The new SEC Network is in for a fight.  Actually, it’s in for several fights.

As we’ve explained over the past several weeks, cable and satellite providers don’t like adding new channels.  That’s because they have to pay fees to new networks in order to carry (and re-sell) their programming.  Inevitably, the more they pay and the more channels they add, the higher your monthly bill rises.  The provider’s costs are passed along to its viewers.

Cable and satellite companies have tried to protect themselves from a large-scale subscriber revolt by bundling similar channels together.  Want premium movie channels?  You pay extra.  Want sports channels?  You pay extra.

More importantly, the family that doesn’t want extra movie or sports channels doesn’t have to pay any increased monthly fees.

But with so many channels now available, viewers are now growing tired of bundling, too.  A person might be willing to pay for the NFL Network and some extra regional sports networks, but that doesn’t mean he wants to be charged for the bull-riding or soccer channels.  Or vice versa.  A la carte programming is a desire shared by many.

On top of the “bundling versus a la carte” debate, many viewers are now choosing to get programming from a specific network by subscribing to that channel — or another provider — online.  More and more families are bringing content into their televisions via the internet with special TV hookups, video game consoles, or other devices/services.

Into all of that upheaval… enter the SEC Network.

Yesterday, Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News provided a broad overview of the current programming landscape and how the SEC Network might fit into it.  We linked you to it in our Sunday headlines, but in case you missed it, we wanted to push it again.  You should read it.

The more we as a society get used to instant answers to our questions — thanks, World Wide Web — the more we expect simple answers.  “When will I get the SEC Network?”  “How much will I pay for the network?”  “Can I just sign up for the network and nothing else?”

Unfortunately, as we’ve mentioned before, there are no simple answers on the SEC Network front.  Everything comes down to you where you live, your cable or satellite provider, and that provider’s willingness to cut a deal with ESPN/SEC.  Solomon’s column simply hammers home the point that how we view television is changing and that will impact the SEC’s new channel.

If you want simple, you’re outta luck.  The process by which providers add networks more often than not gets messy.  And the current television landscape — cable, satellite, bundling, a la carte, online, on-demand — is messier still.

Into all of that upheaval… enter the SEC Network.

The channel will make money and eventually you should be able to see it.  But you’d best be ready for a long, hard slog.  The Pac-12 Network, for example, launched last August and it’s still not on DirecTV.

How patient will SEC fans be?  Probably not very.  The thought of missing three football games every Saturday will likely lead some to pull their hair out, which is exactly what ESPN and the SEC are counting on.  The angrier you become, the more likely you’ll be to call your cable or satellite provider and demand the channel, thus upping the pressure on that provider to yield to ESPN and the SEC’s price demands (which will then be passed back to you).

What’s ironic is that before 2009 and the SEC’s twin contracts with ESPN and CBS, many SEC games weren’t on television.  After four years of nearly every SEC game getting national coverage, there’s now an expectation that any SEC game you want to see will be available.  Come next August, for some, that will no longer be the case.

Gerald Boudreaux is out as the SEC’s coordinator of basketball officials, a position he has held since 2006.  ESPN’s Andy Katz reports that the league — according to multiple sources — has decided not to renew his contract.

Boudreaux served as an on-court SEC official for 20 years (1986-2006) before taking over as the league’s grand poobah of officiating.

No reason has been given yet for the decision not to renew Boudreaux’s contract.  We have requested a comment from the SEC office, but none has come as of yet.

UPDATE – Boudreaux was contacted by Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News.  Via email Boudreaux wrote: “I will defer all comments to the commissioner’s office.”

Auburn at Arkansas

1. Jon Solomon’s message to Arkansas: “If you want to beat Auburn tonight, you better deliver the kill shot.”

2. Auburn freshman quarterback Kiehl Frazier grew up loving the Razorbacks: “It’s definitely kind of a dream come true to get to play in that stadium.”

3. Watch out for Auburn running back and Arkansas native Michael Dyer tonight.

4. Auburn’s goal is to make the Razorbacks offense one-dimensional.

Georgia at Tennessee

5. Georgia linebacker Christian Robinson: “It looks as if this will be the turning point.”

6. The matchup to watch tonight? Aaron Murray vs. the Tennessee secondary.

7. The milestone they’re reluctant to talk about.  A victory tonight would be the 100th of Mark Richt’s coaching career.

8. Tennessee running back Tauren Poole is a Georgia native who wasn’t recruited by the Bulldogs but he takes no offense. ““I don’t take it as an insult or anything.”

