Is SEC football the 21st Century "New York" Media?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
When we were kids, the New York media was a big deal when it came to sports. I knew this before I could even pick out New York on the map. You heard about it constantly, how certain players couldn't handle the media circus surrounding the teams, how certain managers weren't suited to big city pressures. The New York media was a cliche before I even know what the word cliche meant. Now, in the wake of Lane Kiffin's debut, I think it's time to ask whether SEC football has eclipsed every other league when it comes to media attention. Especially if you combine that with the fan interest in those media reports. It's time to acknowledge that the SEC is the New York sports media of the 21st century. Just as we all knew every moment of intrigue surrounding New York and their sports teams--even if they weren't that important--so too are we all going to know every detail about SEC football.
Lane Kiffin is 33. Love him or hate him, no one can argue that he hasn't been exposed to big-city media before. At USC he was the offensive coordinator for several years, in the NFL he was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. 12.9 million people live in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. That's more people than live in the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas combined. Over twice as many as live in the LA market as dwell in the entire state of Tennessee. Yet in one week of coaching at Tennessee Lane Kiffin has gotten more negative publicity than Pete Carroll has gotten in several years at USC. Why? Because the level of interest and national media attention given to each statement, notwithstanding the relative size of the markets, is much more intense in the SEC.
The Raiders are one of 32 NFL teams. They play in Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, in one of the most fertile regions on earth for media attention. Each week Lane had frequent media availabilities for NFL media from across the country. He played before one of the NFL's most legendary, albeit insane, fan bases in the country. Yet, no one in the country knew that Lane Kiffin's wife Layla was smoking hot. Not one person. That's just a minor example. Two days after his hire at Tennessee Iwoulddolaylakiffin.com was up and running. Prior to the crazy press conference when Al Davis announced he was firing Lane Kiffin, most people had never heard a single quote from Kiffin.
In less than two months at Tennessee, the entire country has heard from Kiffin. You can argue that this is because Kiffin has been saying incendiary things or attempting to garner headlines, but I think that misses the point. Were the comments really that extraordinary? Steve Spurrier made even more incendiary comments last decade. Nope, the SEC media, buoyed by their new multi-billion dollar national television partners at CBS and ESPN, has now become the most closely covered 12 team league in America. And with billions of dollars in television contracts spoken for, the intensity of that coverage is only going to grow.
It used to be that fan interest alone governed the amount of coverage that SEC football received. And that fan interest has often been insatiable. For instance, more fans attended regular season games at Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, Alabama, LSU, and Georgia football game in 2008 than attended any NFL team's games. That's one of many reasons I think there's a real argument to be made that more people care about college football in either Tennessee (population 6 million) and Alabama (population 4.6 million) than in the entire state of California (37 million). Put it this way, in 2005, when Lane Kiffin was offensive coordinator at USC, LenDale White, with Pete Carroll's encouragement, threw a dummy off a building near the practice field in a fake suicide attempt. Most of you never even heard about that. Those who did laughed it off. Can you imagine what would happen if Kiffin did this at Tennessee with Eric Berry, Saban at Alabama with Julio Jones, Meyer at Florida with Tim Tebow?
The market for SEC football is insatiable when it comes to every product. Much to the chagrin of some New York publishers. (When we pitched Dixieland one publisher responded, "But SEC fans don't read." She wasn't even joking.) Look at the 2007 college football books that sold the best, John Ed Bradley on LSU, Bruce Feldman on Ole Miss, and me on SEC football. All SEC books. But that's only serving a market that already exists.
What we're seeing now, and going to continue to see, is a market where not only must interest be sated, the size of the markets have to grow. With nationwide television contracts it isn't enough that every fan in the SEC wants to constantly consume SEC stories, nope, it's imperative that fans across the country be inundated with SEC stories and SEC conflicts. Why? So they're more likely to watch the televised games on ESPN and CBS. ESPN has a built-in conflict of interest, they have to make the games they carry as interesting as they possibly can for an audience of people that didn't grow up obsessed with SEC football.
It used to be a conference argument. No more. SEC football is the default national league.
Don't believe me? Look at it this way, come next season more people will be able to watch the SEC football teams play nationwide than are able to watch an out-of-market NFL team play. Think about it. Say you're a Miami Dolphins fan who lives in California, good luck turning on your television come Sunday and watching your favorite team play. Unless you subscribe to DirecTV (which the vast, vast majority fo the American television public doesn't), you're probably out of luck. Your only real option to watch your team is to pray that they're the national telecast in the 3:15 spot on Sunday afternoons, the national game on NBC in the evening, or the Monday Night Football game. Otherwise you're stuck watching your regional telecast. Not so with the SEC. Unless you're a Dallas Cowboys fan at best, best, you might get three or four games on your regular television all season long.
SEC football under the new television contract? You'll be able to watch every game if your team is one of the top six in the league. 7 or 8 on television even if your team is a bottom-feeder. It's the National Football League, but their telecasts are still regional. It's the Southeastern Conference but their telecasts are now national. You do the math. College football just went national. And we're all going to be hearing a ton more about SEC football.
Lane Kiffin just learned how intense this coverage is going to be last week. I suspect a lot of players and coaches are going to be learning this in the near future. It's a new era in SEC football, for better or worse we're the New York media of the 21st century, y'all. Labels: sec sports media of the 21st century claynation clay travis sec sports rise
Posted by Clay Travis at 3:21 PM
 
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I agree that the 'conference argument' isn't an argument any more. Taking into account year-round fan interest, level of play, all-around athletic talent, league parity, etc. the SEC is it's own entity above the rest of college football. The SEC is a 12-team league that's somewhere between the NFL and 'college football' (meaning all non-SEC conferences).
