Adams: Sexton is go-to guy for top SEC coaches

This just in: The SEC has expanded to three divisions.

It did so without fanfare.

No committee was formed. No vote was taken. No press conference was called.

It's not official, but it's as real as the contracts drawn up by agent Jimmy Sexton. If you don't think the SEC has three divisions, you haven't seen Sexton's client list.

The list includes Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville and Arkansas coach Houston Nutt.

You think the SEC East is strong? The Sexton Division includes two national championship coaches and another coach coming off a 13-0 season.

You think the Sexton Division is strong now? Imagine if former LSU coach Nick Saban, another Sexton client, had stuck around?

As the Miami Dolphins coach, Saban is one of five NFL coaches who are represented by Sexton's firm of Athletic Resource Management. Sexton also has 55 NFL players as clients, and his college coaches outside the SEC include Tommy West at Memphis, Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech, Larry Coker at Miami and Chuck Amato at North Carolina State.

His client base keeps expanding to different leagues and coasts, but he's still a Tennessee guy at heart.

He was a football student manager at the University of Tennessee, where he graduated in 1986. He has a skybox in Neyland Stadium and attends most of the Vols' home games. His home is in Memphis, and his beach home isn't far from the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort, where the SEC spring meetings are taking place this week.

This is a pleasure trip for Sexton. He earned it last winter when he negotiated Saban's deal with the Dolphins during the Christmas holidays. But hooking up with Fulmer in the last 10 days of 2004 was also important to Sexton.

"I always wanted to represent Phillip, because I had a ton of respect for what he did with the program," Sexton said. "To me, he did the hardest thing you have to do with a program. He took a really good program and took it to the next level.

"Just in the short time I've worked with Coach Fulmer, I've been impressed. He misses no details. Whenever we would sit down and talk, he would have everything in his head. He was on top of everything."

Fulmer, who will make $2,050,000 this season, is one of the top five paid coaches in college football. So is Tuberville, who will make $2 million this season as part of a long-term contract that calls for annual raises of $200,000, plus incentives that could put him over $3 million in any given year.

Saban remains Sexton's poster coach. His initial deal of $1.2 million a year was the most lucrative contract ever signed by an LSU coach. Four years and one national championship later, Saban doubled his annual salary and became the highest-paid coach in college football. A year later, he more than doubled his salary again when he joined the Dolphins.

No wonder coaches are knocking on Sexton's door.

"Frank Beamer just hired us," Sexton said. "One of the reasons he hired us was to help him (in comparison shopping).

"It's one thing to say, 'I think (a coach) is making (so much money).' It's another thing to say, 'I know what he's making. I negotiated the deal.' ''

And every time Sexton negotiates a deal as lucrative as Saban's or adds a new client as successful as Spurrier or Fulmer, he becomes more appealing to the next coach in search of a big payday.

Sexton's roster includes prospects as well as established coaches. He said he had a list of about 20 assistant coaches who he thinks might become head coaches.

So let the SEC East and West stand pat. The Sexton Division still has room for expansion.