SEC Football Media Days began Monday in downtown Tampa, marking the first time the Southeastern Conference has held its annual football event in Florida.
The four-day gathering is expected to draw roughly 1,200 to 1,400 people, including 900 to 1,000 reporters, the conference’s 16 head coaches, student-athletes, school staff and sponsors.
Lanness Robinson, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, said Tampa landed Media Days after years of working with the SEC.
“I primarily think it came about because of the relationship that we had with the SEC, hosting previous events for them and being scheduled to host future events,” Robinson said. “I think it’s ultimately connected to that previous relationship.”
Tampa’s relationship with the SEC has already brought the conference’s men’s basketball tournament to the city twice and will bring the gymnastics championships in 2027 and 2028. The city is also scheduled to host the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2029.
Media Days remained in Birmingham and nearby Hoover for most of its history before the conference began expanding the event to other markets. Atlanta hosted it in 2022 and 2025, followed by Nashville in 2023, Dallas in 2024 and now Tampa.
Although the Tampa Bay area does not have an SEC school, it has one of the conference’s largest alumni concentrations, including more than 20,000 alumni and fans connected through the Tampa Gator Club and more than 1,800 University of Tennessee alumni.
“We know we’re going to have a lot of people coming down and we know that they’re going to be in hotel rooms,” Robinson said. “They’re going to spend money in restaurants. They’re going to visit attractions. Some will extend their stay.”
Reporters and broadcast crews will also produce four days of coverage from Water Street Tampa, placing the city in front of college football audiences across the country.
“Every time we can put our destination in front of people from around the country and the world, you can’t beat those marketing dollars,” Robinson said.
Regions Bank, which operates 53 branches across the Tampa Bay region and held about $8.7 billion in local deposits as of June 30, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data, is using SEC Football Media Days to host clients, launch a four-part video podcast and continue financial literacy programs it developed after NIL opportunities reshaped college athletics. The bank has been the SEC’s official banking partner for more than 30 years.
“Tampa is a priority market for Regions,” said April Grajales, Tampa Bay market president and commercial banking area executive. “Having SEC Media Days in Tampa in a priority market for us really brings home why Tampa is an important community.”
Grajales said the financial literacy programs do not require student-athletes to open a Regions account or establish a banking relationship.
“These are truly educational resources,” said April Grajales, Tampa Bay Market President & Commercial Banking Area Executive for Regions Bank. “We’ll follow that up with more individualized sessions in which they have the opportunity to have a more open conversation. They may have some reservations about wanting to ask questions in front of a large population.”
The podcast features Ryan Silverfield of Arkansas, Alex Golesh of Auburn, Jon Sumrall of Florida and Pete Golding of Ole Miss. SEC Network personalities Peter Burns and Chris Doering host the episodes, which Regions plans to release beginning July 27.
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Paul Hodges, experiential marketing manager at Regions, said the conference’s coaching turnover created an opportunity to profile four first-year SEC head coaches away from the field.
“It’s an interesting moment in SEC football lore to have this many openings occur over the course of an offseason,” Hodges said. “I think it’s indicative of how college football has changed with the advent of NIL, the transfer portal and the speed at which college football moves.”
One episode follows Golesh as he settles into Auburn after leaving the University of South Florida, with Burns and Doering helping him unpack moving boxes before heading out to fish.
“It’s something unlike what you might hear in a postgame press conference,” Hodges said. “The relationship those hosts have with those coaches really built the trust that allows us to give some unique content to the viewer.”
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