SEC CONFERENCE GETS $2.25 BILLION TV CONTRACT FROM ESPN

Georgia Sports Blog is reporting via Street and Smith Sports Business Journal that ESPN has agreed to pay the SEC conference $2.25 BILLION dollars for the next 15 years for exclusive television rights not currently owned by CBS. Essentially it comes out to $15-17 million per year per team in the SEC conference and would bring in more TV revenue to SEC doormats like Vanderbilt and Mississippi State than the big boy national powers like Notre Dame, USC, and Ohio State among others.

All I can say is wow! The SEC conference pulled a major coup by inking a deal with ESPN that will make them the powerhouse of college football. Already dominant on the football field, now the SEC conference will control the amount of press conferences and sports talk you see daily on The World Wide Leader. No longer can one bitch about Notre Dame having it's own television contract when schools such as Ole Miss and Arkansas make more per year on their television contract. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and hell probably the Ocho will now be dominated with SEC football games every Saturday in the Fall. CBS appears to still have the rights to the best SEC football game of the week at their 3:30 slot and it still isn't clear as to what will happen with ABC since they are owned under the Disney corporate umbrella. Will ABC now have the rights to televise SEC football games? More than likely no but it should get interesting to see what a conference like the PAC-10 now does for their television rights.