5 reasons why the SEC is so dominant

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December 30, 2013

The fine folks over at Bloomberg Businessweek decided they wanted to get to the bottom of why the SEC dominates college football.

“Pinning down the source of the SEC’s greatness is a chicken-and-egg problem,” Bussinessweek’s Ira Boudway explained. “The SEC wins because its schools have big sports budgets. Its schools have big sports budgets because they win. And round and round we go. The search for a first cause often ends in mythology. It’s a Southern pride thing! Nick Saban sold his soul to the devil!”

After dispatching of the myths and combing through the treasure trove of research found in Ray Glier’s book, How the SEC Became Goliath, Businessweek produced the 6 charts found below to illustrate their findings.

1. The SEC has the most fans

Businessweek believes “The SEC’s virtuous cycle begins with demand.” The SEC just plain puts more butts in seats and more eyeballs on TV screens than any other conference in America. The enormous amount of cash that flows in from ticket sales, licensing and — more than anything — the sale of media rights, is what makes everything to come on this list possible.

2. The SEC has the best coaches

The average coach in the SEC makes way more than the average coach in any other conference, allowing SEC schools to recruit and retain the most talented coaches in the college ranks.

3. The SEC has the best facilities

When athletic facilities, equipment and everything else is all added up, the SEC spends over $160,000 per athlete every year. The next closest conference, the Big 12, only spends just over $130,000 per athlete. 10 of the top 25 top revenue generating athletic departments in the country (per undergraduate) are in the SEC.

4. SEC schools have the best in-state talent

Businessweek found that “the Southeast is by far the most fertile territory in the United States for finding and grooming NFL players.” Here are “the top 14 states (plus Washington D.C.) by number of first- and second-round NFL draft picks since 2000, per million residents.”

5. The SEC beats everyone else up

…Like, literally.

It doesn’t just look like SEC schools are bigger, faster and stronger than schools from other conferences, the data says they really are. “It is big people beating up little people,” Glier quipped in How the SEC Became Goliath. Three of the top 5 five rosters in college football by the average weight of their players are SEC schools.