HOOVER, Ala. — SEC Football Media Days could be going to Atlanta.
Or to Dallas. Or to Nashville, Tenn. Or the event could stay here in the Birmingham area, where it has been held every year since 1985.
The league is shopping around its highest-profile media event, conference officials confirmed Wednesday. Where it lands should be determined in the coming weeks or months.
“We’re looking around,” said SEC spokesman Herb Vincent. “We’re considering a lot of different places. We don’t know yet where it’s going. It could stay here.”
Contracts for Media Days are “year to year,” Vincent said.
The SEC recently shopped its baseball tournament, which annually is played just down the street from The Wynfrey Hotel, where these football meetings are being held. The tournament ended up remaining at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Atlanta, because of its hotel availability and easy airport access, remains one of the favorites among the 1,000-plus media members who attend every year. So is New Orleans, but there are some internal reservations about that.
“We might not have good participation with our morning sessions,” Vincent quipped.
I can’t imagine there’s much support for most of the league’s media members having to fly to Dallas. Nashville is a great city with lots to do and is right in the middle of the SEC’s geographic footprint, so I could see that. The hotel prices there have come to rival New York City, however.
I’ve always felt SEC Media Days should be held in Atlanta. It’s the epicenter of college football, what with the College Football Hall of Fame being there. And the conference championship game is hosted by the city every December.
It makes sense that the SEC football season would start and end in Atlanta. But that’s just my thinking.