Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Report: SEC set to launch their own TV network, announcement in April

Mike Slive

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive talks with reporters during the 2012 SEC Basketball Media day in Hoover, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

AP

According to a report from Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports, the SEC is getting set to announce the launch of a TV network in a similar vein to that of the Big Ten Network.

49% of BTN is owned by the conference, while 51% of it is owned by Fox. The SEC is expected to partner up with ESPN.

“Our focus for now is on our tournament and the NCAA tournament,” Slive told Forde. “We will make a formal announcement about the SEC Network in mid-April.”

The SEC already makes gobs of money off of their football product. This deal would make them even more profitable; just look at how much money Big Ten schools make off of BTN, and then think about how many more eyeballs will be drawn to SEC football games.

And you think realignment is dead? Ha! Look at this juicy nugget from Pete Thamel yesterday:

All five major conference commissioners privately acknowledge that realignment isn’t done. And the next logical evolution will inevitably be a poaching of the ACC.

When will this happen? That’s the biggest question among athletic directors and TV executives right now. No one knows the answer. But this much is certain -- there’s nothing that’s happened in the last three years that suggests that realignment will just stop.


C.R.E.A.M.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.