Latest news with #SoutheasternConference
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
In NCAA streamlining, the big conferences get more power, but not everything they wanted
Major decisions by the NCAA's top decision-making body will need approval from all four major conferences — or help from a smaller conference — to pass under a set of rules approved Tuesday that are designed to streamline the way business is done by the nation's largest overseer of college athletics. The Southeastern Conference had been pushing for it and the other three power conferences to receive a 17% voting share on the newly reshaped Division I Board of Directors, so that if one of the four conferences disagreed with a proposal the others could still band together to pass it with 51% of the vote. But the legislation only increased their voting share to 16.1% each, which gives each conference power to waylay a policy it doesn't like. The D-I board deals with finances, litigation and infractions unrelated to conditions set in the $2.8 billion antitrust settlement that allows schools to pay players as of July 1. Though the NCAA plays virtually no role in overseeing Bowl Subdivision football, which is run by the College Football Playoff, this is the latest in an ongoing push to give the biggest, football-playing schools more autonomy in making decisions across the college landscape. The vote also won't directly impact the future of March Madness, where expansion has been on the docket but won't come this year. Separately, the D-I board introduced a proposal to create three additional 'units' to pay out for the men's and women's basketball tournaments. They would go to the finalists in each tournament. 'Units' are worth around $2 million and are commonly distributed to the conferences of the teams that play. The main business of this week's meetings was to reduce the number of members on the board from 24 to 13 people, with the representatives from the Power Four having a little more than four times the voting power than the rest. If one Power Four member disagreed with the other three, then one of the other nine members could still help a measure pass by voting in favor of it. In May, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the reason he sought more voting power was 'because you can't just have someone walk away at that level among four and everything stops.' The NCAA touted the elimination of about 32% of its Division I committees as a strong signal that a long-running streamlining process was working. It also said athletes will have 40 more seats across 30 committees and will have voting seats on almost all them. Neither Sankey nor the other three Power Four commissioners immediately responded to requests from The Associated Press for comment. In a news release, the NCAA supplied reaction from six college sports leaders, only one of whom — Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, who is chair of the NCAA board — represented a power conference. 'The board's vote to implement this new structure reflects the association's commitment to a modernized approach to governing ourselves moving forward,' Sands said. Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gil, who is chair of the men's basketball committee for the upcoming season, said he applauded the board's work. 'While I recognize that all constituencies did not get everything they desired, it is a good governance framework that will allow all of us to thrive amidst the evolving collegiate athletics landscape,' Gil said. ___ AP college sports:
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
In NCAA streamlining, the big conferences get more power, but not everything they wanted
Major decisions by the NCAA's top decision-making body will need approval from all four major conferences — or help from a smaller conference — to pass under a set of rules approved Tuesday that are designed to streamline the way business is done by the nation's largest overseer of college athletics. The Southeastern Conference had been pushing for it and the other three power conferences to receive a 17% voting share on the newly reshaped Division I Board of Directors, so that if one of the four conferences disagreed with a proposal the others could still band together to pass it with 51% of the vote. But the legislation only increased their voting share to 16.1% each, which gives each conference power to waylay a policy it doesn't like. The D-I board deals with finances, litigation and infractions unrelated to conditions set in the $2.8 billion antitrust settlement that allows schools to pay players as of July 1. Though the NCAA plays virtually no role in overseeing Bowl Subdivision football, which is run by the College Football Playoff, this is the latest in an ongoing push to give the biggest, football-playing schools more autonomy in making decisions across the college landscape. The vote also won't directly impact the future of March Madness, where expansion has been on the docket but won't come this year. Separately, the D-I board introduced a proposal to create three additional 'units' to pay out for the men's and women's basketball tournaments. They would go to the finalists in each tournament. 