Roy Kramer, who as commissioner of the Southeastern Conference helped transform the league into a national power while reshaping the entire sport of college football with a precursor to today’s playoff system, has died. He was 96.

Kramer died on Thursday in Vonore, Tennessee, the SEC said.

Kramer served as SEC commissioner from 1990 through 2002. He was the first to imagine a conference title game, which divided his newly expanded 12-team league into divisions and pitted the two champs in a winner-take-all affair that generated millions in TV revenue.

That led to his greatest contribution — the Bowl Championship Series system that moved college football away from its long-held tradition of determining a champion via media and coaches’ polls. The system in place from 1998 through 2013

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