« Big Orange Roundtable Vol(ume) 8 | Home | Why I Hate Ole Miss »
SEC, Bitches
By MoonDog | August 27, 2008
The SEC’s new television deals with CBS and ESPN go well beyond dollars.
Most everyone has heard the news that ESPN has inked a deal with the Southeastern Conference that will begin in 2009. While the financial terms weren’t officially released, a published report in the SportsBusiness Journal said the ESPN deal would pay the SEC $2.25 billion over a 15-year period.
Coupled with the SEC’s renewal of their television deal with CBS, the conference will have the most comprehensive coverage of all sports than any conference in the nation.
The combined deals will pay the SEC $205 million annually over the life of both contracts. Considering that amount only reflects monies paid for television rights, the SEC has positioned itself financially to secure the long-term well-being of its members.
For those who’ve come to dislike the SEC, I can only imagine how you must feel knowing you’re going to be fed an even greater amount of coverage of the nation’s most dominant conference. The television deals with CBS and ESPN go well beyond the dollar amounts being paid.
It clearly dismisses any notion the SEC is “overrated,” a myth only those disliking the conference subscribe to. Major television networks don’t dole out over $3 billion for inferior products and the SEC has proven time and again it is a superior brand.
Factoring in the SEC’s nine bowl tie-ins, including monies generated from the BCS and the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, no conference in America will produce more revenue.
As was the case prior to the ESPN deal, only Notre Dame could claim having a guaranteed nationally televised game each week in addition to the SEC. The ESPN deal will expand the SEC’s football coverage to include every conference game being televised either on CBS or one of the various ESPN family of networks.
Basketball coverage will expand dramatically as well, with ESPN tripling the number of men’s basketball games it shows while the women’s basketball games will double.
Unlike the limited regional coverage of the ACC, Big East, Big 12 and Pac 10 conferences on ABC, ESPN and FSN, the SEC will have a multitude of platforms showcasing the conference’s sporting events. Moreover, the respective television deals are in stark contrast to the Big 10 Network where viewers are required to pay an annual subscription fee.
All national programming on ESPN will be branded as the “SEC on ESPN.” No other conference will have such an arrangement branding television coverage.
The SEC has effectively forced the other BCS conferences to seek alternatives that may not be available to them. NBC isn’t an option because of the renewed contract with Notre Dame to continue covering the Irish’s home games.
And considering Disney owns ABC and ESPN, it’s highly unlikely ABC would negotiate a deal with another conference to showcase games similar to the SEC deal.
That leaves Fox as the only network that could potentially offer the other BCS conferences long-term deals. With FSN already covering regional Big 12 and Pac 10 games and Fox covering the BCS bowls, the NFL and MLB, it’s unlikely they would want - or have - the available monies to spend on such an arrangement.
The SEC’s deal will also have a huge impact on non-BCS conferences. Already struggling to compete, the smaller conferences have all but been blocked out of signing television deals that would at best provide them with minimum exposure.
The non-BCS conferences may potentially have to rethink their respective positions and determine a course of action to ensure their survival. As it stands now, their aren’t too many viable options available and the pool of money that can be paid is drying up quickly.
While those outside of the southeast may not like it, the superior conference now has the superior television deals and superior revenue streams. For many deriding the SEC for any number of reasons, you can’t dismiss the importance of these new contracts and the effect it will have on the landscape of college athletics for years to come.
Related posts
Tags: Deals, CBS, Big 10, BCS, espn, Fox, Pac-10, Big 12, NCAA Football, Bowl, Sports, NBC, Southeastern Conference, football, MoonDog, Revenue, Monies, MoonDog Sports, ACC, FSN
Topics: NCAA Football, Southeastern Conference |





























August 27th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I live on the East Coast…and I LOVE IT!
More coverage of the best conference in college sports please.
August 27th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
and what u thought i wouldn’t bite when i saw ESPN, HA lmao! good blog moondoggy. i reserve my actual BLURP for my own gig hehe.