The conference signed a mega deal with CBS about two weeks ago, which virtually killed the idea of an all SEC network, but today the SEC TV dream has officially ended. There was still a slight chance though seeing as ESPN hadn't yet signed a contract of their own and in turn getting CBS' "leftovers", but yesterday the "Leader" inked a 15-year deal of their own. Thus ending an all SEC TV discussions....

The Southeastern Conference already has a new 15-year CBS contract in hand, and this week the league will announce a similar 15-year deal with ESPN (and its family of networks) to televise everything that CBS doesn't. Because of the maximum exposure provided by both networks, the SEC athletic directors decided this past week in Orlando that there won't be an SEC network. The ultimate conclusion was that each school has its own pay-per-view and re-telecast agreements, and that web was not worth untangling, especially after CBS and now ESPN has backed up the Brinks armored car to the SEC vault.

So there you have it. The SEC is in the hands of CBS and ESPN until the year 2023 and if you're a College Football fan, this isn't a bad thing at all. The games from arguably the best conference in the country will all be readily available to most, if not everyone and Verne Lundquist will be calling games until he's 94 years old. Good times.

Oh and does anyone want to know the grand total of the contract? A cool $2.25 billion. The deal should be announced by ESPN later this afternoon.

SEC drops idea to start own TV network; deal set with ESPN (Commercial Appeal)

Television deals rarely even get over a handful of years, let alone ten. That's why it came as a such a surprise that CBS and the SEC agreed to such a long one today. The two sides inked an uncommon 15-year deal to keep their current arrangement going when the deal runs out in 2008. Via the AJC....

In an unprecedented deal between a national network and a college athletic conference, the SEC and CBS on Thursday announced that they have agreed to a 15-year contract extension to televise that league’s football and men’s basketball games. Financial details of the deal were not released.

The current contract between the SEC and CBS was scheduled to end after the 2008 season. The two parties have been negotiating for the entire year.

“This is a great day for CBS,” said Mike Aresco, the Vice President for programming at CBS. “The SEC is the gold standard for college athletics. It has been a great conference for 76 years and that will never change. We love the enthusiasm and the way the fans support the game.”

Aresco said that CBS and the SEC talked about several different options when it came to the length of this contract.

“But at the end of the day the comfort level is so great and the trust is so great that we decided to lock this in for the long haul,” Aresco said. “This is a great deal for both sides.”

That's a heck of a long time, and I don't think there's been a contract this long in the history of College Sports. With this news it also seems highly unlikely that the SEC would still be considering a network of their own, but it's not entirely out of the question.

SEC signs landmark TV deal with CBS (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

The Big Ten Network was somewhat of a disappointment considering the giant mess between the channel and Comcast. Hopefully the SEC can do a better job. According to Conference Commissioner Mike Slive, the decision is likely to come this fall....

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive says the league will make a decision on its television and multimedia rights this fall.

The TV deals with CBS, ESPN, Raycom Sports and FSN South run out at the end of the academic year.

Slive said at SEC football media days Wednesday that the options include an SEC Network similar to the ones started by the Mountain West and Big Ten conferences and the NFL.

Slive said criteria the league is considering include the ability to provide national exposure and to air events for other sports besides football and basketball.

I understand the idea of your own network on the surface, but the SEC doesn't really need help in exposing itself. Basically every single game is on TV and the CBS deal already gives them their own channel basically. If it's more money that's one thing, but they certainly won't get anywhere near the same exposure.

Slive says SEC will decide on television plans this fall (SI)

EDSBS has come across one of the best made for You Tube songs ever and it just happens to be put together by none other one of Mississippi Coach Houston Nutt's offspring. Sure it has nothing to do with Sports, but since you had to deal with that "Who's Hotter Zac Efron" ad where he was taking his shirt off for months I thought you'd enjoy it.....

Anytime you can add the words rot, rubbing, The Nile, and naming your child Larry to a song.....it's going to be winner.

