SEC Expands Dates, Announces Schedule for 2014 SEC Football Media Days

Mark your calendar: The slate is set for college football's biggest offseason circus, the SEC media days.

Southeastern Conference communications director Chuck Dunlap tweeted Thursday morning that the event will be expanded to a fourth day, spanning from July 14-17.

Once again, the event will be hosted by the Hyatt Regency Birmingham – Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Ala. It will be broadcast on the ESPN networks.

According to an SEC release, a more detailed schedule with information on student-athlete interview times will be released at a later date, but the initial schedule is as follows:

Date	Team/Title	Coach/Official
Mon, July 14	SEC Commissioner	Mike Slive
Mon, July 14	Auburn HC	Gus Malzahn
Mon, July 14	Florida HC	Will Muschamp
Mon, July 14	Vanderbilt HC	Derek Mason
Tue, July 15	Mississippi State HC	Dan Mullen
Tue, July 15	South Carolina HC	Steve Spurrier
Tue, July 15	Tennessee HC	Butch Jones
Tue, July 15	Texas A&M HC	Kevin Sumlin
Wed, July 16	SEC Coordinator of Officials	Steve Shaw
Wed, July 16	SEC Network	Justin Connolly
Wed, July 16	Arkansas HC	Bret Bielema
Wed, July 16	LSU HC	Les Miles
Wed, July 16	Missouri HC	Gary Pinkel
Thu, July 17	Alabama HC	Nick Saban
Thu, July 17	Georgia HC	Mark Richt
Thu, July 17	Kentucky HC	Mark Stoops
Thu, July 17	Ole Miss HC	Hugh Freeze

Vanderbilt's Derek Mason will be the only first-timer at the media days this season, and he'll go on the same day as SEC champion Gus Malzahn, who was a first-timer just last year.

Always one of the main attractions, South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier will come on day two, along with Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin, who will be fielding questions on life without Johnny Manziel.

LSU's Les Miles and SEC West Champion coach Gary Pinkel of Missouri will take the podium on the third day, while Alabama's Nick Saban will do so on day four.

Each of the last three SEC media days have drawn more than 1,000 attendees with a record 1,239 last season.

With character coaches like Spurrier, Saban and Miles, the media days are always a great show.

Last year's media days were highlighted by banter between coaches and the rockstar status Manziel and South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.

With that duo and several other SEC stars heading to the next level, it'll be interesting to see which players take center stage this year.

Another hot-button topic last season was the upcoming release of the SEC Network. With the network to be launched in August, that is sure to be the case yet again.