ATLANTA — As coaches, players and reporters headed home Thursday from the final session of SEC media days, officials in New Orleans were hopeful they will all be headed to the Crescent City in the near future.
Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said New Orleans made an offer to the SEC to host media days, the annual four-day kickoff to the college football season.
“We’ve long been interested in hosting this event,” Hundley said. “We’ve got a lot on our plate (in New Orleans), but hopefully we will get it in the not-too-distant future.”
A site for SEC media days in July 2026 has yet to be determined, but Hundley said New Orleans would not be able to host media days until at least 2027 because of prior commitments.
From its inception in 1985 through 2017, media days was held at various sites in and around Birmingham, Alabama, home of the SEC’s headquarters.
Since 2018, when media days came to Atlanta and the College Football Hall of Fame for the first time, the event has been back to Birmingham twice but also has been in Atlanta in 2022, in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2023 and Dallas in 2024.
Sites being considered for hosting media days in New Orleans include the Caesars Superdome and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, which was the site of the media center for this year’s Super Bowl.
New Orleans will also host a College Football Playoff quarterfinal on Jan. 1 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, but SEC media days would be something quite different.
“It’s a unique experience,” Hundley said, “unlike anything we’ve had to this point.”