LET'S MAKE OUT!

Houston Nutt's Daughter Loves Zac Efron (EDSBS)

We'll call it the "Lundquist-Danielson Tim Tebow Mention Game". The wonderful Cats and Beer has put together a video of all the times that the CBS duo mentioned Tim Tebow's name during their game against FSU last year. Just amazing....

"He's the quarterback you most want your daughter to marry."- Gary Danielson

If I was a mother I'd want my daughter to marry someone like Matt Ryan. You know someone that has a chance at an NFL career.

Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow (Cats and Beer via Hot Clicks)

Being someone who has sneaked into a Sports Conference Call or two (hi CBS!) this just cracked me up. The SEC was conducting a call with the Womens Basketball Coaches of the Conference when they were attacked! Attacked by prank callers.....

The prank callers, who were claiming to be legitimate reporters from actual media outlets, managed to get on and ask at least six questions to more than half of the league's 12 coaches. The questions were graphic in nature and included inquiries about coaches having sexual relations with players and players' performances based on their menstrual cycles.

"It was a little surreal," said Wilson, who was moderating the call between the media and the head coaches.

"The very first question that was asked, honestly, I thought this was some crazy media person who was trying to ask a question and didn't know quite how to ask it," she said.

Tom Collen, the Arkansas coach who was asked the first faux question, also seemed to think something similar because he responded to it as if it were a legitimate question.

Not only did they pose as actual media members, they even waited for other legitimate reporters to ask questions and then pretended to be that person. Genius if you ask me. I think it'll be pretty easy to trace these back to a group of dumb College kids and the SEC can go about dominating Sports (according to their fans).

Prank callers disrupt SEC coaches' teleconference (Kentucky.com)

This still doesn't mean he can't change his mind, but CBS' Tracy Wolfson asked Les Miles if he'd be around next year and he emphatically stated yes.

Good job by Brando to call the report "erroneous". Way to slip that in there Timmy.

God this game felt like it was going to go on forever, but in the end Arkansas ended up knocking off LSU in three overtimes. Just a great game, and this sends the BCS into a complete tailspin.

How crazy is it that Kansas is the #1 Football team in America? Well that's if they take care of business tomorrow. West Virginia looks to be in if they can win out, and pesky Ohio State finally lucks out by ending their schedule early. They can just sit and wait out the carnage. Bastards.

There are no words to describe this clip....just watch.....

The "Soulja Boy" has officially jumped the shark folks. Old white people kill everything in the end.

Yes You Did See That (EDSBS)

Everyone knows that ESPN basically has all Saturday Morning to hype up whichever ESPN Game they have at 3:30 or night game they are airing on ABC. They head to Oregon, Nebraska, etc. to get the buzz going about their televised games early. Rarely does ESPN travel to a site where a CBS game is to take place, but they'll be doing so this Saturday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Now if I were CBS I'd be pissed because ESPN will have all morning to let people know about Ohio State-Purdue that evening on ESPN while CBS waits until 3pm to remind people about Florida-LSU. So how does CBS plan to counteract this publicity for ESPN? How about sending their national morning show crew there on Friday......

Although the ESPN College GameDay crew is going to be at LSU all day Saturday, network television is getting a jumpstart on Friday.

CBS and “The Early Show” will be reporting from LSU starting at 6 a.m. Friday to soak in some of the pre-game activities and tailgating. Dave Price, “The Early Show” weather anchorman and features reporter, is appearing live at LSU.

That's right ESPN! CBS will send their regular news staff a full day ahead of you to get press for their game! What are you going to do about it? Not a damn thing. Everyone's going to be watching FLA-LSU over OSU-PUR anyway, but I still thought this was an interesting and sneaky tactic by CBS. Bravo Eye!

