Mike Slive, who led the SEC to unprecedented heights in college football and helped reshape the future of the sport with the College Football Playoff, is dead at age 77.
Slive passed away Wednesday after a lengthy illness, leaving behind a legacy perhaps unmatched by any conference commissioner.
During Slive’s 13-year tenure as SEC commissioner, the league won a record seven consecutive Bowl Championship Series titles, beginning with the 2006 Florida Gators, and expanded from 12 to 14 teams, adding Texas A&M and Missouri. In 2014, Slive helped usher in the SEC Network, another major revenue stream for one of the nation’s richest conference.