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Former SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer, who became a pioneer of the current college football playoff structure, has died at the age of 96, the conference announced.
Kramer served as SEC commissioner from 1990 to 2002 and built it into one of the nation’s richest conferences during his tenure, primarily by negotiating lucrative television contracts. He started by bringing Arkansas and South Carolina into the conference in 1991 – a small glimpse into the massive expansion that has engulfed college sports and athletics in the current era.
This allowed him to introduce the SEC title game, which added to a growing source of media revenue. In Kramer’s senior year, the SEC distributed $95.7 million to its 12 member schools, up from $16.3 million in 1990. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the SEC distributed $808.4 million — a testament to the exponential growth of college sports that Kramer envisioned in the 1990s.
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Former SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer speaks during a dedication ceremony for the Doug Dickey Hall of Fame Plaza at the Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex in Knoxville, Tenn., Friday, Oct. 4, 2019. (Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services)
Kramer defended the Bowl Championship Series system, which moved college football away from its long-standing tradition of determining a champion through media and coaches polls. The system was in place from 1998 to 2013, until the introduction of the College Football Playoff. What started as a four-team playoff replaced the BCS in 2014 and expanded to 12 teams starting last season.
Kramer insisted that the vitriol stemming from the BCS picks was not an attack on the system itself but rather a welcome byproduct as it brought attention to college football.
The BCS has been “accused of everything from El Nino to terrorist attacks,” Kramer joked in 2002 when announcing his retirement.
New Vanderbilt football coach George MacIntyre, left, shares a moment with athletic director Roy Kramer after Kramer announced McIntyre’s hiring during halftime of Vanderbilt’s basketball game with Citadel at Memorial Gym on Dec. 4, 1978. (Robert Johnson/The Tennessean)
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“Roy Kramer will be remembered for his determination to weather difficult times, his willingness to innovate in an industry driven by tradition, and his unwavering belief in the value of student-athletes and education,” said current SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
Born Roy Foster Kramer in Maryville, Tennessee, on October 30, 1929, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Maryville College, where he was a football lineman and wrestler. Kramer earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and served three years in the Army during the Korean War. He died in Vonore, Tennessee.
Former SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer speaks to the press before the SEC Championship college football game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida Gators at the Georgia Dome. (Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports)
He coached football at five Michigan high schools before being named an assistant coach at Central Michigan in 1965 and then head coach in 1967. Kramer was named the 1974 national coach of the year after leading Central Michigan to the Division II national championship and went 83-32-2 in 11 seasons at the helm of the Chippewas. He ended his coaching career in 1978 when he became athletic director at Vanderbilt, where he served until leaving for the SEC.