'Units' are worth around $2 million and are commonly distributed to the conferences of the teams that play. The main business of this week's meetings was to reduce the number of members on the board from 24 to 13 people, with the representatives from the Power Four having a little more than four times the voting power than the rest. If one Power Four member disagreed with the other three, then one of the other nine members could still help a measure pass by voting in favor of it. In May, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the reason he sought more voting power was 'because you can't just have someone walk away at that level among four and everything stops.' The NCAA touted the elimination of about 32% of its Division I committees as a strong signal that a long-running streamlining process was working. It also said athletes will have 40 more seats across 30 committees and will have voting seats on almost all them. Neither Sankey nor the other three Power Four commissioners immediately responded to requests from The Associated Press for comment. In a news release, the NCAA supplied reaction from six college sports leaders, only one of whom — Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, who is chair of the NCAA board — represented a power conference. 'The board's vote to implement this new structure reflects the association's commitment to a modernized approach to governing ourselves moving forward,' Sands said. Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gil, who is chair of the men's basketball committee for the upcoming season, said he applauded the board's work. 'While I recognize that all constituencies did not get everything they desired, it is a good governance framework that will allow all of us to thrive amidst the evolving collegiate athletics landscape,' Gil said. ___ AP college sports:
The Review Geek
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
SEC Football: Any Given Saturday Review – Grit, glory, and chaos
Season 1 Episode Guide Opening Kickoff QB1 Shock the World Turning Point Football Family Bragging Rights Just Win When it comes to college football, no conference stirs up more passion, loyalty, and heated debate than the SEC. Short for the Southeastern Conference, this American football league isn't just a collection of teams — it's a way of life. Across twelve Saturdays, twelve teams battle for a shot at the playoffs, while fiercely loyal, die-hard fans rally their teams on from the side-lines. The pageantry, rivalries, and local pride that elevate these games beyond the field are all shown in their epic glory across these 7 episodes, and Netflix certainly don't hold back. From Alabama's dynastic dominance to the fever-pitch intensity of Auburn vs. LSU, SEC football is nothing short of a religion in parts of the American South. Netflix has been leaning hard into sports content lately, and SEC Football: Any Given Saturday is the latest docuseries to throw its football-shaped hat into the arena, aiming to spotlight what makes this league so compelling. Across the series, Any Given Saturday tracks several teams throughout the 2024 season, documenting their highs and lows while weaving in some of the year's standout moments. If you've seen any of Netflix's other football docs, the format will feel familiar. You get a mix of player interviews, head coach commentary, family insight, and locker room access, allowing you to really get a feel for the culture and who the big players are at each team. This is undoubtedly a tried-and-tested structure, but one that works well here. The show also does a commendable job showcasing the history and stakes of each team, with unique rituals and local traditions set alongside the distinct mindsets and preparation styles each squad brings into game day. On the field, the action is just as captivating. Carefully edited footage and well-timed commentary bring iconic moments from the season back to life. 2024 had a treasure trove of unique moments, including a wild finish between Auburn and Texas A&M. We also get a shocker between Alabama and Vanderbilt, along with a deliciously chaotic final Saturday where some teams fight to salvage their season and others eye the playoffs. For the most part, the pacing is tight, and college football fans will be in their element here, especially reliving all the highs and lows each team faces. Motivational speeches and team talks help to add an extra emotional punch, and these are edited nicely to maximize the rising stakes in just the right way. Any Given Saturday isn't trying to reinvent the sports docuseries genre, and it may not dominate the field on Netflix — but it doesn't need to. This is a compelling, well-produced look at one of the most passionate leagues in American sports. It captures the intensity, heartbreak, and hope that fuels SEC football. And for fans, that'll be more than enough.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley has new goal of Georgia Senate race
