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Welcome to my first monthly college football column. I will write here once a month about all that is going on in college football and I will provide my take on it.
Once the season starts, the column will be published weekly right here on The Bleacher Report.
In addition, I will go around the nation with conference reports, news and notes, picks, and my top 25.
Let me know what you think of the column.
SEC Adds to its College Football Monopoly
I know this deal has been done for quite some time, but with the football season right around the corner, it has to be revisited.
The SEC signed an outrageously huge deal with ESPN and CBS that allows those networks to become the exclusive homes of all things SEC.
The deal is for 15 years and over $3 billion. No, that is not a typo. That’s billion with a “B.”
Under this deal, every SEC football game will be televised regionally by the ESPN family of networks, with ESPN crews and announcers. ESPN is also allowing each school to televise one game via pay-per-view each year.
It is estimated that the 12 SEC schools will split $130 million this year, and $230 million next year as a result of this new package.
This deal includes more than just football, but football will obviously benefit the most from the deal since the sport is life and death in the south.
The increased money and coverage helps with recruiting, visibility, and could drastically improve a league that was already far and away the best in the country.
As if the conference that I love needed any more of an edge in college football.
Yes, I am an SEC homer. Yes, I love the SEC. Yes, I think the SEC is the best conference in the nation. Yes, I think the brand of football that is played in the SEC is by far the best anywhere.
But I do not like this deal. As a matter of fact, I hate it. I love the fact that I’ll get to watch a lot of SEC football, but the SEC is only 12 teams out of 120.
Since when is it fair that 10 percent of a sports organization gets 90 percent of that organization's coverage?
It reminds me of MLB—where the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Angels, and Mets not only dominate the overall coverage, but additionally have a ton of money to spend as a result of that coverage.
We all hate the Yankees because they have a $200-million payroll, their own TV network, and a $1 Billion-dollar stadium.
Why would I view this any different? I’m a fair person. Sports should be fair. It should be a level playing field.
Sure, I know that ESPN will still cover the Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 10. I know that the Big East and the ACC will still have plenty of games available nationally. But the money that the SEC is getting is ludicrous.
Just like the money and notoriety that Notre Dame gets from NBC is ludicrous.
Where do conferences like the Sun Belt, WAC, Mountain West, MAC, and Conference-USA go? What do they do for money? How can those conferences ever make it to respectability when the deck is so stacked against them?
I absolutely despise the way that the NCAA runs—or more accurately—doesn’t run things.
This all goes back to the BCS mentality of school presidents and the tradition-loving millionaires who continue to funnel money into college athletics and leave the little guys out.
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