Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC: Will Atlanta lose the SEC Championship Game?

[Born 2 Roll]

SEC revenues close in on NCAA revenue levels

If money is power in college sports, then the Southeastern Conference was making its case for intercollegiate supremacy long before its recent poaching of Texas and Oklahoma.

The Birmingham, Ala.-based nonprofit has, over the last 15 years, steadily closed the annual revenue gap with the Indianapolis-headquartered NCAA. In the early 2000s, the SEC earned roughly a quarter of what the NCAA brought in, but in recent years the conference has pocketed almost two-thirds of NCAA revenue totals.

For the tax year between July 2018 and August 2019, the SEC generated $720 million, compared with the $1.12 billion in revenue claimed by the NCAA. The trend line has long suggested that the SEC would eventually overtake the NCAA (and the Big Ten) as the biggest-earning college sports organization in America.

SEC REVENUE CLOSES IN ON NCAA THANKS TO TV, OVERHEAD (Sportico)

[cparker73]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

SEC revenues close in on NCAA revenue levels



SEC REVENUE CLOSES IN ON NCAA THANKS TO TV, OVERHEAD (Sportico)

That is absolutely crazy. And to think, they didn't feel like they owed the athletes anything beyond a token degree they barely had time to study for because of the demands of training, travel and playing.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by cparker73

That is absolutely crazy. And to think, they didn't feel like they owed the athletes anything beyond a token degree they barely had time to study for because of the demands of training, travel and playing.

Many of them do not get token degrees.

And all of them have a huge academic support group-note takers, tutors, counselors.

[cparker73]

Originally Posted by bu2

Many of them do not get token degrees.

And all of them have a huge academic support group-note takers, tutors, counselors.

Maybe things have gotten better, but I had a front-row seat to this "support" system in the 90s as a tutor. Let's just say they weren't getting help with differential equations, and that it was more like remedial high school Algebra. That's not to say they weren't smart guys, but they often came from school systems that didn't do right by them, so they had to focus on being athletic in order to find a way out or a way in depending on how you want to look at their situation.

I think the graduation rate was around 50-60% back in the 90s, but I read somewhere it's closer to 80% now. Part of that may be from improvements made in academic support and better recruiting practices to identify good students, but I've also seen evidence that sports like basketball and baseball have become so expensive with all the camps and travel leagues that start in middle school that the only kids who get to Division 1 level tend to already be middle- and upper-middle class with all the educational advantages that means.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by cparker73

Maybe things have gotten better, but I had a front-row seat to this "support" system in the 90s as a tutor. Let's just say they weren't getting help with differential equations, and that it was more like remedial high school Algebra. That's not to say they weren't smart guys, but they often came from school systems that didn't do right by them, so they had to focus on being athletic in order to find a way out or a way in depending on how you want to look at their situation.

I think the graduation rate was around 50-60% back in the 90s, but I read somewhere it's closer to 80% now. Part of that may be from improvements made in academic support and better recruiting practices to identify good students, but I've also seen evidence that sports like basketball and baseball have become so expensive with all the camps and travel leagues that start in middle school that the only kids who get to Division 1 level tend to already be middle- and upper-middle class with all the educational advantages that means.

In the late 90s to early 2000s they eliminated the "partial qualifiers." People who were totally not ready were eliminated, either because they could not get scholarships at NCAA schools or because their schools were forced to prepare them better. Nebraska's great 1995 team had something like 23 partial qualifiers. They were limited to 2 when they joined the Big 12. SEC adopted a similar rule. Then the NCAA effectively eliminated them.

[Beretta]

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