SEC Media Days is going to Broadway.
No, not that Broadway. Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee, which given that Nashville is the epicenter of the country music business, is pretty show-bizzy in its own right.
For the first time since it began in 1985, SEC Media Days will be held away from the Birmingham, Alabama, area in consecutive years. Last year it was the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. This year it’s the Grand Hyatt in Nashville. Next year, who knows? What in the name of Garth Brooks is going on here?
Perhaps the SEC, which has anchored its football championship in Atlanta, its men’s basketball tournament in Nashville and its baseball tournament in Hoover, Alabama, has taken a page from the NFL draft playbook and seen the worthiness of taking its marquee offseason football event on the road. Wouldn’t be surprised if next year, with the arrival of Texas and Oklahoma, that SEC Media Days makes a stop in Dallas or Houston.
That’s speculation for another day. There’s plenty for us to focus on here and now with this year’s event, which is the run up to the last season the SEC will be in its current iteration. After this, no more divisions, and 16 teams instead of 14.
On the eve of media days, we’ve got questions. Lots of questions. We’ll settle on these five, starting with:
1. Will LSU be picked to finish first in the West?
To the surprise of many of us media “experts,” the Tigers went from being picked last in some SEC West predictions last year to winning the division and playing in the SEC Championship Game. LSU being picked first this year and making good on the hype wouldn’t be such a surprise. The Tigers return 10 offensive starters, led by the best quarterback room in the league manned by Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier. The defensive front seven, led by linebacker Harold Perkins, may also be the SEC’s best. The secondary has to jell and there is the matter of that little road trip to Tuscaloosa in early November, but expectations haven’t been this high for the Tigers since 2019.
2. Georgia’s three-peat and drumbeat
Any media member who doesn’t pick Georgia to win the SEC East should never be allowed to vote again. The Bulldogs are a virtual lock to be the nation’s preseason No. 1 as they take aim at a third straight national championship, a feat never before accomplished in the AP poll era (since 1936). But it isn’t all positive news in Athens. Georgia players have been involved a disturbing string of road mayhem since January, starting with a deadly crash involving a Georgia player and staffer and continuing last week. Georgia coach Kirby Smart admitted he hasn’t been able to quell the problem yet, and he’s sure to have more fast talking to do on the subject Tuesday.
3. Who’s on the hotseat?
It was a relatively quiet offseason by SEC football coaching standards. Only two jobs changed hands – Auburn and Mississippi State – and the latter was because of the untimely death of Mike Leach. Typically, a lull on the SEC coaching scene usually precedes more volatility. Three coaches are facing mounting expectations: Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, who has yet to have a winning season in three tries; Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, who’s had back-to-back teams start in the top 10 and finish out of the final AP poll; and former UL coach Billy Napier at Florida. It’s not Napier’s fault, but the Gators are staring at the prospect of a third straight losing season for the first time since 1945-47.
4. Scheduling and hazing
The SEC came out of its spring meeting with a stopgap scheduling format for 2024, calling for eight games with the caveat that every current SEC team would play either newcomer Texas or Oklahoma (LSU will get the latter in Tiger Stadium). SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is sure to face questions about what will happen in 2025 and beyond, namely whether the league will stick with eight SEC games or go to nine (LSU is in favor of the latter). In the wake of the hazing scandal at Northwestern, the question of whether any such thing has happened on any SEC campuses is sure to be a question for Sankey or SEC coaches or players, or all three.
5. Speaking of Leach …
The verbal tributes to Mississippi State’s late and brilliantly colorful coach are sure to be plentiful. SEC media days has never seen something like this, the league’s last sitting football coach to have died being LSU’s Bo Rein in 1980. Don’t know what kind of orator new State coach Zach Arnett is, but he’s guaranteed to have a tough act to follow in Leach on Tuesday. Here’s some advice, Zach: tell a touching anecdote or two about Leach, but don’t try to be like him. Just be yourself. Then you’d better go win some games. This is the SEC, after all.
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