Georgia TE Ty Flourney-Smith will likely transfer to a junior college with a return to Athens a possibility
Alabama coach Nick Saban: “We don’t think football’s a dangerous game, so we don’t worry about guys getting injured.”
CBS has announced that its first SEC Game of the Week in 2013 will be Alabama’s visit to Texas A&M on September 14th
ESPN has announced that radio host Paul Finebaum will start a new radio show that will be simulcast on the SEC Network
LSU athletic director Joe Alleva says that Texas A&M will likely replace Arkansas as the Tigers’ end-of-season opponent beginning in 2014
LSU G Corban Collins will transfer from the Tigers’ basketball team
Florida C Will Yeguette had arthroscopic knee surgery yesterday
Follow the SEC every single day at MrSEC.com

SEC Football

1. Georgia tight end Ty Flourney-Smith is transferring.  Played eight games last year without a catch. Could he return to the team?

2. Indoor practice facility not a priority right now at Georgia.  Mark Richt: “Do we have to have it? I don’t think we have to have it, but like I said it would be nice to have it.” UGA athletic board approves $92.3 million budget.

3. Will Georgia have the best offense in the SEC in 2013?  MrSEC has an opinion. What about Florida State/Georgia in 2016 – “long, long shot.”

4. Alabama coach Nick Saban on high school all-star games.  ”We don’t think football’s a dangerous game, so we don’t worry about guys getting injured.”

5. CBS will kickoff its SEC coverage this fall with Alabama at Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon, September 14th. How the SEC bowl schedule shapes up for 2013.

6. LSU closing 2014 season with Texas A&M?

7. South Carolina A.D. Ray Tanner on non-conference scheduling: “I was very much involved in doing the deal with North Carolina for the 2015 opener in Charlotte.”

8. Why South Carolina “has a chance for a special season.”

9. Vanderbilt coach James Franklin with some Twitter advice.

10. The future is now for senior Ole Miss defensive back Brishen Matthews.

11. Andy Staples on SEC scheduling models: ”The SEC has tossed tradition before, and sometimes with happy consequences.”

SEC/College News

12. Former Alabama A.D. Mal Moore posthumously honored as Athletic Director of the Year.

13. Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium listed as one of the nine most unique fields in sports.

14.  Email from University of Tennessee’s vice chancellor for student life - “intolerable situation.”

15. Tim Tebow’s name brought up in connection with the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit against the NCAA.

SEC Basketball

16. LSU guard Corban Collins leaving, looking to play at another school.

17. None of Kentucky’s freshmen will take part in the U19 World Championships this summer (neither will sophomore Willie Cauley-Stein). John Calipari: “Most of it is, they didn’t want to play. I’m not forcing kids to do anything,”

18. Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes and Florida’s Michael Frazier II get invited to the training camp.  Bill Donovan is the coach of the team.

19. Florida’s Will Yeguette underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Wednesday.

20. Harvard assistant coach Yanni Hufnagel joining the staff at Vanderbilt. Dan Wolken: “Big -time move”

21.  NBA scout on former Missouri guard Phil Pressey. “I like his energy, he’s a good passer, he just has to realize he’s not Nate Robinson.”

22.  Cleveland has the No.1 pick but it doesn’t mean former Kentucky player Nerlens Noel is headed there.

Extras

23. Sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all.  European Tour CEO tries to defend Sergio Garcia:  ”Most of Sergio’s friends are coloured athletes in the United States…”

24. Auburn one of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

25. The cheapest 25 pro sports teams to watch in person.

The return of Paul Finebaum is underway.  The former syndicated radio host will be introduced on various ESPN radio properties throughout the day. 

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Finebaum would be leaving Birmingham for Charlotte and a new job with the four-letter network.  That gig will include a new ESPN radio show, 100 TV appearances per year on ESPN’s television networks, and a television simulcast of his new radio show on the just-as-new SEC Network once it launches in August of 2014.

ESPN has put out a press release on the hiring today.

The move makes sense on a number of levels for ESPN and the SEC.  First and foremost, it’s cheap programming.

