ESPN president of Programming and Original Content Burke Magnus spoke recently with John Ourand and Andrew Marchand about ESPN’s outlook on future collegiate programming. In that conversation, Magnus mentioned that when the Texas Longhorns land in the SEC, their institution-centric network, the Longhorn Network, would merge with the SEC Network.
Currently, Texas and Oklahoma are slated to join the SEC in 2025. As part of the recent media deal negotiations, it appears Texas is prepared to depart with their channel. On The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media podcast, Magnus detailed how that would look:
“Ultimately, that (LHN) will be folded into the SEC Network,” Magnus said. All that content that you find on the Longhorn Network is sometimes called third-tier, sometimes called institutional. It is the content that, like any other SEC institution, would be expressed through the SEC Network. So what we don’t know there is the precise timing on Texas and Oklahoma. Obviously, if they run their course, which we’re perfectly fine with, it’s 2025. If it’s something before that, that has to change your timing on that process at well. But at its essence, those two things come together.”
