. The Fan (me) just can’t afford 2 sports.

By: NatanElias

NatanElias — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:08:56 +0000

I don’t buy it. How about a comparison of SEC coaches’ salaries with those of other conferences? Take Butler (12-4, rpi 14): Brad Stephens made $1.2 million in 2011; Anthony Grant $1.9 mil. So pay Grant a mill more and he becomes a better coach? By your own measure this doesn’t compute.

By: BruceMcF

BruceMcF — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:04:04 +0000

Sagarin’s rankings are tilted to the middle of a conference ~ for example, the weights in a 9 school conference are 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1.
The current rankings are:
85.16 Big Ten
83.42 Big East (Vale)
82.36 Big 12
81.69 ACC
80.72 Pac-12
80.67 Mountain West
79.89 SEC
78.85 A-10
76.91 Missouri Valley
75.59 WCC

You could look at that as the MWC nestled up among the Majors … or you could look at that as the SEC nestled down there among the Mid-Majors.

By: timnealx

timnealx — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:09:36 +0000

@MrSEC chicken or the egg?? Are they successful because of the money or do they get the money for being successful?

By: MrSEC

MrSEC — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:44:43 +0000

@SSS_RJ That was kinda the point. #twidiot

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Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:22:28 +0000

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By: SSS_RJ

SSS_RJ — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:42:17 +0000

@MrSEC maybe because Basketball isn’t a priority. #twidiot