DALLAS — With SEC Media Days in Dallas, the conference has planted its flag in North Texas
For the first time, a Texas city is hosting the media event considered one of the biggest in sports.
Football players and coaches from LSU, South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt kicked off SEC Media Days in Dallas Monday.
The event is among the sport's biggest pre-season spectacles. Hundreds of reporters flocked to the Omni Hotel for an opportunity to interview some of college football's best athletes.
Texas has not hosted the event before. The location is a nod to the conference's newest members, Texas and Oklahoma, though it might just mean more.
"We are a big part of Texas," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday. "Texas is a big part of us now."
The conference first considered moving its pre-season media event to Dallas in 2018, Sankey said.
He touted the Metroplex's "accessibility," noting that Dallas-based Southwest Airlines recently partnered with the conference.
"The variety of ways you can travel here allows you to run a 15K in Utica, New York and be here for dinner by the end of a Sunday like I did," he joked.
But Sankey also said the conference commissioned a study on its members' alumni bases in 2018. The research showed SEC schools have expanded their footprint in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Adding Texas and Oklahoma will only boost those numbers. Dallas is about halfway between Austin and Norman.
"We've had three years to prepare for expansion, which I think is a record-long time," Sankey said. "As we went through expansion, that made western events more and more important for us."
Oklahoma is scheduled for SEC Media Days availability on Tuesday. Texas will take the stage on Wednesday, and Texas A&M players will speak Thursday.
For years, the Omni Hotel hosted the Big 12 conference's media days. The conference moved their event to Las Vegas for 2024.
Traditionally, the SEC held its pre-season media gauntlet in Birmingham, Alabama, where the conference is headquartered.
Sankey announced Monday the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta will host next year's Media Days, though it's clear the SEC has planted its flag in the Metroplex.