This week, ESPN reportedly whacked some 400 employees in a massive staff cut designed to enable the Haliburton of sports to meet its budget projections.  ESPN has paid billions of dollars to professional leagues and college conferences for the rights to air their games.  They’ve snatched up star on-air and online talent from their competitors time and time again.  At some point, selling enough advertising to cover all those costs was bound to become a concern (as those dismissed by ESPN this week have discovered).

Facing the need to lay people off and with a brand new all-SEC channel fueling on the launch pad, ESPN needed to find some cost-efficient programming.  Enter Finebaum.  His work will be seen and heard across multiple platforms.  A simple simulcast of his radio show — a la Howard Stern, Dan Patrick and others — costs basically nothing.  Stick a couple of cameras in a room and just air what radio listeners are already hearing.  Smart move.

Finebaum also provides the new SEC Network with an anchor personality that ESPN can build programming around.  Three or four hours or programming per day are now locked into place.  There’s now a face to put on billboards, a character to use in on-air promotions.  It’s not just the SEC Network for sale at this point, it’s the SEC Network with Paul Finebaum.

Over the years, Finebaum has gained a reputation for being able to stir just about any pot.  Consider him the Woody Woodpecker of radio sports coverage, an instigator of the highest class.  And nothing is better for ratings — TV or radio — than a controversial host.  If you track it backwards through Rush Limbaugh’s heyday to the 1980s rise of Morton Downey Jr. and beyond you’ll find that those radio hosts who’ve become the biggest stars have typically had two kinds of listeners — those who love them and those who hate them.  When folks choose to tune into someone they do not like just to hear what he’s going to say next, that’s money in the bank.  And that’s Finebaum.

ESPN officials are also surely counting on a number of Finebaum’s craziest callers to tag along as the host moves from one outlet to another.  Anytime this site has questioned Finebaum’s decision to give the nuttiest nuts on the fruitcake a voice on his radio show, we’ve always been met with cries of “You just don’t get it” from the Finebaum faithful.  (Which is pretty much exactly what I used to say to my father about Guns ‘N’ Roses and NWA.)  Many, many, many people tuned into Finebaum’s old show just to hear the lunatics.  Remember, it was on Finebaum’s Birmingham-based show that Harvey Updyke first admitted to poisoning the trees at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn.

Bizarro callers who’ll insult one another like pro wrestlers and conspiracy theorists who believe the world is out to get their favorite team are ratings gold.  It’s reality television for radio.  I can’t relate to it, but millions of Americans actually enjoy watching and listening to numbskulls as entertainment.  If some of the same screamers and hollerers who backed Finebaum before join him once again, that’ll be a good draw for the new SEC Network.

But while Finebaum’s callers could drive ratings, they could also hurt the league’s image.

Assuming some of the loons do follow Finebaum to ESPN and the SEC Network, the stereotype of dumb, redneck Southerners will be amplified outside the SEC footprint.  Both ESPN and the SEC have said that they want the SEC Network to get into as many homes nationally as ESPNU.  That’s a lot of homes.  In a lot of places.  All pointing and laughing at the insane followers of the SEC who will dial up Finebaum’s show.

Read the rest of this entry »

Vanderbilt coach James Franklin opposes potential move to nine-game schedule..
…”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Tennessee A.D. Dave Hart on coach Butch Jones:  ”I think he’s off to a very, very good start in terms of galvanizing our fan base.”
Alabama coach Nick Saban on preparing for Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel: ”I think that’s an ongoing process around here.”
Saban has recruited or coached 111 NFL players, 33 of them at Alabama
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany on the status of expansion: “Dead is a strong word”
Thanks to U.S. Open tennis shifting to ESPN, possible to see more early SEC games on CBS starting in 2015
Follow SEC news year-round at MrSEC.com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/mrsec

A MrSEC.com analysis shows that teams winning the turnover margin have won 71.8% of SEC conference games since 2007
The SEC and Big XII will launch a new basketball challenge in the upcoming season.  All 10 Big XII teams will take part, while SEC teams Arkansas, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee will be left out in this first year
Auburn has hired a consulting firm to help athletic director Jay Jacobs get the Tigers’ program turned around
The SEC and CBS have reworked their contract, but no increase in payment is expected for the league
CBS did wave its exclusivity to the Saturday afternoon timeslot, allowing the league to place an afternoon game on the new SEC Network starting in 2014
Florida offensive line coach Tim Davis told Gator fans that his former boss, Alabama coach Nick Saban, is “the devil himself”
Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs on basketball coach Tony Barbee: “Now he’s got to produce… We’ve got to look for results.”
Follow the SEC all year long at MrSEC.com and twitter.com/mrsec

After the SEC and ESPN unveiled the new SEC Network and some of their programming plans for it, Mike Slive referenced the fact that the SEC and CBS had also agreed on a new deal.  As part of that deal, the SEC Network will be able to air an afternoon game each Saturday which means CBS had to agree to nix its exclusive hold on that timeslot.

