Rantin’ and Ravin’: Why SEC Media Days truly does mean more

By Chris Marler

SEC Media Days starts in three days. This year’s event will be roughly a mile and a half from my current residence, and I can’t wait. 

I look forward to this event every year. Besides the first kickoff of the season or the first time I hear Big and Rich yell “And we’re cooooomin to yooooo citaaaay” on College Gameday, there are few things that get me more excited for football season than SEC Media Days. 

It’s a parade of coaches and players trading small talk and coach speak, all while showing off the bling and suits from their latest NIL-funded shopping spree. Plus, all the members of the media showing up in their best Peter Millar “dad at a parent teacher conference” attire. Everyone hopped up on as much Starbucks, or Celsius if you’re me and Eli Drinkwitz, as possible. 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. 

The town is already being decorated with SEC paraphernalia and “It Just Means More” taglines everywhere. And, as cliché and lame as it sounds, it really does. At least for me. 

I went to my first Media Days nine years ago in Birmingham, Alabama. I was there for two days asking Alabama fans to spell Tua Tagavailoa correctly. Yes, it went exactly how you’d expect. But, it was so fun. 

I went the following year and asked Will Muschamp about recruiting pipelines to a local school where I used to coach his son. The next year, I got to meet this super confident second year starting quarterback few people seemed to know enough about. Also, a kid who went to high school just down the street from me, randomly broke into a Louis Armstrong karaoke performance late Wednesday night. No one asked for it, but he absolutely brought the house down.

The quarterback was Joe Burrow and the “kid” was T-Bob Hebert. Both gave equally electric performances I might add. 

This will be my sixth SEC Media Days in the last nine years. Some people hate it. It’s a chore. It’s four days of coach speak and asking the same questions over and over with very little actual news ever breaking. 

Those people probably didn’t have the same profession as I did when they went to their first media days. Those people were probably journalists. Professional J-School Journalists. Which is awesome. 

I have a little different perspective and background. I didn’t go to J-School. I was a bartender, and standup comedian. By the grace of God, or best luck imaginable, I got my first job in this field because the owner of a popular college football website just happened to come into happy hour at my bartending job. I met my current boss at Media Days only because he was bewildered that I was the one who asked Brian Kelly to answer a question “in his best southern accent” at the 2022 Media Days. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to make talking about the thing I love most in the world (except my Corgi, soon to be fiancé, and still getting Chick-Fil-A breakfast at 10:35 when they stop serving at 10:30) into a career. 

We may not always agree, and there’ll definitely be some takes this week that make us all shake our heads. But on Monday morning, I’ll walk into the Omni Hotel, where I once bartended to make ends meet, to pick up my credential. Then I’ll head to the College Football Hall of Fame, where I used to emcee tailgates for extra cash, and step into a world I love more than anything. And now, I get to do it for a living.