re: How is the SEC not a huge loser in this round of TV deals?

Most casual fans go to ESPN.com for their national sports news on the internet. The CBS, Fox and NBC sports websites trail behind by a huge margin. ESPN gets about 80 million unique visitors a month. CBS, Fox and NBC get 67 million combined. You cannot discount how much online influence ESPN.com has.

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The big ten is going to be on 3/4 networks plus their streaming partners.

The SEC will only be on ESPN/ABC. On top of that they seem to be far higher in terms of their annual payout than we will get. The worst part of this is being totally beholden to Disney. Sankey will fold like a cheap suit to whatever Disney wants us to do.

We may still hold a competitive edge, but as far as being a fan, it sucks that we’re going to be stuck only on ESPN for the next few decades.

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Umm, what benefit do you get from having different channels?

As long as it's televised I'm fine. When I was a kid most games were not televised and I listened to them on the radio.

And it's not pay per view either like many games even 20 years ago.

I really don't know what the frick you are crying about honestly.

I brought this up a week or so ago. I don't think Sankey used all of his leverage on this deal. The deal was negotiated about 3 years ago, should have never been done that far out. The contract is far too long, about 5-7 years would have been better.

Even though the SEC is head and shoulders above the big ten as far as product on the field is concerned, it is not about that. It is about eyeballs on the TV screen. Big tenners watch that boring sub-par stuff.

ESPN/Disney had no competition regarding these contracts. That is not good. This should have been shopped around, imo.

The dude that was commissioner of the ACC got hornswoggled on their TV deal and it looks like Sankey may have been the victim of the same thing. My guess is Disney execs did a lot of wining and dining of Sankey and Co.

I am a fan of the game on the field but the business end of things always interest me.

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There are a large number of Americans who don’t have access to the full ESPN package.

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37% of Americans don't, but are those really the demo college football targets in the first place? They're likely not the individuals between 18 and 54 with disposal income to spare--the key demo advertisers are after.

Reality is in a few years it's going to be SEC and Big Ten and the other Power 5 conferences will be forced to join either one or be left out. College football will eventually be like the NFL. 2 Divisions split into regions. It's the Group 5 conferences that going to be screwed in the long run. The SEC and Big Ten will continue to be fine. College football is just about dead as we know it. Just a few more shovels of dirt to completely bury it. Time will tell when that is.