When Mike Slive was appointed the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference 16 years ago, the league was in the throes of turmoil. In-fighting among the members occurred, shady practices prevailed and the future of its best programs was cloudy with a handful of schools either on probation or in the crosshairs of the NCAA. It wasn't too different than the state of affairs among the five mafia families in Mario Puzo's The Godfather.
"The league was in disarray," said Alabama's Nick Saban, who coached at LSU back then. "The SEC's image was really terrible...He cleaned it up.