re: Seriously, if not Bham -- where should the SEC

I think the SEC HQ is fine in Birmingham. I haven't really heard a compelling reason for why it should be moved (black helicopter conspiracy theories seem to be the main thing people cite). Birmingham is centrally located and big enough to get the job done. How many people actually work at SEC HQ anyway? I can't imagine it is that many. It would cost money and upset people's lives (the employees) for no reason.

The SEC does a decent job spreading the events around:

Alabama: HQ, the baseball tourney, and Media Days

Georgia: SECCG and the Chick-fil-a kickoff

Louisiana: Sugar Bowl

Tenn: semi-perm home of basketball tourney (which I think is a great move, BTW).

Florida: Spring coaches meeting.

Several other places have had a taste of big SEC events by hosting things in the past (Memphis, ATL, NOLA, have all hosted the basketball tourney, and St. Louis will in the future). Edit: Not to mention all the bowl games in places like Orlando, Tampa, Nashville, Jacksonville, Memphis, Houston, Shreveport, etc).

If anything, I think moving the media days to a bigger media outlet would make sense. Maybe ATL or Nashville. If we ever expand into NC then possibly do it in Charlotte since that is home to the SEC Network (but don't do it now, keep the $$ in SEC states to the extent possible).