BRISTOL, Conn.—ESPN has announced a new contract that will bring the South Eastern Conference’s Saturday afternoon college football game to ABC starting in 2024. This will end the three-decade relationship that the SEC has had with CBS.
The deal is for 10 years and will give ESPN exclusive media rights to SEC football and men’s basketball through the 2033-2034 seasons, including the SEC Championship game. ESPN already had a deal with the SEC that resulted in the SEC Network on the sports broadcaster.
CBS had been airing the SEC’s afternoon centerpiece game and the conference’s football championship since 1996.
In the move to ABC, there will still be an SEC game at 3:30 p.m. ET each week. However, it may not always be the “marquee” matchup it was on CBS. ESPN has the flexibility for the first time to use SEC games as ABC’s Saturday Night prime-time game.
For SEC men’s basketball, the deal now exclusively puts conference games on ESPN networks, and will include the right to put games on ABC.
