Q&A with Mike Slive

Mike Slive is presiding over his sixth championship game as commissioner of the SEC.

And while he inherited the battle between East and West Divisions in 2002, he surely understands its significance.

Other conferences, such as the ACC and Big XXII, have followed the SEC's lead when it implemented the NCAA's first conference championship game in 1992.

Here, Slive discusses Saturday's battle between Tennessee and LSU, as well as some concerns fans have with the state of the conference:

Q: What was your first exposure to the SEC Championship game?

A: I can still remember back in 2002, my first year, when I walked into the (Georgia) Dome and saw the crowd - the excitement, the passion and the color, and just the way the dome looked.

It really conveyed the very special attributes of Southeastern Conference football fans and I have been struck by it every since.

… We sell it out in the winter with 98 percent renewal of our public tickets. We have 35,000 people going through the FanFare.

I sort of coined a phrase I stole from our good friends at The Rose Bowl that our championship game, now that there are others, is clearly the granddaddy of them all. It's a special event.

Q: Does Saturday's game lose any luster now that LSU is out of the national title chase?

A: It really doesn't. I think one of the things that I have always appreciated from our coaches and players is you hear all year long talking about getting to Atlanta first and foremost. Winning the SEC Championship is a priority and goal of all of our players and coaches.

What happens after that, happens.

Q: What do you think of head coaches moving from one SEC school to another, such as Houston Nutt from Arkansas to Ole Miss?

A: The issue of moving coaches or employees from one SEC institution is really governed by federal law.

We used to have a provision in our bylaws that said before that could happen, both presidents had to talk.

Our lawyers have advised us that those kinds of rules are violations of anti-trust rules. So whether we think it is a good thing or a bad thing is really irrelevant.

Q: So if you've talked to your lawyers about it, is it fair to say you're not too pleased with such maneuvers?

I think that is fair to say.

Q: Many believe there is a bias against the SEC in terms of voting for the Heisman Trophy. Do you believe that?

A: If you ask me that question after they award the Heisman Trophy this year (on Dec. 8), I might have an answer for you.

Q: Would the SEC ever consider promoting candidates for the Heisman like the Big East has done recently?

A: We have talked about that. We could pick out a lot of players to promote and the question is if we do that: 'Who have we not promoted? Who have we left out?'

I think in the final analysis of trying to be equitable and trying not to judge, the quality of this league is so great that I can think of 12 guys that legitimately could compete for the Heisman whether they got the national publicity or not.

Q: Kentucky was called for a flagrant facemask infraction against UT safety Eric Berry last week. By rule, the penalty wasn't enforced in the next overtime. Is that something that needs to be addressed by the NCAA?

A: We can do that and I am sure we will (address that). The good news is Rogers Redding, who is our (football officials) coordinator, has been selected as the new NCAA rules committee secretary editor so he is now someone who is really involved in not only the administration of the rules but the development of the rules.

He has that on his list and he will be working very closely with the football rules committee, not only on that rule, but on the timeout rule.

How late can you call that timeout (before a play)? Should coaches be able to call a timeout or should players only be allowed to call time out?

Q: Why can't the SEC tell bowls which teams to take, instead of allowing that decision to be dictated by often unpredictable bowl committees?

A: The conference has to be very conscious in making sure we treat all our institutions equitably and not make decisions that are to be viewed by some institutions as being unfair to them.

I think the process, the way we worked it is, the bowls have the selection right but we work closely with them all year to make sure they fully understand our league and who is maybe having a better year in any given year and we fully expect them to respect what our teams have done on the field.

There are some issues, but for the most part we have dealt with those and we have made adjustments that I think as you watch ahead in the next several years will work out very well for our teams.

Slive can be heard today on the News Sentinel Sports Page (10 a.m. to noon) on The Sports Animal.