The SEC isn’t going international, at least not in the immediate future. Commissioner Greg Sankey said the league will not play overseas games anytime soon, despite some preliminary discussions about the idea.
Speaking to reporters at the SEC’s spring meetings, Sankey admitted there have been “conversations” about playing football games overseas in some capacity. However, taking games off SEC campuses and moving them across the world just wouldn’t be feasible.
“The economics of our stadiums are just very different from our colleague conferences that have been a part of that,” Sankey said. “You know, the displacement of a home game in our communities and stadiums, it might be 85 to 100,000-plus, and relocating that, the logistical costs and timing, that’s a challenge. But the loss of that home gate, that’s really a challenge.
“We’ve had some conversations around maybe non-conference games, that might be an away game, but it’s never worked. I think I’ve said this before, the strength of this conference is in our communities, in our states, in the region, and we magnify that on a national and even international level. I don’t think that requires us playing internationally.”
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One of college football’s biggest selling points is its home atmospheres, and that’s especially the case in the SEC. Fans are already frustrated, and justifiably so, when a neutral-site matchup eliminates a home game or robs them of the opportunity to visit a different stadium on the road. Now imagine the reaction if 100,000 Tennessee fans found out their season-opener against Syracuse would played be thousands of miles away in a place like Wembley Stadium in London. It wouldn’t go over well.
Other conferences have dipped their toe in international waters. The ACC, Big Ten and Notre Dame have all played games in Ireland on a semi-regular basis over the last 11 years. Sankey said he had a meeting with the Lord Mayor of Dublin about playing games in Aviva Stadium, but that never came to fruition.
“It just hasn’t quite worked for us,” Sankey said. “We have many important issues in front of us that, if that materialized, I think people would take advantage. It’s not a focal point because of how great our game experiences are on campus.”
That the those preliminary discussions never amounted to much is probably for the the best from the fans’ perspective. The logistical and financial challenges aside, playing SEC games overseas is a bad idea simply because it would make the fan experience markedly worse.
Brandon Marcello contributed to this story from Miramar Beach, Fla.
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