SEC Football: Ultimate Guide for 2015 SEC Media Days
The annual circus known as SEC media days will take place next week at the Hyatt Regency Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama. The event, which features all 14 SEC head coaches and three player representatives per school, will take place over a four-day span and serve as the unofficial kickoff to the 2015 college football season.
What should you expect next week as some of college football's stars make the rounds?
Our ultimate guide to SEC media days is in this slideshow.
The Setup
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The Wynfrey is a unique, fun and sometimes cramped place to hold a media event that will include more than 1,000 credentialed media members and enough fans to hold a pep rally.
When you walk through the doors of the hotel, there's a small escalator to the right that takes credentialed media members to the event space, where most of the action takes place. However, on the lower level, on the corridor that connects the hotel to the Galleria mall, more than 30 radio stations line up to create a radio row similar to what you'd see at the Super Bowl. This is public space, and players and coaches typically come down and visit with select stations during their time in Hoover (although not as many as in prior years).
When it's time for teams to make the rounds, they'll hit the various rooms on the second-floor event space. The main ballroom is what you'll see on television. Each coach will hit the podium for 30 minutes. After he goes, he'll make the rounds to various rooms for 10 minutes each, including the television room, radio/Internet room (which is where the best quotes come from) and other rooms belonging to the SEC's media partners, including SiriusXM, CBS, ESPN, etc.
Players will visit the smaller rooms for 10 minutes each as well, except for their scheduled time in the main ballroom, where it's a 30-minute free-for-all with all three player representatives set up in three corners of the room at the same time.
Two teams will make the rounds at the same time, with Commissioner Greg Sankey qualifying as "a team," except for Thursday morning, where three schools will go during an extended session.
The Schedule
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Media days will get underway with new commissioner Greg Sankey's "state of the SEC" speech around lunchtime Monday and conclude Thursday afternoon.
Here's the schedule released by the SEC (all times ET):
Monday, July 13
12:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.
Commissioner Greg Sankey
Auburn (Coach Gus Malzahn/Jeremy Johnson/Jonathan Jones/Kris Frost)
3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Florida (Coach Jim McElwain/Jonathan Bullard/Brandon Powell/Vernon Hargreaves III)
Vanderbilt (Coach Derek Mason/Ralph Webb/Nigel Bowden/Spencer Pulley)
Tuesday, July 14
9:30 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Steve Shaw, SEC Coordinator of Football Officials
10 a.m. - 1:20 p.m.
South Carolina (Coach Steve Spurrier/Elliott Fry/Pharoh Cooper/Skai Moore)
Texas A&M (Coach Kevin Sumlin/Mike Matthews/Germain Ifedi/Julien Obioha)
2 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Mississippi State (Coach Dan Mullen/Dak Prescott/ Taveze Calhoun/Ryan Brown)
Tennessee (Coach Butch Jones/Joshua Dobbs/Curt Maggitt/Cameron Sutton)
Wednesday, July 15
10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Alabama (Coach Nick Saban/Reggie Ragland/Kenyan Drake/Ryan Kelly)
Kentucky (Coach Mark Stoops/Melvin Lewis/Jordan Swindle/A.J. Stamps)
2 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Missouri (Coach Gary Pinkel/Kenya Dennis/Maty Mauk/Evan Boehm)
Arkansas (Coach Bret Bielema/Jonathan Williams/Brandon Allen/Keon Hatcher)
Thursday, July 16
10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Georgia (Coach Mark Richt/Malcolm Mitchell/John Theus/Jordan Jenkins)
Ole Miss (Coach Hugh Freeze/Evan Engram/Mike Hilton/C.J. Johnson)
LSU (Coach Les Miles/Leonard Fournette/Vadal Alexander/Kendell Beckwith)
The Coverage
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ESPN has set up shop inside the second floor of the Wynfrey adjacent to the main ballroom for each of the last two years. Since the SEC Network launched last August, that coverage will switch to SEC Network, with additional coverage on ESPNU and SportsCenter.
The SEC Network will air wall-to-wall coverage while each team makes the rounds, and The Paul Finebaum Show originating from Hoover and simulcasting on SEC Network after the SEC Now special wraps up.
Here's where you can catch coverage of the event on the SEC Network (all times ET):
Monday, July 13
SEC Now: 2015 SEC Media Days Special 12:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
The Paul Finebaum Show 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Tuesday, July 14
SEC Now: 2015 SEC Media Days Special 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
The Paul Finebaum Show 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Wednesday, July 15
SEC Now: 2015 SEC Media Days Special 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
The Paul Finebaum Show 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Thursday, July 16
SEC Now: 2015 SEC Media Days Special 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
The Paul Finebaum Show 3 p.m. - 7 p.m.
The Questions
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Yes, there will be softballs. Yes, there will be questions that get asked over and over. Yes, there will be an abundance of questions that start with "talk about."
"So many “talk about’s” post game on SEC Network I feel like it’s SEC Media Days.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) November 2, 2014"
As a member of the media who has been to quite a few of these over the last 15 years (I lost count), I ask for your forgiveness and understanding during this trying time.
We don't know what's being asked in other rooms, we don't know what's been asked to players in the main ballroom as we're bouncing around from player to player, and sometimes, "talk about" questions just slip out.
We know "talk about" questions aren't questions and try to avoid them at all costs.
There will also be plenty of softball questions tossed around because some of the over 1,000 members of the media haven't been covering the conference all offseason. They want to know about quarterback battles, how upstart programs are handling expectations and roster holes that are yet to be filled.
Patience. There will be new information mixed in with the old.
The Vote
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One of the most anticipated aspects of SEC media days is the outcome of the vote by credentialed members on the predicted order of finish and the preseason All-SEC team.
You're going to have to wait it out, though.
The predicted order of finish will be announced Thursday, July 16—the final morning of the event. The All-SEC team will be released Friday after everybody has already left Hoover.
What should you take away from the vote? You should approach with caution.
As Tom Fornelli of CBSSports.com noted last year, the media vote had been wrong about the eventual champion 18 of the previous 22 years of voting prior to the 2014 season. That 2014 season, though, was our bounce-back year, as Alabama was picked to win the SEC.
We're on a one-year winning streak!
Alabama Day
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All four days of media days are crazy, but Alabama day is something else.
With Saban and his players making the rounds, the Wynfrey transforms into a combination of a media event, pep rally and mosh pit—especially in the lobby, where fans wait for hours just to get a glimpse of the Crimson Tide contingent walking in the door.
Last year, the fan who flew in from Australia made a name for himself and even made the rounds on radio row during Alabama day.
"I married an Alabama grad," he said, "and she's a little embarrassed by me."
There's the guy with the $300 national title ring hat who shows up every year.
"This guy at SEC Media Days has a killer hat. pic.twitter.com/PsXZgT5GMm
— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) July 18, 2013"
There will undoubtedly be more Crimson Tide fans with interesting stories and unique accessories when Saban and Co. make the rounds Wednesday.
Not Just One Giant Press Conference
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It might seem like media days is a nonstop, 24-hour media frenzy in which the coverage never stops.
Well, not really. There's more than 1,000 of us in attendance, and we have to make time to see our fans, right? (see the picture above)
In reality, SEC media days serves many purposes, one of which is as a college football convention for everybody involved in the sport.
Bowl representatives, College Football Playoff representatives, officiating executives, National Football Foundation representatives and others also make the trip to discuss ideas, changes, plans and other issues associated with the present and future of the sport.
Yes, it may seem excessive when you watch the circus unfold on television. Make no mistake, SEC media days is an integral part of the offseason calendar that plays a part in how the sport is shaped.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports' composite rankings.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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