Not your ordinary press conference
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LEXINGTON, Ky.-The 12 Southeastern Conference coaches and selected student-athletes will face a contingent of more than 600 media members in what SEC assistant commissioner Charles Bloom calls a “celebration.”
Bloom believes the SEC’s Football Media Days held in Birmingham, Ala., July 25-27 is one of the most popular because of the league’s philosophy about the event. Conference officials treat the event as a kickoff, a start of the season, and rarely turn down any media people who want to come to the event. Reporters that don’t normally cover games can come to Media Days and interview players and coaches.
“Media Days comes during the summer and close to the kickoff of team practices so it makes it easier for media people to attend,” Bloom said. “Plus we have a great football league, coaches that people want to listen to, and we have quality student-athletes who are made available at Media Days. It’s a one-stop shop to get 12 coaches and 24 student-athletes.”
The SEC will benefit from national as well as regional exposure. Sports Illustrated, ESPN, FOX, and CBS will be among the media covering the event.
“The thing about Media Days is that the conference also makes it possible for those who can’t come to Birmingham to get information from Media Days by providing satellite feeds and quotes via the internet or fax,” said Bloom. Many radio stations will broadcast live from Media Days and a large number of television stations will send reports back to their stations for nightly newscasts.
Head coaches and two student-athletes from each school will make the rounds between different radio, print, and television “breakout” rooms during a two-hour period. The conference utilizes eight rooms in order to accommodate the large contingent of reporters.
Bloom’s entire staff, plus others from the league office and student volunteers from SEC schools will be on hand to work the event.
“It takes a lot of planning to put on an event like this,” Bloom concluded. “However, that’s what we’re in the business for…we put on Media Days, we put on championships. That’s what we do and we feel we do it pretty well.”
Due to demands on their time most coaches don’t stay around to listen to the other coach’s comments or to socialize with the media. They usually plan on arriving about two hours before their scheduled interviews and leave soon after their interviews are finished.
UK coach Hal Mumme is scheduled to meet the media Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. ET. Accompanying Mumme is redshirt freshman quarterback Jared Lorenzen and senior linebacker Marlon McCree. The trio will return to Lexington after their session with the media concludes on Thursday.
