HOOVER, Ala. — Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive finished the things he does best to open SEC media days.
He left the main ballroom at The Hyatt Regency Birmingham to answer more questions from a swarm of reporters and did a TV hit with Joe Tessitore on ESPN’s set.
But after those things are done, he stops to give what may be the clearest image of the heart inside the man with one of the most influential jobs in intercollegiate athletics.
Slive gave a winding address that included Nelson Mandela, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill on Monday. As far as college sports are concerned, perhaps he sees himself as an amalgamation of the three.
He has a quiet and peaceful tone, like that of Mandela, as he advanced gracefully through old age. But he is every bit the leader Churchill was with his bulldog-like approach to autonomy for the “power-five” conferences and unabashed plea to the NCAA to enact governance reform now.
Perhaps his foreboding look at would happen if the “power-five” don’t get what they want is a bit like Eisenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex. It was the last speech Eisenhower gave as president, and Slive’s in the twilight of his career as well at age 73.
“As I have said before,” Slive said, “if we do not achieve a positive outcome under the existing big tent of Division I, we will need to consider the establishment of a venue with similar conferences and institutions where we can enact the desired changes in the best interests of our student‑athletes.”
He reached into what he affectionately calls the “brag bag,” a yearly chest puff devoted to the hardware and accolades the conference he presides over has earned in the last year. It includes a trip to the national championship game for Auburn that was “a minute too long,” a gymnastics national championship for Florida as well as softball and baseball national titles for the conference’s trophy case thanks to the UF and Vanderbilt, respectively.
The brag bag also included a generous nod to the conference’s passionate fanbase, but his most specific moment of praise came in the form of patting former Gator center Patric Young on the back, touting him as the model student-athlete.
“(Young) led the Gators to the 2014 SEC men’s basketball tournament title and the NCAA Final Four,” Slive said.
“Was named the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year twice. Was named the SEC male winner of the Brad Davis Community Service Award. Then he traveled to Africa where he encouraged children to focus on exercise and healthy lifestyle. While doing all of that, Patric maintained a 3.4 grade point average.”
He went further than that, saying athletes like Young inspire him to “protect intercollegiate athletics, to keep it healthy, vibrant and an integral part of higher education.”
His dogged pursuit of NCAA reform is to provide a future for those like Young who will come after.
“The world of intercollegiate athletics is full of potential,” Slive said. “I am certain that our efforts today will ensure its future for tomorrow.”
The fact is, Slive wouldn’t have the pull that he does or the hubris to call out the governing body of intercollegiate athletics if the conference wasn’t this successful.
If the brag bag wasn’t so deep and the flow of money so unceasing, the platform for Slive to do what he does and say what he says wouldn’t be there.
His conference is at the forefront nationally in spending on the nation’s most popular sport and is creating a television network that, while not the first of its kind will become a media behemoth that will line the SEC’s pockets with cash for decades thanks to a marriage with ESPN.
“We’re talking about football, and it’s football season. Football is just one of the sports the network will cover (on SEC Network),” Slive said. “In our first year alone we will carry more than 100 men’s basketball games, 60 women’s basketball games, 75 baseball games, and 50 softball games.”
He walks through the ballroom level of The Hyatt Regency Birmingham on his way out to do more interviews and tout the empire he has maintained over the last 12 years. A red-haired infant barely knee-high to Slive is taking sheepish steps. It’s his granddaughter Abigail, and Slive stops to say hi, an endearing moment of humanity on Monday that doesn’t involve reform or money.
A man behind Slive asks quietly “if he’s the most powerful man in college sports, does that make her the most powerful granddaughter?” An astute observation as college sports’ Mandela/Eisenhower/Churchill hybrid walks away.
Maybe one day Abigail will understand how grandpa pulls the strings of the college football universe — maybe she’ll even be the one holding the brag bag.
Southeastern Conference (SEC) Commissioner Mike Slive speaks during SEC media days on Monday in Hoover, Ala.