*so too are we all going to know every detail about SEC football.*
Bullshit, because nobody cares about Vanderbilt football and no amount of media attention will ever change that.
Wait... which university is represented by that sad-looking guy in the lower right hand corner?
The reason Lame Kiffin is getting the headlines is not because he's challenging anyone, it is because the things he says and does are lame, childish an outright stupid. Circle September 19th on your calendar football fans. It will be an ugly day.
Interesting post Clay, just wanted to point out as your other comments seem to be about Vanderbilt Sucks, Tennessee sucks, and Florida Rules. And this is from an Alabama fan.
I guess I'll just say this. I think it's impossible for an SEC fan to judge such a premise. In other words, I don't think your average Pac Ten fan gives a damn about Alabama, LSU or every other SEC team. Other than that, interesting posting (not meant as a backhanded compliment at all, I swear).
"Now, in the wake of Lane Kiffin's debut, I think it's time to ask whether SEC football has eclipsed every other league when it comes to media attention."
Every other football conference, yes, but every other league? While the SEC is moving from a regional power to a national level, it is still fairly regional. People in the south or from the south obviously take the SEC very seriously, and it has a sizable group of hardcore fans.
Outside of the south, however, Kiffin's antics barely registered in newspapers, and was either a low home page story or required clicking through to the college football section on sports web sites. Comparing the level of national media attention between Carroll/White and Lane Kiffin, from my south of the Mason-Dixon, but not south enough, perspective, it has been equal.
Also, while I follow college football pretty regularly, I'd have no idea who Layla Kiffin was if not for this web site. If I walked up to random people on the street here asked them to rate Layla Kiffin, I expect few would know who she is.
So, I think your perspective of media attention is a bit biased from living in the south. Outside the south, I don't think the SEC has yet to really catch on as worthy of major media attention.
"So, I think your perspective of media attention is a bit biased from living in the south. Outside the south, I don't think the SEC has yet to really catch on as worthy of major media attention."
ESPN thinks it has.
10:19: I perhaps concluded too broadly. I concede there is a major media attention, but disagree with Clay's assertion that it has eclipsed every other league in media attention.
While I view ESPN as a poor measuring stick because it pumps up its own properties (see the NHL), ESPN does not cover the SEC more than it covers the NFL, the NBA, or MLB. In the south, I'm sure there are TV and newspapers that cover the SEC just as much or more than those leagues. Outside the south, nobody does.
That's a good point Chris VB, but look how often you cited newspapers. I should have included an additional point, namely that the "New York media" cliche was, I think, driven to a large degree by the numbers of newspapers that would cover New York teams.
Newspapers were important and they all had their own beat writers, national columnists, and the like. But now the media landscape has shifted.
Stories that were once regional, at best, are now national. ESPN drives that. They led with Kiffin for several days.
A good study would be to study ESPN and see where their stories come from. For instance, which team gets the most coverage by them. My guess? The Cowboys.
But do, say, the Florida Gators or Georgia Bulldogs, get more air-time than the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Carolina Panthers. I think maybe so.
Anyway, my main point is that it's changed. Seismically chanced. And I think the attention paid to Kiffin's comments are indicative of what we'll see in the future.
Maybe not all 12 SEC teams, but since Bama, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee are good and crazy, the rest of the league is too (Spurrier, Aubie coaching search). That's 7 teams right there, not even counting the crazy at Arkansas and Ole Miss. That's what makes us a national league.
I think you guys are missing C'lay's point; the New York teams in the 70's and 80's were insane. The SEC of the 2000's is insane too. They will be helped along by ESPN and CBS, but don't forget major media markets in Atlanta (8th largest), Tampa (13), Miami-Ft. Laudy (16), Orlando (19), and Nashville (29). Not to mention cities outside the range of the SEC who pick up SEC sports; Washington DC, Charlotte, Cincy and Dallas. The SEC's sphere of influence is growing to epic proportions, unlike any other league. Pac-10 and Big 10 fans may say they don't pay attention, but I guarantee they start looking over their shoulders at UF and LSU in August.
MLM makes a good point. The other thing worth examining is the growth rate in the SEC footprint.
How much of the SEC's growth is helped by the rest of the country moving South? To get money like ESPN and CBS forked over, demographics have to favor you long-term.
Just to reiterate too, I really believe that we're going to see SEC coverage unlike anything we've ever seen before come this fall when ESPN rolls out their television coverage of the league. If anything backlash is the biggest concern.
Most people in Pac-10 country probably don't care about SEC football. I will guarantee there are more SEC fans in PAC-10 markets than there are PAC-10 fans in SEC country.
The military took me all over the world and I ran into more SEC and specifically Alabama fans than anything else by far.
As a Pac-10 fan living in the Northwest, I enjoy watching SEC football because it is highly competative and entertaining. However, since my allegiance is with the Pac-10, I follow it closer than the SEC even though the SEC gets more attention. I think the SEC is getting more attention now because it has the best talent. A lot of that may be due to the overall increase of the South in terms of population.
dont forget espn's contract calls for almost every sec basketball game (in conference) to be on national tv as well.