Sponsorship Proposal for the Southeastern Conference Research Paper

The Southeastern Conference (SEC), an American college athletic conference was established in December, 1932. It has its headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. SEC’s mission: “The purpose of the Southeastern Conference is to assist its member institutions in the maintenance of programs of intercollegiate athletics which are compatible with the highest standards of education and competitive sports.” (Secdigitalnetwork).

At SEC, we organize tournaments for various games viz. baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, men’s and women’s swimming & diving, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track & field, volleyball, etc. Football, as such, is a sort of religion for the colleges around here. The director of marketing for Golden Flake Snack Foods, a regional snack food company, remarked in discussing his company’s sponsorship of South-eastern conference (SEC) football: “college football is a religion in the Southeast. Sponsorship lets us tap into emotions people have for these events and be part of something they value…” (Masteralexis et al, p. 316).

Ours is a country where football is considered as a religion. People, especially the youth are crazy about the game. They have many emotions attached with the game. Most of the educational institutions have a team of their own. The game is mainly concentrated on the teenagers and the youth. Each player has his own fan following. And each club (conference) also has its own fan following.

Our commissioner, Michael Lawrence Slive has played a vital role in the ever increasing popularity of SEC. Today SEC is one of the most successful amongst the conferences and leads most of them in the distribution of revenue to its members. SEC holds a record distribution of $220.0 million for the fiscal year 2010-2011. (Wikimedia).

We are discussing here about a sponsorship proposal to Coleman, one of the biggest dealers in gifts. The products are targeted to teenagers and youth. If Coleman agrees to sponsor SEC, it will encash the youths’ buying power. All institutions have holidays and it has become a trend now days for the youth to go out with friends on weekend trips to some countryside. While on the trips, they require certain things that are handy. So if a company having such products like a collapsible tent, torch, portable grill, ice box, gas light, etc., spreads awareness of its products among such youths, the sales of that company will definitely shoot up. And what shall be a better way than to sponsor a conference like SEC, which has such a great reputation and such a great fan following. The SEC is into community service as well. It organizes various programs for the welfare of people. In the ensuing paragraphs we will unfold some encouraging facts and figures about the SEC. These facts are adequate to magnetize any company to sponsor the SEC.

Following are the revenue figures of major conferences for 2009-10

1. SEC – $1.0 Billion; 10.8% growth
2. Big Ten – $905 million; 6.4% growth
3. Big 12 – $831 million; 3.2% growth
4. ACC – $721 million; 0.0% growth
5. Pac-10 – $632 million; 3.8% growth (Ensbsn)

Following are the revenue figures of major conferences for 2010-11

1. SEC: $1,066,935,731
2. Big Ten: $966,799,125
3. Big 12: $890,308,681
4. ACC: $753,069,826
5. Pac-10: $648,928,528 (Ensbsn)

Following are the point totals of major conferences

1. SEC (97 points)
2. Pac-10 (88 points)
3. ACC (65.5 points; does not participate in gymnastics)
4. Big 12 (59.5 points)
5. Big Ten (55 points) (Secsportsfan)

These figures clearly depict the popularity of the SEC. It is in fact the biggest and best college sports conference.

The SEC is the most broadcast conference in the nation. It has landmark broadcast rights agreements with CBS and ESPN through 2023-24. Each football season, CBS has agreed to telecast nationally a game of the week. In addition to this, there shall be two double-headers and each season shall be accomplished with the SEC Football Championship Game. ESPN has multiple channels and as per the agreement, nearly 400 events shall be broadcast each year through ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3.com, ESPN Classic, the SEC Network, FSN, and CSS.

“The Digital Network of the SEC(SECsports.com / SEC Video / SEC Nation / SEC Mobile / SECU / SEC Downloads / SEC Gameday) provides a variety of content offering to its fans. The SEC Video online platform delivers on-demand access to full games, highlights, archives, features, and more. In addition, Sirius/XM Satellite Radio provides coverage of every SEC football game through the 2012 season, as well as most SEC men’s basketball games and selected women’s basketball and baseball games” (Ensbsn).

The SEC has quite a few sponsors at present. They are, Aaron’s (sales and lease ownership), Dick’s Sporting Goods (sporting goods), Gatorade (sports drink), Golden Flake (snack foods), Gulf Shores & Orange Beach (leisure), Iron Planet Motors (automobiles), Kia Motors (automobiles), Macy’s (departmental store), Mascot Wear (kids’ apparel), Merita (official bread), SiriusXM (satellite radio), Sonic (food products), Texaspete (food products) and UPS (logistics).

Normally, companies are not in favor of being co-sponsors for any brand which already has a sponsor dealing in the same product as theirs’. But here we can see that none of these listed companies deal in gift items, the product which Coleman is dealing in. So there seems to be no hindrance for Coleman to sponsor The SEC.

Works Cited

1. Ensbsn. “SEC Revenue 2009-10: The Alabama Money Machine.”
2. Masteralexis, Barr, Hums. Principles and practice of sport management. , Sudbury, MA. Jones and Barlett Publishers, 2005. Print
3. Secdigitalnetwork. “About the SEC.” Web.
4. Secsportsfan. “The Best Fans in the World.” Web.
5. Wikimedia. “Southeastern Conference.” Web.