SEC TV projections - updated

Printer-friendly versionSend to friendHere are revised early guesses/projections for SEC TV in 2009. As always, this projection is offered as a guide as to how the schedule might unfold, and especially for adjusting as surprises develop during the season. Also, some assumptions have been made on how ESPN’s expanded new SEC coverage will look. I bet Stats Man never thought it would be this crazy when he first got me into this in the late 1990s.

This is the first year for new TV agreements signed last August with CBS and ESPN worth around $3 billion over 15 years to the SEC. Fans and especially athletic departments hope they still have all that money to dish out and won’t need any bailouts!

As part of this deal, ESPN is working with cable operators in the SEC area to get greater access for ESPNU – and in the process avoid the access problems that have plagued the Big 10’s TV network. Comcast recently announced it is adding ESPNU to its lineup before the start of the season.

Under the new contracts, CBS has first pick of games every week. CBS will have its game each week at 3:30 ET. It also gets one 12 noon game and one prime time game per season. The US Open Tennis Tournament is Aug. 31-Sept. 13 so CBS will not televise the first two weeks of the season. In early April, a CBS exec discussed their plans with David Paschall of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press.

ESPN owns the remainder of SEC TV rights and will make announcements on how it will handle its SEC inventory at Media Days (July 22-24, Hoover, AL). The Birmingham News is beginning to fill in some of the gaps and Georgia Sports Blog summarized some of the info.

In addition to the information in the Birmingham article, I will make a few other assumptions for this projection.
• The ESPNU game will typically be in prime time - say, 7:00 ET.
• The ESPN regional games are indicated here as “ESPN-R.” Kickoff for these games will be about 12:20 ET.
• On occasion, an SEC game at 12 noon ET provided it is not in conflict with CBS. This will be rare, though, since ESPN/ESPN2 12 noon slots are typically used for Big 10 or Big East games.
• In May, CSS announced it will carry some football games and other SEC events over the next five years. For this projection, it will be assumed the time slots will vary and 5-6 games will be shown. CSS will work with ESPN and the SEC to choose its games. Other subcontractors who might eventually be involved (such as Fox regional sports networks) will have similar conditions.
• Games not included in the projection may also be televised, but no guess is made here as to how those will be handled by ESPN on its various platforms or by subcontracting out.
• No game is projected to kick off earlier than 12 noon ET.

Here goes with a projection – all times eastern. Games confirmed as of posting are boldfaced

September 3 (Thurs.):

South Carolina at N.C. State – 7:00 ESPN

September 5:

Western Ky. at Tennessee – 12:20 ESPN-R
Georgia at Oklahoma St. – 3:30 ABC
La. Tech at Auburn – 3:30 CSS
Charleston So. at Florida – 7:00 ESPNU
Alabama vs. Va. Tech (ATL) – 8:00 ABC
LSU at Washington – 10:30 ESPN

In prime time, ABC opens with Bama-VT (ATL) and ESPN will have Oklahoma-BYU (DAL) in the opening of the new Cowboys stadium.

September 6 (Sun.):

Ole Miss at Memphis – 3:30 ESPN

Other week one SEC games: Missouri St. at Arkansas, Jackson St. at Miss. St., Western Carolina at Vandy, Kentucky vs. Miami, OH (Cincy)

Props to the schedule maker at Western Kentucky; this will be the third time in the last four years they have opened against an SEC team and gotten TV exposure in addition to a big payday. Also expect no complaints from ESPN on getting to debut its ESPNU package with Florida raising championship banners.

Note that most of the action this week is outside of the SEC’s TV contracts.

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