SEC stays with CBS

[mattsarz]

Sample hedline goes here | ajc.com

www.secsports.com - CBS Sports and SEC Agree to New 15 Year Deal

For the next 15 years. They'll always have the 1st choice of games, something ESPN has in select weeks right now.

 

[SabresRule]

At least CBS knows what good college football is to use for their TV contract.

NBC, are you listening? (DUMP THE IRISH!)

 

[BillD1984]

This is AWESOME news!! :up If only Verne could be around for all those 15 years.

 

[SideshowBob]

I assume there is still no games the first two weekends of the season? Hopefully, they'll have more double headers than in the past.

And is it confrimed that any SEC Channel is dead? I know it was theorized when the Gators annnounced their large local rights deal, but I guess we won't know for sure until any cable and regional syndication deals are announced, right?

 

[mattsarz]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article says this has no bearing on the SEC channel and whether or not it gets off the ground.

I think they may now have the 1st two weekends as well instead of the US Open coverage. No idea though.

 

[anders5189]

CBS isn't dropping their coverage of the US Open any time soon as far as I know.

 

[SamCdbs]

The SEC is, simply put, the center of college football, with the best teams, and thus the only team that the casual unaffiliated fan will watch on an in-season basis. This is a tremendously smart move by CBS. The SEC is worth the money.

As to the SEC channel, this has nothing to do with it. Any discussion of an SEC channel begins and end with third choice (CBS 1, ESPN 2) games currently on Raycom syndication.

The SEC would be smart to stick with Raycom.

 

[SabresRule]

The SEC is, simply put, the center of college football, with the best teams, and thus the only team that the casual unaffiliated fan will watch on an in-season basis.

Even the pathetic teams?

I doubt casual unaffliated fans would watch Vandy/Ole Miss.

 

[mattsarz]

They were watching Ole Miss when Eli Manning made it worthwhile.

Here's some more info on the CBS gets 1st pick thing

Chattanooga Times Free Press | CBS deal with SEC extended

Today there are 10 overall "1st picks" because CBS is guarateed the Championship game, a game on the Friday after Thanksgiving, a 12pm game and a primetime game. ESPN gets three of those 1st picks (4th, 8th, 10th) to reserve games. This year they reserved Auburn-LSU on 9/20, Alabama-Georgia on 9/27 and Tennessee-S. Carolina on 11/1. ESPN will no longer have the ability to take these games from CBS in the future.

In that case, it sounds like ESPN will have the 1st couple weeks to itself while CBS has the US Open.

 

[SamCdbs]

I doubt casual unaffliated fans would watch Vandy/Ole Miss.

Your comment, of course, would be relevant, if Vandy/Ole Miss were ever to be a first choice or second choice game and thus on CBS or ESPN. However, since the SEC has so many great teams, that is unlikely to happen.

 

[Jimbo]

The SEC is, simply put, the center of college football, with the best teams, and thus the only team that the casual unaffiliated fan will watch on an in-season basis. This is a tremendously smart move by CBS. The SEC is worth the money.

As to the SEC channel, this has nothing to do with it. Any discussion of an SEC channel begins and end with third choice (CBS 1, ESPN 2) games currently on Raycom syndication.

The SEC would be smart to stick with Raycom.

Sam,
Sorry, but you fail to realize that the SEC is the Top conference NOW, but mat NOT be in 5-10 years, everything goes in cycles, you cannot say that it will be the top conference for the next 15 years.

Up here we get the SEC forced down our throats every week as well as the rest of the country I'm sure.
I RARELY ever watch a SEC game on CBS, unless I'm really bored with nothing better to do.
See, the SEC is top dog down south, but the people up here probably could care less as well as those on the West coast probably don't turn into CBS to watch SEC football either.

As for the SEC channel, it will be there in the next few years and it will be low on the pecking order, you will find that your favorite teams will be on it a few times a year, but your TOP games will be on the normal networks.
If you want to see how the pecking order will work, check out the Big Ten network, it will be about the same thing.
The BTN gets third choice games most every week, you'll see your favorite team playing on the SEC network in the early weeks of the season.
It's really a great idea for the fans of teams that are not watching the top teams ... Example :Ohio State will play a few early games and then the rest will bounce between ABC and ESPN, IF you want to watch Iowa and Minnesota or MSU and Penn State, you'll probably find those games on the BTN.

FWIW, IF (probably will) the SEC network opens up with HD channels, it will do fine. When the BTN opened up, they did not have HD channels and it was much like a RSN channel. Now that the have HD available for thier games (they had 1 HD channel at the time) it will be much better to watch.

Jimbo

 

[Madison Hawk]

Chattanooga Times Free Press | CBS deal with SEC extended

Other interesting items from this article:

1. The SEC is not getting any additional football coverage on CBS; they will remain at 14-15 games per year. I understand that the SEC was pushing for an increase in coverage including more prime time doubleheaders.

2. The SEC is getting less exposure in basketball on CBS, going from 18-19 games per season down to 14 games. Also, CBS will no longer televise the SEC basketball championship game.

3. I am guessing that ESPN will increase their coverage of the SEC in both football and basketball when that deal is announced.

 

[BlackHitachi]

BIG 12 and SEC!!!!:

 

[Derwin0]

Up here we get the SEC forced down our throats every week as well as the rest of the country I'm sure.

