SEC Signs 10-Year Deal With ESPN to Broadcast Football, Basketball Games Starting in 2024

ESPN is about to be the exclusive home of SEC football and basketball. On Thursday, ESPN and the [...]

ESPN is about to be the exclusive home of SEC football and basketball. On Thursday, ESPN and the SEC announced they had reached a 10-year deal starting in 2024 that will make the network the exclusive right's holder for football and men's basketball. This deal means SEC will stop broadcasting games on CBS after the 2023 season.

This new agreement was born from a strong foundation which began almost 25 years ago and now reflects a shared vision of the future with the SEC, commissioner [Greg] Sankey and their member institutions," Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and sports content, said in a statement. "With all the conference's games under the ESPN umbrella and adding ABC and ESPN+ to our distribution channels, ESPN will have complete scheduling flexibility, resulting in maximum exposure and adding significant benefits for SEC schools and fans."

The deal provides ESPN and ABC with 15 premier football games including the SEC Championship game and rivalry games such as Florida vs. Georgia. ABC will also air an SEC game every week, including a late-afternoon kickoff. The network will also have the option to feature an SEC game for ABC's Saturday Night Football. The SEC Championship will air on ABC in the late afternoon time slot.

"This is a significant day for the Southeastern Conference and for the future of our member institutions. Our agreement with ESPN will greatly enhance our ability to support our student-athletes in the years ahead and to further enrich the game-day experience for SEC fans around the world," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. "One of our primary goals was to improve the television-scheduling process in ways that will benefit our students, coaches, alumni and fans. By working in collaboration with ESPN, we were able to secure an agreement that includes more lead time for many game-time announcements, and in many ways modernizes the college football scheduling process."

This move also benefits the streaming side of ESPN. With the deal, ESPN+ will have the right to stream one nonconference football game and two non-conference men's basketball games per SEC school each season. ESPN already has a strong relationship with the conference due to the SEC Network. CBS currently has the rights to air the top SEC football game of the week and the conference championship game.

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