Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

7/21/2011 at 1:00pm

Image by Southeastern Conference

HOOVER, Ala. — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive would like to revolutionize college athletics. He’s in favor of stricter grade requirements out of high school, more modern recruiting rules, better benefits for athletes and multi-year scholarships instead of grants renewed annually at a school’s discretion.

Potentially, this is groundbreaking stuff. Provided the NCAA and other leagues adopt what Slive outlined, college sports could be impacted significantly in the future.

While the proposal — or agenda as Slive repeatedly called it — was billed as a means of returning the “benefit of the doubt to college athletics,” don’t go thinking this is a kinder, gentler SEC. Much of what has gone on at the league’s annual media days suggests that it is business as usual in the nation’s most powerful football conference.

Change might be coming to the SEC and college football. But make sure you know this: Football remains king in college athletics and the SEC is the unquestioned ruler of college football.

Regardless of the image change Slive and others might be working toward, SEC football is as big, brash and back-breaking as ever.

Consider what the league chose as its 2011 SEC media guide cover. It’s a football jersey printed in the league’s official colors, featuring a white No. 5, trimmed in yellow and positioned on a blue background.

Five, of course, is the number of consecutive BCS titles the SEC has won. In fact, right below the five are the words: HOME OF FIVE CONSECUTIVE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.

Yes, every word is capitalized. And the five is larger and written in yellow to make sure that anybody who sees the media guide realizes how dominant the conference has been.

There are other examples of how the league isn’t exactly changing its stripes right away. Players continue to trumpet the league as the best in college football (as they should).

And while Lane Kiffin’s brash, smack-talking style has found a home in Southern California, there’s plenty of smack talk. Coaches are still leveling digs at each other.

Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen here on Wednesday continued his refusal to mention in-state rival Ole Miss by name. He exuded a confidence and refusal to back down that has gained him fans in Starkville and beyond.

Another sign the revolution isn’t exactly upon us all? Successful and long-tenured coaches are still being questioned about job security.

Georgia Coach Mark Richt — lauded by the commissioner Wednesday for his work with the impoverished in Honduras — still faced questions Thursday about how much longer his tenure with the Bulldogs might be. Keep in mind that Richt hasn’t just been active in the mission field; he’s one of the more successful coaches in the SEC, winning an average of 9.6 games per year with 10 consecutive trips to bowl games as he enters his 11th year in Athens.

Ole Miss’ Houston Nutt is also sure to hear queries about how much longer he’ll be around Oxford. Nutt hasn’t been as successful as Richt, but — as he’ll make sure to tell anybody who will listen — he did get the program to consecutive Cotton Bowls in his first two seasons with the Rebels following 10 years as Arkansas' head coach. Nutt is set to join elite company among SEC coaches if Ole Miss can win three conference games this year. That would put him at 100 league wins while at a league school. Nut is about to enter his 14th season in the conference.

Nutt — get this — is nearing territory occupied by some of the league’s greats. Other coaches with 100 or more victories in the SEC include all-time greats like Bear Bryant (Alabama), Vince Dooley (Georgia), Johnny Majors (Tennessee), Steve Spurrier (South Carolina and Florida) and Shug Jordan (Auburn). Still, Nutt is perceived to be on the hot seat entering his fourth year with the Rebels following a 4-7 season.

Controversy is also alive and well in Hoover. NCAA investigations are ongoing in the league, and there might be more coming if chatter in media circles is to be believed. Auburn isn't out of the woods yet and Coach Gene Chizik — by one media member's count — had nine of 13 questions centered on NCAA trouble.

Coaches on the hot seat? Smack talk? Controversy?

Change might be coming, but for now this remains the SEC you’ve come to love.

Email: cbahn@abpg.com. Also follow Chris on Twitter @cbahn.

Tagged: Southeastern Conference, Auburn Tigers, Arkansas Razorbacks, Bear Bryant, Vince Dooley, Mark Richt, Dan Mullen , Jarius Wright, Bobby Petrino, Mike Slive, Houston Nutt