9. Georgia has the best chance to win the SEC East.  Says who?  Says the father of Tennessee’s coach.

Vanderbilt at Alabama

10. Vanderbilt’s theme (prayer?) tonight – keep it close and make the end of the game count.

11. It’s the number-one ranked scoring defense vs. the 117th ranked total offense.

12. Alabama’s offensive line is starting to gel.

13. Vandy needs its Alabama natives to step up tonight.

With rumors flying in College Station that Texas A&M isn’t happy, a possible Aggie move to the SEC has been all the talk in recent weeks.  Naturally, Mike Slive was asked about expansion today and Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News tweeted the commissioner’s response:


“I’m going to think about and do things that are in the long-term best interests of the SEC.  We’re going to continue to be strategic and thoughtful.  I’m going to leave it at that.”


Ah, so it seems we can sum up Slive’s expansion plan in one word…

1.  Mike Anderson will need buy-in from his first Arkansas team.

2.  Here’s a look at LSU’s 2011 football chances… from an Auburn point of view.

3.  Kudos to Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News for compiling a list of the time-killing lists most often posted by websites in June and July.

4.  Gene Chizik says he hopes his new book gives folks encouragement because “everybody lives their 5-19.”  He wants them to know that their failures can be overcome… just as he grabbed a national title two years after posting his own 5-19 record at Iowa State.

5.  Here’s more on Chizik’s new book.

6.  AU freshman receiver Jaylon Denson is present and accounted for on The Plains.

1.  Former Auburn coach Pat Dye is fine with big salaries, but he’s not a fan of big incentives and bonuses on top of big salaries.

2.  Another scandal?  Take one part Ole Miss-MSU recruiting battle.  Add in social media (naturally).  Add one Range Rover.  Let simmer on SportsByBrooks.com.

3.  South Carolina’s Melvin Ingram is the SEC’s 23rd best player — according to The Gainesville Sun.

4.  And the paper also says Auburn versus Mississippi State will be this year’s 24th best SEC game.  (Gotta love List Season.)

5.  Here at MrSEC.com, we cover the 24 football and basketball programs in the SEC — which is quite hectic enough, thank you.  But with Florida and South Carolina battling for the national baseball title this week, we bring you this link to a good piece on how the SEC’s success coincides with an increase in spending on the sport.  (As always, kudos to Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News.)

1. Tennessee and the NCAA – the day of reckoning has arrived. Lane Kiffin will make an appearance.

2. Today’s activities will add another $25,000 to the Volunteers legal bills.

3. Cross two names off the Tennessee AD search. A few names to watch here.

4. Bruce Pearl better watch what he says about his former employer.

5. Jon Solomon on Gene Chizik: “Is he the game’s next great coach? Is he a one-year wonder propped up by Cam Newton and Gus Malzahn? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between?”

6. Kentucky wants a contract extension for John Calipari.

7. The best coordinators in the SEC.

8. Judge orders mental exam for Harvey Updyke.

9. Do you have a tweet for Harvey?

10. A trip to Africa is one a contingent from Kentucky will never forget.

11. LSU basketball and the Italy diary.

12. Former Florida linebacker Godfrey Miles dies of a heart attack at the age of 42.

13. Kentucky recruit beats Kentucky.

14. Arkansas guard Jeff Peterson is leaving the Razorbacks basketball team.

Extra

15. Revisiting the 2004 National Championship.

Three years ago, the SEC signed a pair of dynamite contracts with ESPN and CBS that caused the eyes of sports fans to bug out of their noggins.  Three years later — as is often the case with mega-contracts — other leagues have reached and passed the bar set by the Southeastern Conference.

So will the SEC act?

In Destin, Mike Slive said that he was pleased with the built-in escalators in the league’s contracts.  But he also said the SEC would chat with ESPN about the college sports/television landscape “at some appropriate time.”

“It’s a chance for the two of us to sit down together and look at what’s going on in the world of intercollegiate athletics and television at the time, in the event that changes in technology and other options are available.  It’s a chance to discuss whether or not any adjustments should be made in how we do things.”

