The Southeastern Conference, where the rich keep getting richer. The powerhouse athletics conference announced on Thursday plans to partner with ESPN on a new 24-hour television network dedicated to all sports. The network will air 45 football games throughout the season and will become another source of income for each school. As details of the highly-anticipated network were announced, South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier is calling for some of that revenue to be given to players.
Come August of 2014, the new SEC Network will hit the airways. The conference partnered with ESPN on a deal that runs through 2034, the longest sports rights contract to date. SEC Commissioner Mike Slive declined to reveal financial terms. The network will air three college football games per Saturday, which includes an afternoon game that will compete with CBS who has a contract to aire on SEC game each Saturday afternoon. It will also air more than 100 basketball games per season. The two parties have also reached a distribution deal with AT&T U-Verse.
The SEC Network will generate high amounts of revenue for each school. The Big Ten Network brought in a reported $7.9 million for each school in both 2011 and 2012. It is expected the SEC Network will generate a similar amount, if not more.
With the extra money set to be given to each school, the age-old debate of paying athletes is coming back into play. Spurrier has voiced his support of the idea in the past and is now echoing those statements with the new television deal.
"My question is, 'When are we going to start giving a little bit of it to the performers?' Football and basketball players. It won't do any good probably, but I'm going to still keep yelling for them. They bring in an awful lot of money for all of us," Spurrier said in light of the announcement.
Per NCCA rules, collegiate athletes are not allowed to accept money and still play. The players are responsible for creating much of profit in college sports and yet get nothing in return until they can become professional. Spurrier is not the only one making this statement, Slive appears to be in his corner. Slive suggested the idea of another division of football for the larger, more successful teams, and that division paying its athletes. The idea was brought up once before and immediately shut down. The power schools certainly have that leverage over mid-major conferences. For now, the playoff system will likely lock out mid majors from competing past the regular season.
The announcement of the network is just another example of how the power conferences continue to keep the upper hand. With the Big Ten Network and the Pac-12 Network, it is the recent trend to keep the money pumping into the big schools.
