re: The actual theme song for SEC on ABC

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Yep that sucks. Nothing will ever top the SEC on CBS

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Nor will anyone top Gary and Brad.

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I’m obviously talking about Greg Sankey failing to get the right deal with CBS,

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CBS had a sweetheart deal from years and years ago and wanted that same sweetheart deal again. IIRC, CBS balked at paying market value to renew the contract with the SEC

Here's a brief synopsis of what happened from a yahoo article. It dates back to when Slive was commissioner. And it was the SEC presidents on the same page with the commissioner. CBS was being cheap and wanted to keep being cheap.

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In May 2008, inside a meeting room at the Hilton Sandestin along the panhandle of Florida, SEC athletic directors gathered to hear the news: The league was in the final stages of renewing its agreement with CBS.

In one of college football’s richest television deals, they were told, CBS would pay roughly $825 million over a 15-year period, or $55 million annually — roughly double what the network gave the league in the previous eight-year contract.

“The room was celebratory,” said Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, the only AD present then who is still in the league. “It was a big deal. It gave us stability and staying power.”

However, only a few years into the deal, issues arose.

In 2012, the SEC expanded to add Texas A&M and Missouri to become a 14-team league.

While CBS owned rights to the No. 1 football game each week — as well as two doubleheaders a year — ESPN owned all other SEC games. When the league expanded, ESPN paid what is described as “pro-rata,” increasing distribution from 12 units to 14 to account for the two new schools.

CBS declined to do the same.

Despite multiple attempts from Slive, the network refused to distribute an extra two units. The issue became a years-long tussle between Slive and SEC presidents against the network. It served as the first real fissure between the parties — one that widened as time passed.

“Every time this contract came up in conversation, there wasn’t much love for CBS,” said R. Bowen Loftin, the former Texas A&M and Missouri president who is now retired. “They did us no favors. I felt, and we all felt, they owed us something.”

But a compromise was, indeed, struck around the expansion, said McManus, then president of CBS Sports. It just didn’t involve money.

In the original contract with CBS, the network owned the three-hour exclusive window starting at 3:30 p.m. ET. No SEC games could kick off during that stretch. After expansion, the network permitted the league to air games during that window on the SEC Network, which started that same year as the Aggies and Tigers entered the conference.

“That was the exchange in value,” McManus said.

Others look at it differently.

“The $55 million is burned in my brain. It never went up,” said Machen, who presided then over the SEC presidents and chaired the league’s media rights committee. “They just dug their heels in. They would not move. I don’t know why. We thought CBS would fold. We thought they would get competitive. We thought at the end of the contract they’d fear losing us and it would bump.”

Over the course of several years, Slive and the SEC made a series of short-term ultimatums to CBS. “We’d say, ‘OK, you’re not going to get away with this small amount much longer!’ and we’d push another two or three years,” Machen recalled.

Nothing worked. Nothing changed.

In fact, the qualms between league administrators and the network only grew.

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By the time 2019 rolled around — a decade into the contract — CBS held, by far, the No. 1 single-game weekly package in all of college sports and yet only paid about $3.5 million per game. For comparison's sake, ESPN will soon pay around $20 million for that same game.

For CBS, that’s the sign of a strong deal, some say.

Mike Aresco, now commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, worked with McManus and the late SEC consultant Chuck Gerber in striking that 2008 renewal agreement. He acknowledges that the deal was “favorable” for CBS.

“That’s when the SEC won seven straight championships,” Aresco said. “Then it became really valuable.”

The SEC finalized the 2008 agreement during the exclusive negotiating window with CBS. The league never took the package to market, something that may not have produced great results, said Womack. Neither NBC nor Fox was interested. And ESPN already had secured the cable portion of the SEC’s deal. ABC inked deals with other leagues.

“You look around at the competition in the marketplace, it wasn't that much,” Womack said. “That CBS package has proven … look, like most long-term deals, you look back and the agreement might not look as good as when you did the deal.”

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In the end, two entities vied for the SEC’s weekly top football game rights: CBS and ESPN.

Sankey describes the negotiations as “straightforward rights conversations,” and while he declined to reveal specifics, he told Yahoo Sports that he entered with the “first priority” as renewing with CBS.

What happened?

“I respect that CBS had to make decisions. CBS understands we had to make decisions,” Sankey said. “Everybody makes decisions. I’m a more forward-looking person.”

McManus said the separation was “amicable.” The financials just didn’t make “sense” for both parties.

“There was no hidden agendas,” he said. “We went into it trying to make a deal that we thought benefited both sides. It was as simple as that.”

ESPN and ABC made an aggressive play. Toward the end of the negotiations, the network’s offer increased to at least $300 million for the 15-game package. But talks went beyond money. Having all of a league’s broadcasting rights under one single network umbrella provided flexibility and control for the conference when it comes to kickoff times — a key issue in the decision, Sankey said.

ESPN ultimately landed the package.

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LINK

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It was just a hype video (don’t know how people don’t know the difference)

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Um.. it was a demo video of their graphics package and it's not surprising people assumed that would also include sound track.

Also, that song is just as bad. frick ABC. frick ESPN. frick Sankey. And frick You.

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Its like an 80's primetime drama, like Dallas or Falcon's Crest.

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Lol first thing that came to mind for me was the old Mario Golf & Mario Tennis games

Sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon intro. That was really bad.

I get Dallas, Charlie’s Angels and maybe Rockford Files

Honestly the music is the least of my worries here. I prefer the old callback to that ESPN music (man makes me think of Ron Franklin who was my favorite analyst). They could do much worse with some new style something. I’m amazed how many here don’t remember or recognize that variation on the old ESPN music.

The actual video content and graphics are just really bad. I can’t believe they couldn’t come up with something better than that. Show more SEC teams, even the details are horrendous. Texas does not have burnt orange face masks on the helmet. To whomever said it just looked like something AI would shoot out, you’re correct.

CBS song was great, nothing was going to beat that…

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Honestly the music is the least of my worries here.

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frick you go back to the Big XII.

Ok, just so I get this straight.

People are bitching about the new song for ABC which is a rework of the old ESPN song from the 80s saying the song is old, etc.

However, they point to the CBS song, which was also from the 80s and used LONG LONG LONG before the CBS had the SEC.

Do I have that right?

It will be interesting to see if it grows on people over the next couple of seasons.

It's not trashy or annoying IMO. It would be better with a marching band sound. I equate college football with marching band music, not today's rap or hip hop.