Big game lures TV networks (2TheAdvocate.com)

(Thanks to reader JP for the tip)

I mentioned last week that CBS was not making any friends at LSU by choosing them with the "Six Day in Advance Rule" and moving their start time from 7:45pm to 3:30pm (even after waiting for ALA and ARK to finish playing). Well they invoked the rule again this week, and SEC fans are really starting to get ticked. LSU Fan and reader JP wrote in to vent.....

I would like to see another entry related to your "CBS Toys With SEC Fans" post last Friday or Saturday. I made the responses related to how LSU was angry about the decision. You have no idea how angry LSU fans were at CBS about the decision, because we feel like we were lied too. I know this because I am a lifelong LSU fan and LSU undergraduate. And I feel like your entry and supporting article expressed UGA's outrage as well.

Well, now it's time to review what CBS did this week. They pulled the "six day window" again because they didn't want to choose between Alabama/FSU and Florida/Auburn. So then, on Saturday, Alabama lost while Florida and Auburn both won. So what does CBS decide on Sunday? Of course! They go with Alabama/Florida State. This time, they leave Florida and Auburn hanging after they both do what they were supposed to do (while Alabama didn't).

And as an SEC partisan in general, I think it is offensive that CBS opted for a team barely hanging on to its Top 25 ranking playing out of conference against an UNRANKED team, instead of a big-time SEC in-conference showdown featuring the #3 team in the country. Yes, Auburn is down this year, but it should still be a good game (hell, they're better than Ole Miss). And it is also a revenge match (Auburn was the only team to beat Florida last year).

I am completely at a loss on this one. Again, why did they hold the option over Florida's head if they were going with Alabama, no matter if they won or lost?

Thanks for taking the time JP and we feel your frustration. I guess the only good news is that they only get two of these six day rules a season and they've used them both up. The regular cushion of 12 days will be in place the rest of the season, which still isn't a lot of time if you've made plans for something different.

CBS Toys With SEC Fans (Awful Announcing)

Update: LSU and Tulane are apparently unveiling some new gear and the proceeds go to Rebuilding New Orleans. Be sure to grab a shirt or two.

There's a ton of upside for just airing one conference's games for College Football, and especially if it's the best conference in the country at the moment (don't even give me that Pac-10 nonsense). Well there's also a ton of downfalls as well and one of those is becoming a big issue with SEC fans.

CBS has a pre-determined schedule but is allowed to have up until 12 days before a Saturday to change what matchup they'll be setting up shop at (which doesn't seem like a lot of time at all). The SEC also allows the network two times a year to have a 6 day cushion to say whether they are switching games for the weekend. This weekend is one of those times and Georgia fans who were planning on heading to the stadium at 3ish now have to wait until 7pm.

That's why Georgia fans like Walter Corish did not learn until Sunday night that Saturday's game at Alabama would start at 7:45 p.m. CBS took South Carolina-LSU at 3:30 p.m. and left the Bulldogs for prime time on ESPN.

"I don't like it a bit," the Savannah native and long-time Georgia season ticket holder said. "It's incredibly disruptive for a lot of people."

CBS, in fact, has exercised its second six-day option for next week because it wants to wait until Sunday before choosing between Auburn at Florida and Alabama vs. Florida State in Jacksonville.

"I understand that television pays a lot of money, but when this happens I just don't think college football is serving its customers well," Bruce Dixon of St. Simons said. "It's difficult making travel plans 12 days from the game. To get a hotel you really have to book almost a year in advance. And when they move the game to night you end up with a hotel room you might only use for one night, but you'll have to pay for two. It's just not fair."

I never said network programming and the industry was easy, but you can only piss off fans for so long. The article goes on to say that the whole decision really didn't even make sense. They waited until after the Alabama-Arkansas game and still chose South Carolina-LSU. Thus the Alabama-Georgia game is pushed to 7:45pm and ESPN on Sunday. It's a tough spot to be in, but you need to be smart about which two times you use the extra six days. Last week really made no sense.

SEC fans subject to whim of CBS (Atlanta Journal Constitution )