What else changed in the reworked agreement is unknown.

CBSSports.com’s Jeremy Fowler writes that the terms of that agreement “are expected to remain intact,” meaning the deal will still run through 2023-24 and that the network will continue to pay the SEC $55 million per year for, basically, one game per week and the rights to the SEC Championship Game.

According to Fowler’s source, “the renegotiation also included the exchange of non-revenue assets that weren’t disclosed by a source.”

So did expansion pay off for the SEC if the CBS deal remains the same?

Absolutely.

While each school’s split of the CBS revenue will be smaller — $55 million divided by 15 as opposed to $55 million divided by 13, with the league office always taking a full share — the new revenue stream created as a result of CBS’ acquiescence on the exclusivity front will more than make up for that shrinking portion.  Think of it like a meal… if CBS is the appetizer — cash-wise — and ESPN the main course, the appetizer will get smaller but the main course will get larger.

If Fowler’s source is correct and CBS is not having to pay more money to an expanded SEC, that’s a win for the network.  It’s product can also be rebroadcast by ESPN on the SEC Network which is promotion for CBS’ SEC game of the week programming.  Whether any CBS advertisers will get “bonus” runs on ESPN remains to be seen (Aflac, for example, will get more eyeballs for its weekly in-game trivia question with a re-airing on the SEC Network).

Also, CBS continues to have the first pick of SEC games each week.

For the SEC, they’ve given up nothing (that we know of) other than the potential for greater revenue from CBS.  In exchange, they’ve given themselves the opportunity to air three college football games on their new network each Saturday which should help the channel get cable and satellite carriage more quickly.  And ESPN will be throwing money at the league for the right to broadcast those SEC games whether the network gains immediate carriage or has to fight for it slowly.

One other point: Assuming the SEC is still a juggernaut in 2023-24 — and the league’s financial outlook suggests it will be –  and live football games are still pulling enormous ratings for networks, the SEC will be able to put its game of the week package back on the open market and cut a new massive deal with CBS or another distributor in 10 years.

With the information we currently have in hand, this renegotiation appears to be a win for both the Southeastern Conference and CBS.

Out with the old and in with the new.

Once there was a day when the over-air broadcast networks dominated.  Now, cable and satellite networks are turning those over-air broadcasters into “just another channel.”

Gasps were heard when ESPN nabbed the BCS games and college football’s championship game starting in 2011.  Turner Sports surprised as well when it became CBS’ broadcast partner on the NCAA Tournament in 2011.

Moving some of those basketball games to cable certainly hasn’t hurt ratings.  This past year’s tourney was the most-watched in 19 years.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Turner (and cable) are getting an even bigger part of the tourney package moving forward.

It was announced today that TBS will now begin splitting Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, and championship games with CBS.  In 2014 and 2015, TBS will get the semifinals and CBS will handle the finals.  In 2016, TBS will air the championship game, marking the first time in the history of the tournament that its final game will be broadcast via cable.

The proliferation of cable and satellite television viewers over the past decade helps to explain why the SEC — which took a measured approach to launching its own television channel — has decided that the time is right to create an SEC Network (with ESPN).

How long cable and satellite will rule, however, is the question.  With more television content being delivered online every day, the window for cable and satellite outlets could be much shorter than that of the well-aged over-air broadcast networks.  Which is why the SEC spent as much time touting the online/digital portion of its new ESPN deal as it did pimping its new television property last week.

Eyes forward, folks.  Eyes forward.

Today in Atlanta, the Southeastern Conference and ESPN took the lid off of their new joint venture, the SEC Network.  Below are our quick takes and rapid responses to what was learned today:

*  The SEC brought in 32 head coaches for the event.  One by one the coaches (from various sports) were introduced.  Impressive, but slow.  The message: “Our coaches are a big part of why we’re great.”  Gotcha.  Next?

