There were plenty of coaches and athletic directors who had a lot to say at the SEC Spring Meetings on Wednesday.
Here are the most important things you need to know:
1. I asked Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte about having a kickoff time at 2:30 p.m. against Colorado State. Clearly, Del Conte does not create the kickoff times. However, I asked him what could be done to help the Longhorn fans who must endure that heat.
“Well, we worried about 11 o'clock games, and then we go to 2:30. I would prefer all night games. But you look at Alabama played a game last year 11 o'clock at their place. Everyone has a steady diet. There's two channels for a bunch of conferences to play their games. Michigan's playing at noon against us. It's going to be hot up there too. Now, we'll have all the water stations and all the towels and everything you need. I'm not a big fan of that time as well. But at the end of the day, in the Southeastern Conference, you have games at noon, you have games at 2:30, you have your game at 7. We're going to get our daily pick of one of those time zones. I would prefer to flip it and have late games in the fall and earlier games in November, but we don't have our druthers. I wish I could say I did that. But I have no juice on that.”
2. In addition, I asked Del Conte what he thought the future of collectives might look like.
“I think at the end of the day, I understood the reason why they came about. I think the reality is with what the future looks like, I would prefer that everything is brought in house. Because the sad thing is we've created a market [and] we don't understand what the market is. Now the collectives are outside of my realm. I don't know what's going on half the time. We're looking at an educational model. We're tethered to this. We're saying, hey, where's revenue? How do we how do we settle these court cases? So eventually, I would like for them all to be folded in-house. It'd be the best thing for me, and the best thing is the University of Texas, I firmly believe.”
3. Del Conte on moving the Texas vs. Texas A&M from Friday to Thanksgiving Day: “I would love that to happen sooner than later. But I think at the end of the day, you’re starting to navigate is it an eight-game schedule or a nine-game schedule. For me at the University of Texas, I prefer a nine-game schedule because we have a neutral site game. I would like to have four home games and four away games and then play the Red River game. But when you have eight, you have an imbalanced home schedule. You have three one year for the next so it's just. This year we're very fortunate for four games, OU has three. If you have a nine-game schedule, it allows that. And yes, I would like the game to be played on Thanksgiving but it used to be the Cowboys and us. Now they have three NFL games. So maybe it's Friday, right? But as long as we're playing, strap it on.”
4. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne shared a reality that will become a talking point in the future. The NCAA and Power Five conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC) have agreed to a settlement in the House v. NCAA case, and reports have state the parties have to $2.8 billion in damages to former college athletes and 22% of the average Power 5 school’s revenues. That amount is estimated at more than $20 million.
Byrne said he believes that will amount to $21 million per school. That means there is a chance that athletic departments will need to cut spending and potentially reduce their workforce.
When asked if there will need to be a reduction in expenses, Byrne said, “We're going have to figure out how to pay for the new line item in our budget.”
In addition, Byrne said eliminating sports to reduce expenses is his last option.
Del Conte said, “We made really tough changes when I got here too. I mean, we went through COVID, civil unrest, we laid off 45 to 50 people, we had furlough. I get it. We have to constantly look. I think part of this is just the new age and how we just do business.”
5. Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer said Rori Harmon is about five months away from being at 100 percent. However, Schaefer wants Harmon to participate in multiple practices to make sure her body can stand up to the wear and tear of regular season games.
Here are the most important things you need to know:
1. I asked Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte about having a kickoff time at 2:30 p.m. against Colorado State. Clearly, Del Conte does not create the kickoff times. However, I asked him what could be done to help the Longhorn fans who must endure that heat.
“Well, we worried about 11 o'clock games, and then we go to 2:30. I would prefer all night games. But you look at Alabama played a game last year 11 o'clock at their place. Everyone has a steady diet. There's two channels for a bunch of conferences to play their games. Michigan's playing at noon against us. It's going to be hot up there too. Now, we'll have all the water stations and all the towels and everything you need. I'm not a big fan of that time as well. But at the end of the day, in the Southeastern Conference, you have games at noon, you have games at 2:30, you have your game at 7. We're going to get our daily pick of one of those time zones. I would prefer to flip it and have late games in the fall and earlier games in November, but we don't have our druthers. I wish I could say I did that. But I have no juice on that.”
2. In addition, I asked Del Conte what he thought the future of collectives might look like.
“I think at the end of the day, I understood the reason why they came about. I think the reality is with what the future looks like, I would prefer that everything is brought in house. Because the sad thing is we've created a market [and] we don't understand what the market is. Now the collectives are outside of my realm. I don't know what's going on half the time. We're looking at an educational model. We're tethered to this. We're saying, hey, where's revenue? How do we how do we settle these court cases? So eventually, I would like for them all to be folded in-house. It'd be the best thing for me, and the best thing is the University of Texas, I firmly believe.”
3. Del Conte on moving the Texas vs. Texas A&M from Friday to Thanksgiving Day: “I would love that to happen sooner than later. But I think at the end of the day, you’re starting to navigate is it an eight-game schedule or a nine-game schedule. For me at the University of Texas, I prefer a nine-game schedule because we have a neutral site game. I would like to have four home games and four away games and then play the Red River game. But when you have eight, you have an imbalanced home schedule. You have three one year for the next so it's just. This year we're very fortunate for four games, OU has three. If you have a nine-game schedule, it allows that. And yes, I would like the game to be played on Thanksgiving but it used to be the Cowboys and us. Now they have three NFL games. So maybe it's Friday, right? But as long as we're playing, strap it on.”
4. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne shared a reality that will become a talking point in the future. The NCAA and Power Five conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC) have agreed to a settlement in the House v. NCAA case, and reports have state the parties have to $2.8 billion in damages to former college athletes and 22% of the average Power 5 school’s revenues. That amount is estimated at more than $20 million.
Byrne said he believes that will amount to $21 million per school. That means there is a chance that athletic departments will need to cut spending and potentially reduce their workforce.
When asked if there will need to be a reduction in expenses, Byrne said, “We're going have to figure out how to pay for the new line item in our budget.”
In addition, Byrne said eliminating sports to reduce expenses is his last option.
Del Conte said, “We made really tough changes when I got here too. I mean, we went through COVID, civil unrest, we laid off 45 to 50 people, we had furlough. I get it. We have to constantly look. I think part of this is just the new age and how we just do business.”
5. Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer said Rori Harmon is about five months away from being at 100 percent. However, Schaefer wants Harmon to participate in multiple practices to make sure her body can stand up to the wear and tear of regular season games.
