Ex-SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, whose vision paved the way for college football playoffs, dies at 96

Pretty much every debate over who should play for the national title every argument about the staggering amounts of money every tirade about how college football is nothing like what it used to be traces back to a man who saw a lot of this coming then made a lot of it happen Roy Kramer Kramer the onetime football coach who became an athletic director at Vanderbilt then eventually commissioner of the Southeastern Conference where he set the template for the multibillion-dollar business college sports would become died Thursday He was The SEC reported he died in Vonore Tennessee The man who in the present holds his former job Greg Sankey announced Kramer will be remembered for his resolve through challenging times his willingness to innovate in an industry driven by tradition and his unwavering belief in the value of student-athletes and mentoring Kramer helped transform his own conference from the home base for a regional pastime into the leader of a national movement during his tenure as commissioner from - It was during that time that he reshaped the entire sport of college football by dreaming up the precursor to currently s playoff system the Bowl Championship Series He elevated this league and set the foundation former Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley revealed Every decision he made was what he thought would elevate the SEC It s the thing that stands out greater part when I remember him his passion and love for this league A conference title tournament sets the stage for money playoffs and more Kramer was the first to imagine a conference title match which divided his newly expanded -team league into divisions then pitted the two champs in a winner-take-all affair that generated millions in TV revenue The winner of the SEC title battle often had an inside track to Kramer s greatest creation the BCS which pivoted college football away from its long-held tradition of determining a champion via media and coaches polls The system in place from through relied on computerized formulas to determine which two teams should play in the top bowl meeting for the title That system vestiges of which are still around currently produced its predictable share of heated debate and frustration for a large segment of the sport s fans Kramer in an interview when he retired in announced the BCS had been blamed for everything from El Nino to the terrorist attacks But he didn t apologize The BCS got people talking about college football in a way they never had before he noted And besides was it so wrong to take a baby step toward the real tournament format that virtually every other major sport used A four-team playoff replaced the BCS in and that was expanded to teams starting last season Turning the SEC into a national power Before Kramer was named commissioner the SEC was a mostly sleepy grouping of teams headlined by Bear Bryant and Alabama whose provincial rivalries were punctuated by the Sugar Bowl every year where often the league s best club would show what it could do against the guys up north Kentucky was the basketball power Not content with that role in the college landscape one of Kramer s first moves was to bring Arkansas of the Southwestern Conference and independent South Carolina into the fold That small expansion previewed a spasm of bigger reshufflings that continue to overrun this industry a few years later Kramer sold the rights to televise his newly created league title encounter to ABC then in added a deal with CBS worth a then-staggering sum of million over five years A look at a few numbers tells the story that Kramer saw before greater part people In his first year as commissioner the SEC distributed million to its member schools In his last in the amount rose to million In - it was million By any standard former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese announced in Roy s influence has been mind-boggling Archie Manning the great Ole Miss quarterback who is now chair of the National Football Foundation announced Kramer s vision integrity and steady leadership helped shape college football into what we know in the current era The changes keep coming and not everyone loves them Not everyone agrees that all this change has been good Kramer was long gone before college sports started paying players above the table a outcome of the billions those players produce the greater part of which had for decades been largely paid out only to coaches and administrators On Saturday the th version of Kramer s SEC title tournament will take place in Atlanta Virtually every big conference has followed suit yet the future of those games has been muddled by expansion divisions were lately phased back out because the leagues are so huge big money and the title games impact or lack of impact on the expanded playoff field On Sunday the bracket for this year s -team tournament will come out Kramer s old school th-ranked Vanderbilt is likely to be left out despite a historically great - season that Commodores fans will argue is something to be celebrated not ignored Vandy wouldn t have been in under the old system either but part of Kramer s legacy is that the bowl games that defined this sport back in the day have been reduced to near irrelevance Vanderbilt s postseason turn this season will likely be nothing more than a holiday-season afterthought And a spot in the Sugar Bowl in current times only means something if it s part of that playoff Southern roots and not a spotlight seeker Roy Foster Kramer was born Oct in Maryville Tennessee He earned a bachelor s degree from Maryville College where he was a football lineman and wrestler He was named head coach at Central Michigan in and earned national coach-of-the-year honors there in after winning the Division II national championship Kramer ended his coaching career in when he became athletic director at Vanderbilt where he served until leaving for the SEC Quick with a quip and slow to true anger Kramer did the bulk of his work behind the scenes He was reluctant to sit for interviews and didn t much like the spotlight or the idea that he was reshaping college sports Foley the former Florida AD recalled rushing into a locker room full of umpires to berate them after he thought they d robbed the Gators baseball squad with a bad call The next day there was no mass email to media announcing a fine for the AD no penalty being meted out to the campaign no appearance on ESPN by the commish to discuss the confrontation But Foley s phone rang It was Kramer That can never ever happen again ' Foley recalled Kramer telling him That was his style He wasn t a grandstander or a showman He had an unbelievable ability to read people and deal with people AP Sports Writers Mark Long and Dave Campbell contributed to this assessment Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top throughout the season Sign up here and here AP News mobile app AP college football https apnews com hub ap-top- -college-football-poll and https apnews com hub college-football Source