Biggest Change from SEC Meetings Might Not Come on Football Side

Basketball idea that has been pitched several times before gaining steam, might have found right environment

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
May 30, 2023 2:01 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – So many people are expecting big changes to come out of the SEC meetings down in Florida. However, while all the hype is surrounding how many SEC teams will show up on the football schedule, perhaps the most impactful development could come out of basketball.

For years Kentucky coach John Calipari has made a pitch for a summer basketball exhibition season only to have it fall on deaf ears. However, not only does his idea seem to have found the right environment to generate legitimate conversation, Calipari appears to have found a high profile partner to help make the push in Arkansas coach Eric Musselman.

In an interview with 103.7 the Buzz's Trey Schapp from Florida Tuesday morning, Musselman indicated he is very much in favor of putting together a summer exhibition season. He even said he had teams in mind the Razorbacks would play, but declined to say specifically which that would be.

The biggest carrot involved here is the chance to create a win-win-win for the school, networks and the players. It seems like every other week ESPN has to announce that it's cutting even more staff because there's a need to bring in more revenue. One of big reason is because of the summer months. The College World Series brings in a little bit of money, but from late June through early August, there's a black hole of programming, especially for a these conference specific branches of ESPN like the SEC Network or the ACC Network.

Playing five or six weeks of exhibition games lets coaches get a better feel for what they've got, which is especially important in the NIL era. It's easy to understand why Musselman, who has developed a habit of needing to build chemistry between 9-10 strangers each season, would find benefit to playing these games. It's why he took the Razorbacks to Europe last season.

By giving ESPN more programming, SEC basketball teams get more money. This doesn't just come from television rights. It also trickles back to the team in the form of ticket and merchandise sales. That also opens up the players to more NIL opportunities and a chance to lure families looking for something unique to do inside on the hottest days of summer.

Another unseen benefit is additional tape for players who might not be on the team the following year who struggle to get playing time when the games count. For instance, coming into the regular season, there was a lot of talk about everything Barry Dunning had shown in the preseason. However, one of the first worries he had when the transfer portal came calling was he didn't know how he was going to find a new home with a quality program with no video for teams to evaluate. Had there been televised exhibition games, his offers would have likely been more prominent.

The group that should want it the most is the football coaches. It provides another subject to talk about among the fans and media instead of the extreme over analyzation of the football programs that takes place over the summer. If there's an Alabama basketball game against Kansas coming up on a weekend in June to kick off the summer exhibition season, a sentence Nick Saban says off the cuff isn't getting picked apart quite as much and talked about for hours on end on the SEC Network for a week and a half because there's nothing else to cover. The news cycle gets shortened significantly.

The players already have summer games buried into their DNA from years of AAU when they arrive on campus. When they leave college the first thing they do is go to the NBA summer league. Not playing in the summer during college is unnatural to them.

It's time for the SEC to do the natural thing – chase the money. It will make fans happy. It appears to be something coaches want. It will fill a hole both in the soul and pockets of players. More importantly for the long term, it may go a long way in saving the golden goose – ESPN. If the SEC wants to get another huge contract from the self proclaimed world wide leader, providing a new, innovative asset during a dead period is the best way to make that happen.