SEC Football: Commissioner Slive Shoots Down Nine-Game Schedules

SEC commissioner Mike Slive is in Kansas City to meet with the Missouri Tiger Club of Kansas City.  Amidst the pomp and circumstance of the event came some pretty interesting nuggets that should interest SEC fans.

Slive shot down the prospect of nine-game conference football schedules, according to Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star.

We hit on this last week when Slive mentioned in an interview with the Memphis Commercial Appeal that the future SEC schedule will probably be finalized in late May.  While Slive's ideal format—for a variety of reason—is to keep the SEC schedule at eight games, that will probably evolve into a negotiating ploy when the SEC sits down with its television partners to renegotiate its media deal.

ESPN and CBS have already voiced frustration over the lack of compelling games in Weeks 1, 2 and 12. Adding another conference game is the most logical solution to the problem.  Plus, in the process, it will make the SEC look even better in front of the networks—which means more money for everybody.

Also, the idea of moving the SEC championship game away from Atlanta and to other cities within the SEC footprint was raised, but Slive shot that down with relative ease.

Other cities may be more fun in December (read: New Orleans), but the SEC championship game in Atlanta has become one of the prized traditions in modern college football.  Sure, it started at Legion Field in Birmingham, but the conference championship game was perfected in Atlanta.  Since moving to Atlanta in 1994, the game has sold out every year except 1995; and it has generated more than $700 million for the city of Atlanta.

Could that translate to another city?  Maybe, but maybe not.  

Anyone that has been to the SEC championship game in Atlanta will tell you that it rivals the electricity of any on-campus stadium on any given Saturday in the fall.  

Don't mess with perfection.

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