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DESTIN, Fla. — SEC presidents and athletic directors threw up an unexpected goal line stand Friday on the final day of annual spring business meetings, rejecting a proposal by the league’s football coaches for an early signing period.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive said the presidents and athletic directors discussed and voted separately on the proposal, and the vote “was overwhelmingly against” the legislation that coaches hoped the conference would sponsor as national legislation.

The proposal, which was passed by the football coaches 9-3 on Wednesday, called for an annual one-day-only early signing period for high school prospects. Recruits who haven’t taken an official visit to a school, yet who have committed to that school, would be eligible to sign national letters-of-intent on the Monday before Dec. 1.

“I think the theory ran counter to what our presidents and athletic directors felt about our kids getting to know the campus and getting to know people before you sign up,” Slive said.

Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley absolutely agreed with the rejection.

“When a kid is making a decision of that magnitude for the next four years, without taking an official visit, it’s risky,” Foley said. “Even if a kid has been on campus on an unofficial visit and understands what a school is all about, official visits are different than unofficial visits, in terms of sitting down with teachers and getting parents involved.

“The system we have now is not perfect, but there are better ways to do it.”

Foley pointed a problem with an early signing date.

“You can have a kid sign on that early date in late November, then have a head coach who leaves and you have a new coaching staff in December. A few years ago (in 2004), Nick Saban left in January (LSU to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins) and this past year Houston Nutt left (Arkansas for Ole Miss) in December.”

The other focal point of discussion the last two days of the four-day meeting was the renewal of the league’s TV contracts that expire at the end of the 2008-09 academic year.

Slive said that negotiations for the league’s new TV contracts will turn serious in the coming weeks. The SEC is seeking a 10-year contract with its various TV partners.

Slive said after the league athletic directors meet in August, the league should know whether it will start its own TV channel in August 2009. Currently, the Big Ten and the Mountain West are the only leagues with their own TV channels.

“Clearly, distribution is the problem the Big Ten and Mountain West networks, as well as the NFL network, has encountered,” Slive said.

The SEC will likely be caught in a bidding war between CBS, which currently has the league’s primary football and basketball contracts, and Fox Sports.

Because the SEC is on an unprecedented roll, winning two straight BCS national football championships, two consecutive women’s national basketball titles and two of the last three men’s basketball championships, the league can demand its most lucrative contract ever.

“If you could publish my smile. . .,” Slive said with a laugh, knowing he sits in the negotiating catbird seat. “The fact we have tremendous teams and great fan interest is not lost on the TV entities interested in carrying our events.”