Posted by student TODD MOORE – Southeastern Conference (SEC) Commissioner Mike Slive knows success. He discussed the delicate balance between business and athletics at the Clinton School today.
Since becoming the SEC commissioner in 2002, Slive has overseen arguably the most successful run in conference history. Slive has seen the SEC lead all BCS conferences with six football and basketball national titles, more than 40 total national championships and reach an unprecedented new mulit-million dollar deal with CBS and ESPN to televise SEC sports.
Managing lucrative relationships while maintaining the balance between commercialism, athletics and academics in today’s intercollegiate climate is challenging, Slive said.
“Nowhere in the world is athletics meshed in the university experience more than in the U.S.,” Slive said.
The SEC’s 15-year television package with ESPN is the most comprehensive in the history of intercollegiate athletics. ESPN will televise over 366 events per year over the next 15 years becoming the most widely distributed conference in the country.
“Every single SEC football game will be television,” Slive said.
Slive also highlighted the academic programs developed over his tenure such as the SEC Academic Consortium and the Task Force on Compliance and Enforcement.
Housed at the University of Arkansas, the Academic Consortium is a voluntary consortium of the SEC universities to advance academic successes throughout the conference by pooling resources and creating new ideas through a collaborative approach.
“[The Academic Consortium] works to develop programs that tie together all 12 of our institutions in academic and faculty matters,” Slive said. “It is an exciting way to create relationships between our universities.”
Part of ESPN’s commitment to SEC academic programs will be the production of an annual Campus Connection telecast at each SEC institution, in which students take part in the production.
The programs will feature telecasts of two programs annually dedicated to the academic accomplishments of SEC student-athletes, a weekly academic feature segment on ESPNU’s SEC show;and selection of one undergraduate student from every SEC institution to participate in ESPN’s summer internship program.
With innovative academic programs and powerful intercollegiate athletics, Slive is proving that the two can mix.
Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive speaks at the Clinton School.
Responses