ESPN indicated a desire to increase its payment to the dry if the conference adds a ninth match to its league football calendar, said informed sources of the question Athletics.
There is not yet an official offer, these added sources and the exact amount of the increase must still be completely negotiated. But the sources have said that additional money would likely be around 50 to 80 million dollars per year in addition to the current agreement, in which ESPN pays $ 811 million per year to disseminate its sporting events. ESPN and the SEC refused to comment.
A change of ESPN position does not mean that the dry will certainly spend nine conference games. From now on, the main obstacle to the expansion of the league calendar could be the future format of playoffs for university football, which will only be determined at least in June. This makes it less likely – but not impossible – than the SEC makes a decision on a time format during its spring meetings later this month in Destin, in Florida.
However, ESPN’s desire to go up its bet is an important development, because it was one of the main bonding points among enough dry members to resist the thrust of nine games. When the SEC announced the addition of Oklahoma and Texas in July 2021, the momentum to a calendar of nine games increased instantly, with Commissioner Greg Sankey among the private private sectors. (Sankey finally made public his preference earlier this year.)
But in the past four years, the members have expressed enough opposition for the conference to have rather opted for a temporary solution of eight football hours for 2024 and 2000, the first two seasons with Oklahoma and Texas. Part of the concern was competitive, especially among the teams worried to reach the eligibility threshold of six victories. Part of the concern was economical: a calendar of nine games means that schools could play a home game less every two years, and they wanted ESPN to help.
One of the reasons why Sankey and the SEC opted for the temporary calendar of eight games was the hope that the success of the inaugural season with Oklahoma and Texas would encourage ESPN. And that seems to be exactly what happened.
The two new dry schools were part of memorable and very well rated games, including their annual rivalry of the Red River River and the two defeats of Texas against Georgia on national stages. The dry championship match between the Bulldogs and Longhorns was the best -classified game of the university football season, and at least one SEC team was involved in eight of the 10 most well -rated games of the regular university football season.
Another consideration for the League is the matches that would not occur regularly if the dry remained with a calendar of eight games. The format of eight games would only understand only one permanent opponent for each team, so that certain very well rated rivalries would only be played twice every four years, notably Texas-Texas A&M, Alabama-Tennessee, Alabama-Ls and Auburn-Georgia.
If the dry went to a calendar of nine games, all these matches would be played each year. These clashes are all part of the 2024 and 2025 schedules, an insufficient way for the dry to show ESPN which could be missing. (The format of the eight game calendar could always be changed to account for these games, but the conference did not do this.)
As for the CFP format, the SEC is waiting to see if the post-season field will extend to 14 or 16 teams and if automatic offers will be installed in the new format; The dry and big ten discussed the push for four offers each. When the SEC only obtained three teams in the field of the 2024-25 eliminatory series, the concerns about other snobs immediately increased the feeling of the league about eight games. The introduction of automatic offers can respond to these concerns, but the momentum for their addition to the CFP structure may have blocked.
“One of the problems of the room for our directors of athletics is what seemed most important, is the number on the right, the number of losses, and how do we understand what it means for our schedule?” Sankey said in March during an appearance in the show Paul Finebaum. “I am the one who said that I really think that we should try to progress to a conference calendar of nine games. I think that can be positive for many reasons. You are looking at the interest around conference games. But not if that makes us lose opportunities.”
Another factor in a potential move of eight match slates: the SEC worked closely with the Big Ten, which plays a conference calendar of nine games, and the Future Planning Partnership League could explain the same number of opponents of the League. The SEC could also be content with stronger insurance than the calendar strength imports the CFP selection committee and assume the risk of an additional conference game in order to collect financial advantages. The new money that would direct each ESPN school would probably not even represent half of the more than $ 20 million that schools will be allowed to distribute to athletes as part of a new income sharing system from this summer, but that would still help.
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