Mike Slive: gentle style accomplished big things

Bigger things to do

Slive arrived in the Birmingham offices of the Southeastern Conference in 2002 and found nine schools addressing NCAA violation accusations. Having represented as a lawyer schools dealing with NCAA compliance issues, Slive cleaned up that mess and instituted a compliance initiative that helped keep the league clean.

Then like a good employee, Mike Slive found bigger things to do.

Beginning in 2003  when Mississippi State made Sylvester Croom the first black head football coach in SEC history, Slive shepherded the SEC through the hiring of five black head coaches when before there had been none.

“It was clear [the hiring of Crooms] was not only an athletic decision,” Slive told The New York Times in 2015. “It impacted the state, the region, and it really helped vault the SEC from a regional to a national conference.”

Slive also directed the development of a Minority Coaches Database, encouraging the hiring of minorities in football.

Then again, Mike Slive found bigger things to do.

Conference expansion coup

During the last round of conference realignment, Slive made the SEC the big winner, drawing  Missouri and Texas A&M into the conference.

Said Steve Spurrier about the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri, “Getting their fanbases and markets into the SEC was incredibly important to the overall growth of the conference, and that was all him.”

Then again, Mike Slive found bigger things to do.

With Texas A&M and Missouri added to the SEC footprint, Slive embarked on the grand project of establishing partnerships with ESPN and eventually founding the SEC Network.

The SEC distributed $95.7 million to its member schools the year before to Slive’s hiring. With the revenue from the SEC Network, the league’s schools shared $455.8 million in 2014-15, Slive’s final year as Commissioner.

Then again, Mike Slive found bigger things to do.

Capitalizing on America’s frustration with SEC dominance of the BCS Championships, Slive sold his vision for the College football Playoffs to the nation.

Moving on

Slive stepped away from college athletics and defeated cancer at age 75. He then co-founded the Mike Slive Foundation to raise funds to fight prostate cancer. He also joined the NABC Ad Hoc Committee for college basketball in 2017.

“Mike Slive literally changed the world through his life,” said SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.

Next: Slive was more than a powerful man

Sadly, the once defeated cancer returned, and Mike Slive was taken from the world. It is easy to believe he just found bigger things to do.