As the football coach at Tennessee, it often seemed like Derek Dooley was in the wrong business. Sure, he had the right surname and the right resumé to be a head coach in the Southeastern Conference, thanks mostly to his father Vince, who led Georgia to the national championship in 1980 and whose influence reached across a wide swath of college football. But when it came time to actually do the job, Derek Dooley – with his coiffed side part, fancy law degree and University of Virginia education – often seemed as if he was cosplaying the role, like he would have fit in better as a professor, an attorney or perhaps even future politician. 'Right now we're like the Germans in World War II,' Dooley said in 2010 as he descended into an infamous soliloquy comparing Tennessee's 2-5 record to the confusion of Nazi forces as the Battle of Normandy began with commanding field marshall Erwin Rommel back in Germany visiting his wife. 'Here comes the boats, it's coming, the binoculars like, 'Oh my god, the invasion is coming.' That's what they did. They were in the bunkers. 'It's coming.' They call Rommel. They can't find Rommel. 'What do we do? I'm not doing anything until I get orders. Have you gotten Rommel yet?' And the Americans were the exact opposite.' After that rant, and a few others that went viral for their sheer weirdness, you can understand why a group of young football players didn't respond to him. Dooley was fired after three seasons and a 4-19 SEC record, his legendary incompetence dragging Tennessee's proud program into a cycle of dysfunction that would last nearly a decade. Now he's got a new job that always made a lot more sense: Running for Senate. This is not a column about Dooley's politics, which in fact we know very little about other than he's running as a Republican and has a lifelong friendship with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who encouraged him to get in the race. It is also not a column about the viability of his candidacy, either in a primary field or against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff. That's for voters to decide. We'll see how that all plays out over the next year. And, at least in Georgia, we have a recent example of an actual Bulldogs legend in Herschel Walker losing a statewide race. Dooley, if he's remembered for anything in Georgia, it's as the coach who had 13 men on the field for LSU's final snap from the 1-yard line in 2010, handing the Tigers the one extra chance they needed to win. Out-mangling Les Miles at the end of a game? Now that takes some talent. The point is this: Whereas sports people from Jack Kemp to Tom Osborne to Tommy Tuberville often leverage their athletic or coaching success into political gravitas, it is the fact that Dooley never belonged on a college sideline in the first place that makes his Senate run seem plausible. How bad was it? He was the first Tennessee coach to lose to Kentucky in 27 years. He lost to Vanderbilt by 23 points, the worst margin in that rivalry since 1954. He was the first Tennessee coach to suffer three consecutive losing seasons since 1909-11. And In Dooley's 2012 recruiting class, he didn't sign a single offensive lineman. Not one. For an SEC program, it's unheard of. The Vols paid for that mistake for many years to come. It was one of the most disastrous coaching tenures in SEC history. Yet anyone who has been around or interacted with Dooley understands he's a man of high intelligence, with a heavyweight education to back it up. He speaks in coherent sentences. He knows history, as he demonstrated with the World War II analogy. He even knows a little bit about infectious diseases, as he revealed in another of his greatest hits. 'We have a few staph infections, so we did a clinic yesterday on proper shower technique and soap and using a rag,' he once told the media. 'Y'all think I'm kidding. I'm serious. We have the worst shower discipline of any team I've ever been around, so we talked about application of soap to the rag and making sure you hit all your body. You can neglect it trying to cut corners and it shows in how you practice and elsewhere.' It's a fair point to make. But as with so many of these Dooley tangents that made him the butt of jokes around the SEC, his instinct to show the world he was the smartest guy in the room would have been more useful coaching Tennessee's debate team than its football program. Still, it's hard to say Dooley made the wrong choice when he left a prestigious Atlanta law firm in 1996 to join the family business. As successful as he probably would have been in any other field, Tennessee paid him $5 million just to go away. Dooley never seemed like he belonged in the SEC, but now he's reemerged to test the theory he'll be more adept at a different bare-knuckle sport than the one that takes place on Saturdays in the fall. We'll see soon whether Georgia voters agree or Dooley's home state puts one more L on his resumé.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
Texas takes top spot in USA Today preseason coaches poll, leading nine SEC teams
Texas holds the top spot in the USA Today preseason coaches football poll released on Monday. The Longhorns received 28 of the 67 first-place votes. Defending national champion Ohio State is No. 2 after receiving 20 first-place votes and the Buckeyes are followed by No. 3 Penn State, No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 Notre Dame. Texas leads nine Southeastern Conference teams in the poll. Clemson is the top team from the Atlantic Coast Conference at No. 6, with No. 7 Oregon, No. 8 Alabama, No. 9 LSU and No. 10 Miami (Fla.) following the Tigers. Arizona State is the highest-ranked Big 12 team at No. 11. Boise State, at No. 25, is the only Group of Five team in the poll. The Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll will be released on Aug. 11. __ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: and
