Mike Slive speaks

Hey everyone. The SEC commissioner is speaking in Sandestin.

Here is what he's discussing:

* The annual distribution is an average of $17.4 million per this year. That's a 57% increase in one year. That's a pool of $209 million.

*Reseeding the basketball tournament: ``That came up through the basketball coaches. They had discussed the current process and maybe a single division. They wanted to continue to study it. At least for the coming year, there will be no change."

* League approved a "modification" ... recognizing the tradition at Mississippi State and will provide the opportunity for the use of cowbells at Mississippi State so long as they're used at the appropriate time."

* There is no change in the main rule. The only change is a recognition of MSU's tradition and only at their stadium and only at a appropriate times. It will be revisited by the league next year. ``If it doesn't work, the league would re-consider going back to the original."

* Penalty for non-compliance?: ``You don't penalize people unless it's in the rule book." (It's not.)

* Fine 'em for non-compliance?: ``There's a sunset. If it doesn't work, then we'll go back to the ban of artificial noisemakers."

* Expansion: ``We discussed it as you would expect us to discuss it. There's nothing more I can add to that."

* ``It is not unusual, in these kinds of contracts, for there to be a provision that if the ... league changes, to be able to sit down and talk about that with your telecast partner."

* SEC dues are $50 per year.

* Voting for expansion, if it comes to that, requires the support of nine conference presidents.

* Is sixteen teams too many for a league? (That's what the Pac-10 is discussing?) "That's a lot of teams to administer. What impact would that have nationally? I don't know. That's highly speculative. There apparently is a lot of talk in the media of superconferences. That's a concept that comes more from the outside than the people who do the work like we do. I've never heard of a need or a drive to get a bunch of superconferences."

* On moving tournaments from their current locations: They have one year to go in Hoover. Then the contract runs out. "Hoover does a terrific job." He said the SEC still will explore alternatives and will bring different scenarios to the ADs for a vote during the fall.

* He said Hoover is "part of the fabric" of SEC baseball.

* Football? ``The game is extraordinarily successful in Atlanta. We have no intention of moving it out of Atlanta."

* On the disbursement: Slive noted that the ESPN/CBS deal allows schools to have control over their local multimedia packages. The Big Ten Network annexed all that business. As for SEC schools getting the ESPN/CBS money and being able to keep their own multimedia money, he said: ``If you add it all up, the total is really quite substantial."

* No more than three or four off-week scenarios for schools will be permitted beginning in 2011. (In relation to Alabama's schedule.)

* On finding a remedy for Alabama's schedule situation: ``As long as people are still willing to help us with it, we're willing to work with it."

* The SEC officially opposes an early signing period in football. ``Our coaches oppose it, our ADs oppose it and the presidents oppose it."

* Back to expansion: "Strategic and thoughtful could mean doing nothing ... no matter what anybody else does. It could mean doing something. It's just designed to say that we have maximum flexibility as to how we approach this issue."

* Back to disbursement, will it rise: "For the foreseeable future, it's approximately the same."

* "It's an extraordinary growth. It's gratifying to see the changes."

* Expansion again: "We're very comfortable with where we are now. If nothing happened, we'd be very comfortable with where we are."

* "I'm not going to discuss any other aspect of expansion."

* Unified drug policy? They have talked about that before, though not at these meetings. "It did not get traction. Everybody has their own (policy)."

* That's a wrap.