SEC Media Days is the unofficial official start to the college football season every July and it’s been a tradition for hordes of national and local media to descend upon Birmingham, Ala. every year to hear coaches share tidbits about their team and see what players have been up to during the offseason. While the event has expanded in terms of days -- to almost a full week -- and the number of people attending, one thing you could always count on was it being at the Hyatt Regency Wynfrey Hotel in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover.
That run however, could be coming to an end.
Conference officials told the Baton Rouge Advocate that they are considering relocation the annual kickoff event, with commissioner Greg Sankey telling the paper that Nashville, Dallas and Atlanta are all “pretty good” potential new spots.
“We’ve got a great tradition here in Hoover. As our footprint has expanded, it’s appropriate to look at options,” Sankey said. “I said back in April that’s on my mind. I don’t have a prediction of when or where, but I think at some point mobility can be a healthy thing for this particular endeavor.”
Though the league office is located in Birmingham, a move elsewhere for media days has been something rumored for several years and has picked up steam with the not-so-new additions of Texas A&M and Missouri. Based on those comments from the commish, it appears the SEC is finally starting to explore those options beyond just the customary check-in.
Atlanta probably makes the most sense in many ways given that it’s the spiritual home of the league as the host of the conference title game and offers plenty of easy travel connections to just about anywhere in the region. The fairly new College Football Hall of Fame would certainly be a potential site to host the gathering and the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium could also be an option. Nashville is a fun area that has plenty of expertise from when it hosts the SEC basketball media days later in the fall.
But if you’re looking for the most intriguing option, that would be Dallas. The headline for this piece probably already perked up the ears of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, an Arkansas grad who has done his best to bring plenty of college football events to the metroplex in recent years. He is hosting the Big 12’s media days at his massive new ‘The Star’ complex in nearby Frisco, Texas already this month and would almost assuredly make room next year for his favorite league if asked. Things might be a little awkward with the Big 12 and a few fans in burnt orange but that would probably be left to Sankey and fellow commissioner Bob Bowlsby to sort out.
The Advocate notes that the 2018 site has not been determined and a return to Hoover and the Wynfrey remains on the table with the SEC’s deal with the hotel renewed on a yearly basis. Still, the fact that league officials are discussing the possibility of hitting the road for media days is quite the bat signal to the three cities mentioned and numerous others.