SEC TV Network announced

If the SECN brings back the Three Daves, I will be so, so happy.

 

Three games, three Daves. It makes too much sense.

 

U-Verse, my cable provider, has already announced they'll be carrying whatever gets slopped up.

 

The Pac-12 network gets the first pick of games 2 or 3 weeks of the season over the networks so it doesn't always get Utah or Colorado or the other dregs. SC and the other elite programs are on quite a bit, and the one-hour replays of current games or the 2-hour flashback of historic games are great.

 

The difference is that the Pac-12's No. 1 game isn't a national broadcast on CBS every week and its No. 2 game isn't on ESPN in prime time.

 

Yes but the Pac-12's network affiliates aren't paying the hundreds of millions per year that the SEC's are for the first-tier rights.

 

I thought there already was an SEC TV network. I could have sworn I came across it channel surfing. Carried softball, gymnastics, soccer, coach's shows, etc.

 

The Big Ten has every team play at least once every year on its network. It might be one non-conference and one conference, but I can't recall off the top of my head. (Obviously some appear more than once, regardless).

 

The SEC used to have that rule with the 11:30 game when it was Jefferson Pilot. The power teams usually satisfied their requirement whenever they played Vanderbilt.

BTW, is there a worse feeling for a sports writer in SEC country than finding out their team is playing in either the 11 a.m./11:30 window (which means a quick turnaround from Friday night football) or the 8 p.m. ESPN2 game? It's like finding out if you're going to have to hang yourself or shoot yourself in the head.

 

I'd let Chef operate on both of my big toes if every home game could be at 11:30 a.m.

 

We're about three hours from four different SEC schools. Just close enough to cover regularly, but not enough to merit a hotel stay. I've had way too many 2 or 3 a.m. bedtimes on Friday followed by 6 a.m. wakeup calls on Saturday, which are followed by a 12-hour workday when you throw in the drive on the front and back ends. It sucks ass.
Even as a fan, it sucks ass. Tailgating and night football are such a big part of things in the SEC that those early starts really crimp the gameday experience. Fans are either too hungover or not hungover enough, or driving in from a distance and skipping the pregame. Afterward, nobody sticks around to tailgate either. It's over early enough that they can get home in time watch the night games. The crowds tend to be deader, too, as if SEC football fans don't really wake up until about 1 on Saturday.

 

I agree with the general sentiment but one point of clarification -- FX is not televising any games this season. Those Big 12 games will be on Speed once it's rebranded as Fox Sports 1 in August.