Andy Kennedy lost his job as head basketball coach at Ole Miss in February. He immediately signed a deal that kept him on SEC Network through the end of the conference’s men’s basketball tournament. Kennedy apparently impressed his ESPN bosses, because he is now joining the company full time.
The former coach will appear as a studio analyst on multiple ESPN Networks including ESPN, ESPNU, and the SEC Network. Today is his first official day of employment. He is in Birmingham as part of the SEC Network’s coverage of the conference’s basketball media days.
“Having been a part of college basketball for over 28 years as both a player and a coach, including the last 12 seasons as a head coach in the SEC, I’m very excited to join the team at the SEC Network,” Kennedy said in a press release. “Coming off an unprecedented season with eight SEC teams earning NCAA Tournament bids, this league has never been better.”
Andy Kennedy wasn’t the first recently released head coach to find work at ESPN during his sport’s postseason. He is one of the few that has turned the assignment into a full time job though. The company will have plenty of work for him too. Between the TV networks and ESPN+, ESPN plans to carry play-by-play coverage of nearly 2900 college basketball games this season.
