Swampland.com

To Stewart Mandel, We Say, "SEC Coaching Dollars Make Sense"

Chalk SI.com's Stewart Mandel as the latest member of the national media that just doesn’t understand the culture of the SEC football landscape.  Mandel's latest involves griping about the money Southern schools are spending on football coaches. The new Tennessee staff is often cited for throwing a ton of money around, but we here at Tribal Fever would tell the national critics, “Welcome to Big Boy football” fellas.

Stewart Mandel even answers his own criticism of the new Vols staff and others when he writes:

"If Tennessee can afford it, it's hard to argue against the logic behind Hamilton's investment. (Like the rest of the SEC, the school is banking on an expected windfall from the conference's recent $2.25 billion deal with ESPN and $825 million deal with CBS.) The problem is, like anything, there's now going to be an inevitable ripple effect across the rest of the sport.

College football's ever-escalating arms race has been going full speed for more than a decade now. As soon as one school upped the ante (like when LSU gave new coach Saban a $1.2 million salary in 1999, third-highest in the country at that time), others had no choice but to follow suit. The next thing you knew, $1.2 million had become chump change for most BCS-conference schools, with high-end coaches like Saban, Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer and Charlie Weis making close to $4 million a year."

In other words, escalating salaries in high level college football are nothing new. It also works financially.  Facility upgrades, heightened recruiting budgets, and big money for quality coaches have brought success on the field and success in fundraising for universities across our Footprint. Our schools have the passionate fan bases, full stadiums and the TV dollars to spend what it takes to be the best.  The BCS Championship in three straight years for the SEC should be proof enough.

It seems that much of the criticism centers on the increasing money for assistants, but they are the coaches who do the most important job in competing with conference rivals and that is recruiting. Ace recruiters like Ed Orgeron (Tennessee), Rodney Garner (Georgia), John Blake (North Carolina), and Trooper Taylor (Auburn) are getting record sums for their ability to bring top talent to their respective campuses. Obviously scheming, motivating and teaching are very important aspects of coaching and building a program, but at the end of the day, you must have the talent on the field to win Championships.

When you look at the recruiting done by assistants like Orgeron (USC and Ole Miss), Blake (UNC is on the verge of signing a Top 10 class), and Garner (Tennessee in the ‘90s and UGA for most of the last decade), it’s no surprise that they are being well compensated for their efforts. After all, SEC head coaches know that they will not win with any consistency during the season without winning the recruiting battles on Signing Day.

So why all the fuss from Mandel and others?

The typical "national sports voice" likes Yankees and Red Sox, the Patriots/Giants Super Bowl, and Lakers vs. Celtics in the NBA Finals.  They point to TV ratings in their backyard as the only sign of success.  We made the point during last year's bowl season and before the 2008 season that the SEC was quickly becoming the dominant force in college football.

And the results are in - a $3 billion TV deal and a third straight BCS Championship!

Our guess is that Mandel and others are more comfortable with USC, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan.  It's what they know.

Sorry, Stewart - the times have changed.  Get on board the SEC train, learn how to do it yourself and thrive, or get out of the way.  The Tim Tebow-led SEC locomotive is looking to mow some more teams down in 2009!

Patrick Snow
 

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