ATLANTA—For the first time in conference history, the SEC Media Days are being held somewhere other than Birmingham, Alabama, this year. Fittingly, the event is taking place at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. 
“Like the Hoagy Carmichael song from the 1930s, and made famous by Ray Charles, I’ve had Georgia on my mind for this event for a couple of years,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “It’s really good to be in Atlanta.”
Sankey opened up the four-day event by showing a video that the conference office also shows to new coaches before their first season in the SEC. Then, he made an opening statement regarding accomplishments of the past year as well as changes for the near future. 
The most immediate of those changes was the change in venue. Sankey said that the SEC contemplated holding SEC Media Days in Atlanta ahead of last season, but construction on Mercedes-Benz Stadium made it impossible to do so. 
With the idea planted in their minds and another year to plan, the conference settled on the College Football Hall of Fame for 2018.
“This setting provides us with a unique opportunity to experience some memories in a venue that is focused on college football,” Sankey said. 
Next season, SEC Media Days will be held in Hoover, Alabama. 
In regard to the upcoming season, Sankey also described a slight change to the game experience for those in attendance at SEC games. Instead of wondering when the constant media timeouts will end while the representative in a red shirt stops gameplay, the conference came up with a new system. 
“We’re working now to introduce what we call the ‘TV Timeout Clock,’” Sankey said. “It will be managed by the red hat on the sideline and display the actual length of each TV timeout and show a countdown of time on the field-level clock until play resumes.”
The commissioner also announced the addition of SEC channel 374 on Sirius XM, noting that the SEC is the first to announce a conference-dedicated channel with the company. 
As far as scheduling is concerned, the SEC will stick to the 6-1-1 model that it has in years past. The model ensures that teams will play their six division opponents, one opponent from the other division that they play every year and one opponent from the other division that rotates. 
“Could that change? That’s why we have conversations every year,” Sankey said. “But those rivalries are really healthy and I think really unique, particularly in the number that exist in this conference.”