SEC football TV:Answering who picks when

[orange+white=heaven]

How and when CBS or ESPN makes it's game selections is a frequently asked question here at the Nation.

On Saturday, a piece in the Times Free Press was presented that sheds a great deal of light on a process that tends to confuse us all at times.

Here's the link.....CLICK

And here are some highlights on the selection process...

Mike Aresco and Dave Brown may have the easiest assignments in all of Southeastern Conference football.
Aresco, the senior vice president of programming for CBS, and Brown, ESPN's vice president of programming, are in charge each winter of selecting the top 10 SEC games for an upcoming season. After those picks are made, the rest of the games go into a weekly pool where, during the season, CBS has first choice, followed by ESPN, Lincoln Financial and ESPN2.

CBS and ESPN already know which marquee SEC games in 2007 will appear on which network and with what kickoff time, but the league's coaches, players and fans will be in the dark about most starting times until 13 days before a game's kickoff. In some cases, the window can be as short as six days.

CBS and ESPN begin targeting the top 10 SEC games as early as the end of a previous season.
The primary network for SEC football since 1996, CBS gets seven of the 10 priority picks, including the top three. ESPN receives the fourth, eighth and 10th overall picks.

The selections get ironed out after several phone conversations between Aresco and Brown, who describe the process as amicable.
Last year, ESPN used its three priority picks on the Auburn-Florida, Tennessee-Georgia and Tennessee-South Carolina games. Brown said the cable network this year has selected Auburn-LSU on Oct. 20, Florida-South Carolina on Nov. 10 and Auburn-Arkansas on Oct. 13.
ESPN also has two Thursday night telecasts involving SEC teams, LSU-Mississippi State on Aug. 30 and Kentucky-South Carolina on Oct. 4.
CBS has announced it will televise the Tennessee-Florida game Sept. 15 at 3:30 p.m., the LSU-Arkansas game Nov. 23 at 2:30 p.m., and that kickoff time for the SEC title game Dec. 1 has been moved from 6 to 4 p.m. The network has withheld additional announcements because changes can be made.

"Ninety percent or more of the time, the game we target early is the game we're going to do."
There are quirks the networks face with certain SEC programs.
LSU does not like playing early games at Tiger Stadium, which leaves Lincoln Financial (formerly Jefferson-Pilot) hamstrung. Since 1998, only two LSU home games have been televised by Lincoln Financial.
A more prominent example is the annual Georgia-Florida game, which used to be referred to as the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" until deaths near Jacksonville's Alltel Stadium tainted the 2004 and '05 games. Georgia president Michael Adams and Florida counterpart Bernie Machen prefer the game be televised in the afternoon, which it has by CBS in 10 of the last 11 years.
ESPN made the Georgia-Florida game a priority pick in 2002, but that may wind up a one-time deal.
"Every year we've had access to that game, we've done it," Aresco said. "We can't commit to Georgia-Florida right now because what if South Carolina and Tennessee are having better years, but we'll probably end up doing that game because it just makes sense. It's one of those 99-percenters."

Really the whole piece is an interesting read. My highlites don't really do justice to the scope of the piece.

Relative to the most commonly asked question around here though, this bit is probably the most revealing...

CBS and ESPN begin targeting the top 10 SEC games as early as the end of a previous season.
The primary network for SEC football since 1996, CBS gets seven of the 10 priority picks, including the top three. ESPN receives the fourth, eighth and 10th overall picks.

 

[Lexvol]

Thanks OPW.

 

[jakez4ut]

good stuff.

 

[ut 4 me]

very interesting

 

[Vercingetorix]

I've only had a vague idea of how this process worked; this is a very nice explanation of the process. As always, thanks for the quality link.

 

[TennesseeFan07]

cool article