Football remains king in SEC

Though Kentucky has won seven NCAA men’s basketball championships, Tennessee seven women’s basketball titles and LSU five baseball titles, the Southeastern Conference always has been and continues to be branded a “football league.”

Financial figures from the U.S. Department of Education certainly back that label, as football remains the overwhelming revenue producer at each of the 12 institutions. Even Kentucky, the traditional “basketball school” of the SEC, generated roughly $21.9 million in football revenue during the 2006-07 fiscal year compared to about $12.4 million from the hardwood.

So which is the biggest “football school” in the football league?

In terms of financial importance to the overall athletic department, it’s Auburn. The Tigers generated $56.83 million in football revenue in 2006-07, a whopping 90 percent of their $63.13 million amassed by all sports combined.

“That tells us that we have to be successful in football,” Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said. “It also tells us there is an opportunity for improvement in some other sports.”

Auburn is the only SEC school in which football revenue accounts for 90 percent of overall team revenue, but others are close. Alabama’s football revenue accounted for nearly 86 percent of its all-sports revenue in 2006-07, while LSU was at nearly 85 percent and Georgia at nearly 84 percent.

For much of the 1980s, Auburn was as successful as any SEC school in terms of competitiveness throughout the four major sports — football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball. Since then, however, baseball and both basketball programs have slipped significantly.

Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball coach Jeff Lebo has struggled the past four years getting Auburn even in the NIT picture, but he heads the sport Jacobs believes must produce financially. Auburn is in the process of building a $92.5 million arena that will house the Tigers and Lady Tigers in time for their 2010-11 seasons.

“Basketball is a sport we can generate additional revenue so we can fund everything else that we’re doing,” Jacobs said. “Florida’s success in basketball and football enables them to get more revenue than just ticket sales. Their marketing rights will increase and their apparel rights will increase with that because of the exposure that a team as successful as they’ve been the last couple of years receives. It’s a matter of what you can do to put the best product out there.”

Selling basketball consistently at a football school has proven to be difficult, as Auburn, Alabama, LSU and Georgia again can attest this winter amid mediocre seasons.

When LSU athletic director Skip Bertman recently announced the firing of basketball coach John Brady, he pointed out that sagging season-ticket sales the past few seasons didn’t spike two years ago. That was when the Tigers reached the sport’s grandest stage, the Final Four.

“That’s just the nature at certain places in the SEC, and it’s a tough thing to change,” Lebo said. “We’ve had to fight that. Auburn is a football school because of the success of the football program, and there hasn’t been, until recently, a big commitment to basketball. That was easy to see when you looked at the facilities, but hopefully down the road we can put an end to that with the new basketball facility being built.

“There is a commitment here to have a good basketball program.”