SEC makes an investment for the ages

Yesterday, Steve Berkowitz of USA Today wrote an interesting article on SEC commissioner Mike Slive's annual compensation.

The fact that Slive raked in $1.6 million in 2011 was noteworthy, but the real fascinating factoid in the article was that the SEC paid it's TV consultant (Chucklin, Inc). $2.2 million to iron out the details of the SEC Network. The conference paid $2 million to the same firm back in 2008-2009, the year the SEC netted $3 billion from 15-year TV contracts with CBS and ESPN. 

This time around, the the SEC has retained Chucklin, Inc., for re-negotiations of its existing television deals with the additions of Missouri and Texas A&M, and one much larger project: SEC Network. Discussions have been underway for one month, and could yield the league upwards of a quarter billion dollars per year.

The Big Ten Network raked in $242 million in its fourth year of existence and, considering the SEC's football crazed constituency, the SEC figures to top that. 

For the Big Ten, revenue has jumped 46 percent since their first fill year through 2011. That could easily become a baseline figure for the SEC. 

In the long run, that $2.2 million investment may go down as one of the smartest investments in college football.