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ESPN Buys Rights to SEC Games for 15 Years - for $2.5 Billion
25-Aug-2008
Written by: E. Van Dril
CBS previously had the rights.
Widely considered the best college football conference in the country, the SEC made a ton of money today after ESPN bought the rights to all of the conference's games, multiple sources are reporting.
The SEC announced a 15-year deal with ESPN Monday that shuts down the idea that the conference would start their own network - like the Big 10 did last year (with a great deal of difficulty, specifically being unable to reach a deal with Comcast to carry it on their cable receivers).
The SEC will be tied up through 2024 with the network, and although the amount of the deal has yet to be announced, it is being reported by the Sports Business Journal that ESPN paid the conference $2.5 billion.
The deal gives ESPN a great deal of big time college football and basketball games. It also brings in, according to the Hollywood Reporter, several lesser national championship games and Olympic events.
ESPN said Monday that it will use several of its mediums to show the SEC's games - ESPN2, ABC, ESPNU, ESPN.com and others.
The ESPN deal is in addition to the one the conference recently signed with CBS, which gives the network exclusive rights to one high profile football game each week.
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