*  ESPN and the SEC announced that they have extended their overall media rights agreement through 2034.  No contract in sports television is longer.  The positive is that the SEC is now locked into a partnership with what’s currently the the biggest name in sports for two decades.  A positive negative?  Markets change.  Just as the SEC’s dual contracts with ESPN and CBS signed in 2008 were eventually passed, this pact will set a new bar for other conferences to take aim at as well.  You can bet the SEC worked automatic escalators — or “look-ins” — into this deal.  Just how strong those escalators are will determine how wise it was to sign such a long-term agreement.

*  Mike Slive: “For the first time a conference will launch a network with its primary media rights partner.”  As we wrote in mid-April, this deal is about much more than just a television channel.  ESPN and the SEC will now be able to bundle inventory for sales purposes which will drive league revenue through the roof.  Slive said the fact that the conference is creating a network with its main media rights partner allows the league to move its properties “across platforms seamlessly.”  As we told you two weeks ago, the network is big… but the overall partnership is even bigger.

*  Content will include 1,000 live events per year split between the channel and the digital network (online).  That includes three SEC football games per week (45 total) and more than 100 men’s basketball games per season.  The key?  Those three football games per week.  As we noted — again in mid-April — the fact that ESPN already own 95% of the SEC’s football content gives the league an opportunity to put more “good” games on its channel at start-up.  That should create greater demand from viewers and in turn put more pressure on cable and satellite providers to carry the channel.  Make no mistake, you will be used for leverage.

*  AT&T U-verse was announced as the SEC’s initial carriage partner.  Not to sneeze at AT&T U-verse, but the fact that a more well-known provider such as DirecTV, Comcast or Time-Warner isn’t onboard already might give you a pretty good idea of what ESPN and the SEC are charging for carriage.  Meaning: A lot.  Asked about other distributors, ESPN’s reps pointed out multiple times that AT&T U-verse is the fastest growing distributor in the country.  Fine.  But you the viewer need to prepare for the carriage battles we’ve warned you about.

*  Slive refused to detail any ownership details regarding the network.  “The actual details we’re just not going to discuss at this time.”  So we’ll have to wait a bit longer to learn if this is a 51/49-type split between the league and the network or if the SEC is simply being paid a healthy per-year sum by ESPN.  (We’ve come to believe that the latter is the model that’s been adopted, just as ESPN pays Texas an annual sum for their Longhorn Network partnership.)  Slive also said he would not reveal financial projections or distribution projections for the network.  ESPN’s reps said that they want complete coverage — like ESPN itself — in the 11-state SEC footprint.  They also pointed out that the SEC Network is a “national network.”  On a national scale, ESPNU’s distribution was mentioned as a goal for the SEC Network on a national scale.  ESPNU gets into about 75 million homes across the country.  Cha-ching.

*  Only two Thursday night football games will be played over the course of a season and there will be no new weeknight package of games.  (Good.)  Each Saturday in the fall, then, the SEC Network will carry three games per day — meaning one at noon, one in mid-afternoon, and one in the evening.  CBS has agreed to allow a game to go head-to-head with its SEC game of the week.  That’s very, very big.  That shows you the strength of the SEC, as you can be sure CBS does not want any competition in the 3:30pm ET time slot.  But the network agreed to it anyway.  CBS will continue to have the first pick on games each week.

*  Slive said he anticipates further discussion of a potential nine-game football schedule.

*  “The network will be priced efficiently and effectively,” according to ESPN’s reps.  Those reps also made sure to point out that they are not asking consumers to pay anything.  Of course, they are asking the carriers to pay for the channel and they know full well that those costs will be passed on to the consumers.  Semantics.

*  As expected, the network will be based in Charlotte at ESPN’s regional hub.  It’s launch date was announced as August of 2014.

*  UPDATE — Buried in the SEC’s Q&A sheet (linked to below) is this nugget: “The Network will televise the SEC Championships for all sports other than football.”  If that’s correct, you’ll need the SEC Network if you want to watch the SEC men’s basketball tournament championship game in March of 2015.  That’s a bit surprising.

