The Walt Disney Company is preparing to commence its first season broadcasting Southeastern Conference football under a new 10-year media rights deal. Ahead of the matchup between Miami and Florida on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 3:30 p.m. EST, ESPN revealed that it has re-orchestrated its college football theme song from the late 1990s-early 2000s for the broadcast property. This revitalized theme song is a collaboration between the SEC, ESPN Music, the college football production team at ESPN and composer Bob Christianson, who also scored the NHL on ESPN theme song.
The new musical composition presents elements of nostalgia and passion for viewers familiar with the SEC on ESPN broadcast property, and it will introduce these elements to the next generation of football fans and viewers of the ABC Network. This new orchestration will be used exclusively for SEC home games on ABC, including those in prime-time television during ABC Saturday Night Football and the noon EST window earlier in the day.
“Music is a crucial element in shaping the storytelling of any broadcast,” Burke Magnus, president of content at ESPN, said in a statement. “The opportunity to resurrect a theme song that means so much to college football fans, and so many of us at ESPN, was important as we start this new chapter in our relationship with the SEC.”
The ESPN College Football theme song has been utilized across several notable broadcasts within the former property itself, along with a variety of additional applications. ESPN previously presented SEC football games in prime time on Saturday nights under a past media rights agreement.
The new contract ensures that ABC will air an SEC game every week during the season and will also be the home of the SEC Championship. ESPN+ also has the right to stream one non-conference football game and two non-conference men’s basketball games per SEC school in every season of the deal. The network is now officially adding a soundtrack to its graphics package that it unveiled earlier in the year as it makes the final preparations for the official launch of the college football broadcast entity.
“By reaching into the past and connecting with the present, ESPN is bringing a touch of tradition to a new era of televised SEC sports,” Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said in a statement. “This re-orchestrated composition will enhance the presentation of SEC football on ABC by bringing a bit of nostalgia to the SEC’s new Saturday television experience.”