While the commissioner says that he is “very comfortable” with the league’s TV deals, he also added the following: “We’ve been known to be creative and do things that other people haven’t done.”

Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News — who has become the de facto “business reporter” on the SEC beat — does an excellent job of breaking down the league’s television options in a lengthy piece posted today.

Among the highlights:


1.  The SEC’s pact with ESPN prevents the league from starting its own network like the Big Ten, the Pac-12 or the University of Texas.  But might the league someday consider its own channel?  “We’ll sit down at some point and do a look-in and see where we are.  I’m going to leave it right there,” Slive said.

2.  The SEC’s goals in its last television negotiations were — according to Slive — to provide financial security for the league’s schools and to gain more national exposure for its programs… “not to be the national leader in TV revenue,” as Solomon puts it.

Last year, ESPN aired 1,600 hours of programming devoted to the SEC and its schools.

“We didn’t sacrifice anything,” Slive said.  “If you want to do some math, you might want to compare the last 12 years of our agreement to the first 12 years of the Pac-12.  I think you’d be very surprised at just how things line up.”

3.  Future developments in online technology will continue to play into the SEC’s and ESPN’s thinking.  The conference has recently launched more live streaming programming on its own digital network while ESPN’s expansion of its ESPN3.com brand has brought added exposure to the league.

The SEC is getting plenty of press — and heat — over the 25-man soft cap that it imposed on its football signing classes last week.  Some groups say the league went too far and has placed itself at a disadvantage.  Other groups complain that the SEC didn’t go far enough.

But most everyone agrees that the SEC’s presidents goofed when it came to one particular piece of its new policy — the grad student exemption.

Mike Slive and the league’s presidents said that the the loophole allowing graduates at one school to transfer into the SEC with one year of eligibility as a grad student was being exploited for athletic, not academic purposes.  And to be honest, that’s correct in most cases.

However, there are still two flaws in the SEC’s decision.  First, the rule was designed to reward students who do exactly what the league’s presidents should want them to do — get their diplomas.  Why disincentivize in that area?

Second, the SEC’s ruling to ban those who want to join the league for only a year — and only for athletic purposes — said nothing regarding the league’s one-and-done basketball stars.  Obviously, it’s harder to legislate against what someone is going to do in the future, but if you’re going to pick one type of one-and-doner to support, wouldn’t the best option be the guy who has already gotten his college degree as opposed to the kid who’s simply killing time until he can enter the NBA draft?

Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News puts it this way:


“One-and-done players without degrees on the front end?  No problem.  One-and-done players with diplomas on the back end?  No way.”


In reality, the league’s presidents were guilty of overreacting to the negative publicity given to the league over last year’s Jeremiah Masoli-to-Mississippi story.  Much of what the SEC’s presidents did in Destin was about PR and much of it was good, but Masoli is hardly the poster boy for the grad student exemption.  It’s rare that a school would go after a grad student who has been booted off his last team for illegal activities.  Masoli was the exception, not the rule.

In most cases the players seeking the grad student exemption are good people and — obviously — pretty decent students.

The SEC did some good things last week in Destin.  But its presidents were way off base on this one.

1.  Kudos to Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News for trying to count up all the juco signees in America over the past few years.  His conclusion: Most SEC schools sign an average of two per year.

2.  Alabama assistant Burton Burns has been ranked as one of the nation’s top recruiters.

3.  This site is relentless in its attempts to take down Auburn’s football program.

4.  Arkansas’ win at Vanderbilt on Saturday gave the Hogs a 25 spot bounce in the latest RPI rankings.

5.  UA’s Rotnei Clarke was named the SEC’s Player of the Week.

6.  There’s no official word yet on the discipline Razorback receiver Lance Ray will face after being arrested for having a joint in his dorm room this weekend.

7.  John Calipari says Larry Brown told him that Andy Kennedy “can really coach.”  Tell that to angry Rebel fans who aren’t happy about a 1-5 league mark.

8.  Ole Miss is calling on fans to wear red for a “red out” against Kentucky tomorrow night.

9.  Mississippi State got a much-needed win over Florida on Saturday but the Dogs still need to get better defensively.

10.  In case you didn’t know, the SEC West stinks in basketball this year.