ESPN and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) have reached a new 10-year agreement beginning in 2024-25, which will add up to 15 premier football games, including top rivalries like Alabama vs. Auburn and Florida vs. Georgia, plus the SEC Football Championship, in addition to approximately eight marquee men’s basketball matchups each year across ESPN or ABC. With the new deal, every SEC football and men’s basketball game will now be carried on an ESPN network, including ABC, solidifying ESPN as the exclusive rights holder of the SEC and resulting in enhanced programming flexibility across both sports. The new agreement will be co-terminus with the separate, existing 20-year agreement between ESPN and the SEC that also runs through 2033-34 and sees ESPN carry more than 1,950 SEC games each year across the conference’s 21 sports on ESPN networks and SEC Network.
ESPN Executive Vice President of Programming and Original Content Burke Magnus and Southeastern Conference (SEC) Commissioner Greg Sankey spoke with media members today via Zoom, discussing ESPN’s and the SEC’s new 10-year agreement which begins in 2024-25.
GREG SANKEY: Thank you, everyone, for joining us. There are any number of big days in the history of the Southeastern Conference. Today is added to those big days as we announce a landmark 10-year agreement with ESPN that will help shape the future of the SEC.
BURKE MAGNUS: We just couldn’t be any more excited about this. This is the missing piece for us. We really feel like this is a one plus one equals three circumstance where pairing this package with the other rights that we partner with the conference on will be to the tremendous benefit not just of our company from a business perspective but obviously to the conference, to the member institutions, to the student-athletes.
New Agreement Completes Extensive Relationship between ESPN and SEC
The new ESPN and SEC agreement adds to the already stout offering of SEC on ESPN events each year. In addition to ABC and ESPN+, football games will remain on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU via a mix of early afternoon, late afternoon and primetime windows, and a full, robust slate of games will air on SEC Network each fall. With the addition of the SEC Football Championship, ESPN will carry all 20 conference championships each year.
Among the championships, the complete coverage of both men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments is included following a regular season where north of 450 regular season games are available each year.
