Posted on 12/06/2025 4:39:59 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
Former SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer, who became a pioneer for college football's current playoff structure, has died at age 96, the conference announced.
Kramer served as the SEC’s commissioner from 1990 to 2002 and made it one of the richest conferences in the nation during his tenure, mostly by negotiating lucrative television contracts. He began by bringing Arkansas and South Carolina into the conference in 1991 — a small preview of the massive expansion that has overrun the sport and college athletics in today’s era.
That allowed him to introduce the SEC title game, which added to a growing fount of media revenue. In Kramer’s final year, the SEC distributed $95.7 million to its 12 member schools, up from $16.3 million in 1990. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the SEC distributed $808.4 million — a testament to the exponential growth in college sports that Kramer envisioned back in the 1990s.
Kramer championed the Bowl Championship Series system, which moved college football away from its long-held tradition of determining a champion through media and coaches’ polls. The system was in place from 1998 through 2013, until the College Football Playoff was introduced. What originally began as a four-team playoff replaced the BCS in 2014 and expanded to 12 teams starting last season.
Kramer insisted the vitriol that stemmed from BCS selections wasn’t a knock on the system itself but rather a welcomed byproduct because it brought attention to college football.
The BCS has been "blamed for everything from El Niño to the terrorist attacks," Kramer joked in 2002 when announcing his retirement.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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I was lucky enough to be at Central Michigan in 1974 when he led the Chippawas to the Division II National Championship, what a glorious time it was.
I should live so long.
RIP sir 🙏
Anybody but UGA!
He did so much damage. And he was behind the fake playoff system.
Central Michigan? I was there for one baseball season ‘69-’70. RIP Roy Cramer. Condolences to family and friends.
The “fake” playoff system is better than the fake poll system of the past. The was no way BYU was the best team in 1984.
I’d rather have a bad system where the outcome is decided on the field rather than a committee choosing the top ranked team.
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