How is the SEC shoved down your throat? You can always watch another network (ABC/ESPN).

The SEC is very fortunate though to have an entire broadcast network to itself (not shared like ABC/ESPN is between almost all the conferences). For this reason, an SEC Network (cable only) is detrimental to them, having their marque game on network TV every weekend, and then all the lesser games regionally telecasted OTA by Raycom is a situation to be envied by all the conferences (except Notre Dame which has NBC to itself).

 

[mattsarz]

Other interesting items from this article:

Also, CBS will no longer televise the SEC basketball championship game.

When I skimmed the article, I thought it was going to continue to televise the championship game. That's a great catch. I wonder if that will be the thing that ESPN needs as a sweetner to stay in the game. Now that the Big 12 has moved their championship game to Saturday, I could see the ACC moving their game to 12pm instead of 1pm, the Big Ten moving their championship to earlier in the day on CBS, and the SEC championship at 2pm on ESPN.

As for the comment about the SEC being shoved down their throat, I feel the same about the Big Ten since I live in Ohio, though I fully understand why they are on TV in Cleveland. Fact is, there's enough options out there if you don't want to watch that SEC game on CBS:

ABC (whatever regional game they are showing)
ESPN/2 (Big Ten or another regional game)
CBS College (Navy, C-USA or MWC)
NBC (Notre Dame)
FSN (PAC-10 or Big 12, sometimes MAC in my area)
Versus (MWC, PAC-10 or Big 12)

I've dumped ESPN GamePlan starting this year, but last year I'd make sure I'd watch something other than what was on ABC since I frankly had enough of the Big Ten. One SEC game on CBS and one-two on ESPN are shown nationally every week. Every Big Ten game, via either ABC, ESPN/ESPN2 or BTN is shown nationally. It isn't just "shoved down peoples throats", they're gagging on it.

But people have different tastes and styles, so why begrudge them their favortite team or conference.

 

[Madison Hawk]

The SEC is very fortunate though to have an entire broadcast network to itself (not shared like ABC/ESPN is between almost all the conferences).

Agreed. The SEC's arrangement with CBS provides with a national network platform that only Notre Dame can match.

For this reason, an SEC Network (cable only) is detrimental to them, having their marque game on network TV every weekend, and then all the lesser games regionally telecasted OTA by Raycom is a situation to be envied by all the conferences (except Notre Dame which has NBC to itself).

I strongly disagree. Outside of CBS, the SEC's television arrangements are not that great. In 2007, the SEC had 19 games on ESPN or ESPN, on par with the ACC (19), Big Ten (17) and Big East (17). The Raycom package is very limited, televising only 14 games and having virtually no network distribution outside the South. Last year, the SEC had 18 games that were not televised at all and another 20 games that were only availably on a limited PPV basis. Approximately 20% were not televised at all and 44% of the SEC's games had limited availability outside the CBS/ESPN/Raycom/GamePlan syndication platforms. In comparison, other BCS conferences had much better distribution as follows:

ACC (26% of games not available on above platforms)
Big East (51%)
Big Ten (0%, all games televised, all but four in HD)
Big 12 (43%, too many exclusive windows like the SEC)
Pac 10 (19%, strong local package with local RSNs)

The SEC's current television package, other than the CBS deal, is very poor for a conference that thinks of itself as one of the top conferences. The best way to remedy that is via a SEC Network, similar to what the Big Ten did. Whether the SEC is able to pull that off remains to be seen.

 

[Madison Hawk]

Every Big Ten game, via either ABC, ESPN/ESPN2 or BTN is shown nationally. It isn't just "shoved down peoples throats", they're gagging on it.

Or feasting on it, depending on your perspective . Nothing beats 12 hours of Big Ten football every Saturday, starting with BTN pre-game show at 11:00 ET and ending with a prime time matchup on ABC or ESPN. :

 

[mattsarz]

One of the reasons the SEC has went to the model it did (as did the Big 12 until recently) was the decision that

a) networks wanted exclusivity
and
b) they wanted butts in the seats first and foremost

 

[mattsarz]

Or feasting on it, depending on your perspective . Nothing beats 12 hours of Big Ten football every Saturday, starting with BTN pre-game show at 11:00 ET and ending with a prime time matchup on ABC or ESPN. :

To each, his own. I don't begrudge it. Just have my own perspective of it.

 

[mccoyrj]

...Up here we get the SEC forced down our throats every week as well as the rest of the country I'm sure.
I RARELY ever watch a SEC game on CBS, unless I'm really bored with nothing better to do.
See, the SEC is top dog down south, but the people up here probably could care less as well as those on the West coast probably don't turn into CBS to watch SEC football either...

Jimbo

I live in southern Ohio and seem to get my fair share of both SEC and Big10 games.

As for the people up here not caring less about the SEC, the SEC games on CBS and ESPN are consistently the highest rated programs each week in the Cincy area, so they're definitely tuning in. And if you go to any sports bars to watch games, you get an equal amount of SEC fans as you do Big 10 fans every weekend (except maybe the OSU/Michigan weekend). SEC alumni groups are numerous and huge throughout the country. I've lived in Texas, Colorado, Wisconsin, and now Ohio and I've run across thousands of SEC fans in these areas. The South has risen again!

No matter what conference their team is in, I believe most knowledgeable college football fans seem to appreciate watching competitive, quality games. How can they argue the merits of competitive conferences if they only watch their own?