Scarblog: R.I.P. Mike Slive

[jbcarol]

https://articles.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2018/05/rest_in_peace_mike_slive_a_gre.amp

[jbcarol]

How Mike Slive made the SEC the supreme league

During the next 14 years before he retired in 2015, he transformed the SEC into a sports powerhouse, carrying it to the mountaintop of college athletics by increasing its exposure and filling its coffers with the kind of financial windfall no one could have foreseen.

During his tenure, annual revenue grew from $96 million to $455.8 million and the conference formed a lucrative partnership with ESPN that led to the creation of the SEC Network. There was also expansion as the arrival of Texas A&M and Missouri stretched the footprint of the league beyond this region and into bigger markets outside the South. The success on the balance sheet was only surpassed by the SEC's dominance in the most-watched sport of all -- football. Slive, who succeeded Roy Kramer, presided during a time when conference teams won seven consecutive BCS championships.

"From a Biblical standpoint I want to compare him to Abraham because he was the father of many nations," said Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl. "His job was leading the SEC and all those tribes and leading them so very well. Mike's a mensch."