The moment that it was announced that the SEC was leaving CBS and bringing all of its television inventory to Disney, it was clear the college sports landscape was shifting. When it was announced that Oklahoma and Texas were leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC, the power of the league was undeniable. Now that we know the moves will happen in 2024, more of the answers about just how powerful the conference will be once it is in business with Disney are coming into focus.
Oklahoma and Texas were scheduled to join the SEC after the 2024-2025 school year. The two schools have been working on negotiating an early exit from the Big 12. FOX, one of that league’s primary media partners, had been standing in the way of a deal getting done.
Late Thursday night it was announced that each school would pay a $100 million exit fee to leave the Big 12 a year earlier than scheduled.
“We could literally program a game at Noon Eastern, 3:30 Eastern, and then that prime time window on a particular Saturday,” SEC Commissioner told Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic Friday morning on JOX 94.5 in Birmingham. “Now, ESPN and ABC have other contractual commitments, but that is an illustration of the breadth of reach that we are about to experience.”
The 2023 college football season will be the last one that sees the conference’s top game played on CBS each week. Sankey said the conference was happy with the relationship but saw opportunities to increase its national profile by partnering with Disney.
“We respect and appreciate our relationship at CBS, but our move to work under the Disney heading was about more than just revenue. It was about reach – reach through broadcast TV, reach through cable and satellite which obviously is a changing environment, and then what Disney has done in the digital world is unlike any other of the traditional legacy media entities.”
Disney’s digital assets are of particular interest to Sankey. He told McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning that not only do they give the SEC a chance to play with scheduling, but it also allows the league to play with how the broadcasts look.
