re: What must the other conferences do to compete with SEC football?

We spend money on football. It's as simple as that.

The best tech companies spend money on engineers and coders. Those that have the best typically often do well.

Look at AD budgets. Look at how much of said budget is spent in the recruiting budget for football, and the football program as a whole. You could say facilities, but a ton of those are built by off the book non profit booster groups so investments like that don't always show up.

But the SEC's priority is football. We make money by making this a priority. LSU made $18 million net last year, and donated $9 million, and just agreed to make that type of donation to the University itself an annual contribution.

The best extraction engineers and petroleum engineers are in the Southeast and Southwest because plants were built close to the raw materials they work with.

Same as coaches. The athletes are here, its easier to get them and develop them where they're treated like a priority, and you can win and be rewarded at a higher level.

Cold hard math here...