*  UPDATE — Also tucked away in the Q&A sheet is the fact that the SEC game of the week that airs on CBS can be re-aired on the SEC Network.

Some additional info can be found below:

*  For information on SEC Network availability, click here.

*  For a full press release from ESPN and the SEC, click here.

*  For easy answers to questions about the network in a simple Q&A format, click here.

And if you’re wondering what 32 coaches, two players, a conference commissioner, an emcee, and two ESPN reps look like on one stage… here ya go:

There has never been a league- or school-specific network like the soon-to-be-announced SEC Network.  In terms of immediate appeal, it will be unmatched.

The Big Ten Network doesn’t have what the SEC Network will have.  The Pac-12′s networks don’t have it, either.  Not Texas and it’s ESPN-owned Longhorn Network.  Heck, not even the NFL Network.

Right now, you’re probably thinking I’m talking about super-duper, A1, top-o’-the-line college football.  But that’s not it.

Perhaps you think the SEC’s new channel will be a big success because of the passion of its fans.  That might help, but that’s not what will set the network apart.

ESPN is what will set the network apart.  More specifically, the SEC’s all-around partnership with ESPN will set the network apart.

As you know, the key to making money with a cable channel is tied more to subscribers than it is the highly volatile world of television ad sales.  Ad sales are seasonal.  Ad sales are impacted by ebbs and flows in the economy.  Subscription prices are steady.

To make the most money in the current environment — before all programming becomes a la carte via internet connections — a network must get carriage on as many cable and satellite systems as possible.  Working out deals with those providers has been the biggest pain in the neck to date for anyone and everyone who’s tried to launch a brand new channel.

In simple terms, the owner of the new network sits down with Comcast, Time-Warner, DirecTV and others to hammer out monthly fees that those providers must pay the owner for the right to carry its network.  Many times the providers don’t even want the network.  So when the owner overprices the channel — and that’s always part of the game — the providers quickly balk at overpaying for something they don’t want in the first place.

That’s where you enter the picture.

The owner of a network will begin to put programming it believes you want on its channel.  The more quality programming it can put on its channel, the more you’ll want it.  Theoretically, the more you want it, the more you’ll call your own cable or satellite provider to demand it.

Even better from an owner’s perspective is when, for instance, one satellite-provider agrees to carry the new network while a competing provider refuses.  If you, the viewer, decide to switch providers in order to get the network you want, oh, that’s a big help.  Let a provider start to lose subscribers to the competition and changes can come quickly.

Boil all this down and the plan is simple: Good programming goes on network… viewers want that programming… viewers demand their cable and satellite providers carry the programming… providers pay for the network and the programming in order to retain their clients.

At that point the providers pass the price along to you, of course, by way of monthly subscriber fees.  Maybe the new channel becomes part of your provider’s “sports pack” or maybe it’s a stand-alone entity.  Either way, your monthly bill will go up a little bit because of that new network.

So the absolute must in all of this?  Put good programming — games in a sports network’s case — on the new channel.

This is where the SEC’s monster deal with ESPN comes into play.

Read the rest of this entry »

A report surfaced at the end of March indicating Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy nearly took the job at Tennessee in December.  Gundy even told Jeremy Fowler of CBSSports.com, “At some point, that’s where we thought we were going to go.”  In the end, Gundy decided to stay and Tennessee hired Butch Jones but that hasn’t stopped questions about it.

Why did Gundy reveal details about something that didn’t happen? Here’s what he told a group of local reporters in Oklahoma.

“What I have tried to do is just be as up front and honest as possible. And the truth of the matter is what I said (in the CBS piece). And that’s really the easiest way for me to handle it, because there is nothing really else to say.

“I can’t make something up. I just basically will say, ‘This is what happens and this is the way it is and go on down the road.”

Reports and rumors had linked Gundy to the coaching searches not only at Tennessee but Arkansas as well. He was asked if either school made an official job offer.

“I really would rather not comment, for respect out of both schools. There are conversations that go on with those situations that are private …

“But I think what I would say is I was treated very well by both schools. They were very up front and honest, and (we had) very positive discussions that actually can help us here.”

One of the reasons Gundy reportedly considered leaving Oklahoma State was over tougher non-conference schedules. According to Fowler, Gundy believed the tougher schedules  didn’t maximize the team’s chances of winning a national title.