April 12, 2013 · 9:28 AM

Drum roll, please.

If you’re wondering who will be wearing the pants in this ESPN/SEC partnership, nothing says “Southeastern Conference” like basing the SEC Network’s studio headquarters in a state that doesn’t actually host an SEC team.

37 Comments

Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, SEC Football

37 responses to “Drum roll, please.”

  1. JP
    April 12, 2013 at 9:34 AM

    “…in a state that doesn’t actually host an SEC team,” yet.

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    • Senator Blutarsky
      April 12, 2013 at 9:37 AM

      I knew somebody was gonna go there.

      Like

    • Dog in Fla
      April 12, 2013 at 9:47 AM

      Correct. That HQ locale will be a stroke of genius just as soon as UNC, North Carolina State, Duke and Davidson join the conference.

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      • Hogbody Spradlin
        April 12, 2013 at 11:19 AM

        My wife is offended that you included Davidson and left out Wake Forest.

        Little personal tidbit: she said her college choices were down to Emory or Wake, and she chose Wake because ‘it had a football team.’ Every time I crack a smile about that, she reminds me that Mackovic’s Meatballs beat us her senior year.

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        • Dog in Fla
          April 12, 2013 at 11:25 AM

          Dang it! I love Wake Forest but who needs another Vanderbilt? I’ve been off kilter since they moved to Winston-Salem and didn’t change their Vanderbilt colors to red and green

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        • Dog in Fla
          April 12, 2013 at 12:14 PM

          In addition to the geographical displacement of the Demon Deacons, they’re also theologically misnamed* so they’d be a perfect fit for the SEC West.

          * Proper real-life Church terminology is “Sleeping Deacons”

          Like

  2. Trace
    April 12, 2013 at 9:52 AM

    The conspiracy theorist in me wishes the head SEC office was taken out of the state of Alabama.

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    • Dog in Fla
      April 12, 2013 at 10:25 AM

      Rumor is that the Command Center is adjoined by a limited-capacity electronic surveillance-free Situation Room for conspiracy and officiating planning in the compound

      Like

  3. Tim
    April 12, 2013 at 10:47 AM

    Boys, I believe our souls have officially been sold. The World Wide Leader now owns us.

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  4. cube
    April 12, 2013 at 11:04 AM

    Ridiculous.

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  5. WarD Eagle
    April 12, 2013 at 11:30 AM

    Smashcar meets the SEC. Soon Bruton Smith will own all the stadia.

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  6. JasonC
    April 12, 2013 at 11:43 AM

    Kinda reminds me of this oldie:

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  7. Sanford222View
    April 12, 2013 at 11:45 AM

    Is this really a big deal or is my sarcasm meter off today? They already have a facility there for ESPNU so why not use it rather than build something new?

    At least it won’t be in Bristol, CT.

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    • heyberto
      April 13, 2013 at 11:12 AM

      Exactly. Most school officials and coaches Will be flying in anyway for their on-air appearances. What difference does it make if most of these guys have to fly in to CLT instead of sat ATL? An extra 15 minutes on the plane? It’s not like these studios are open to the public. The studio is closer to the SC border than to downtown Charlotte anyway.

      Like

  8. DawgPhan
    April 12, 2013 at 12:03 PM

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/100637283

    Add Liberty Media to the list of Verizon and CableVision that think that decoupling is coming down the pike.

    5 years is shorter than the current deal with CBS or ESPN for those playing at home.

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  9. BadM
    April 12, 2013 at 12:15 PM

    Why is the SEC so afraid to take reigns and control its own TV destiny? Are they waiting for more leverage? Better reputation for quality football? Some other conference to test the waters? They seem afraid to try. Sure it will require a short term investment, but the rewards are huge and there might not be a better time. What if all the money the BIgTen network shifts some power that way? With Corch, just throw gobs of money at Saban and Carroll, or another big name and the tables are flipped.

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    • DawgPhan
      April 12, 2013 at 12:28 PM

      you should read the article above. I think that the cable landscape is going to change dramatically in the next 5 years and if the Big 10 network can no longer get their premium from every subscriber in a base(think NYC and Rutgers) and they have to get it from the people who actually want it, how does that change the money?

      I dont think that the Big 10 is going to be happy about their network if things go a la carte or decoupled.

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      • BadM
        April 12, 2013 at 3:01 PM

        Sports programming is one of THE drivers of real time programming. Thus it will carry a premium over channels like food network or VH1. And the SEC, while still sort of regional, has the best chance for a huge chunk of the pie nationally, in my opinion. Better than the Big-can’t counts or the USCw/Oregon conf. I personally don’t absolutely need Cable if I have MLB online and the SEC network…assuming NFL is still mostly on the major networks. They could be the winners out of either situation if they don’t give it away to ESPN. If Texas can do it…

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        • DawgPhan
          April 12, 2013 at 3:40 PM

          The current cost of sports programming is spread to every subscriber. When the gravy train ends someone is taking it in the shorts.

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          • Dog in Fla
            April 12, 2013 at 3:47 PM

            So this is just a check-kiting scheme…

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            • Mayor of Dawgtown
              April 13, 2013 at 9:38 PM

              Actually it is, DIF. When/if a la carte happens and every old lady in the US drops ESPN the dough for all these deals will dry up. Likewise when the internet smartguys who like football figure out that you can get the games on the ‘net without buying cable (a bunch of them already know that and it is spreading like mad) not to mention other programming like movies and network TV. ESPN and the cable giants will be in deep sh!t then. It’s definitely coming.

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              • Normaltown Mike
                April 13, 2013 at 11:21 PM

                I dropped dish 5 years ago & catch most games on net via foreign streamers through wiziwig. It’s not perfect but gets the job done.

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    • Dog in Fla
      April 12, 2013 at 12:38 PM

      Because Slive adheres to The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Dirty Harrys (the other six are in Mike’s .44 used for hunting small varmints) and doesn’t want to take reigns and control our own TV destiny because he’s a short-timer?

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  10. G Marmalarde
    April 12, 2013 at 12:21 PM

    “Go fuck yourself San Diego!” – Ron Burgundy

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  11. Will (the other one)
    April 12, 2013 at 5:36 PM

    Dumb move. The CFB HoF is going to be in Atlanta, and between all the movies filming around town, the Grady College grads, and CNN, there’s far more potential talent to put a network together. Plus I have friends in Charlotte who will lord this over me when they find out.

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    • heyberto
      April 13, 2013 at 11:16 AM

      Well, it’s not being made from scratch. ESPNU is based there, and many of the personnel and production resources are already in place. If it doesn’t really matter where your studio is located, this makes a lot of sense.

      Like

  12. Always Someone Else's Fault
    April 12, 2013 at 5:44 PM

    My information is a bit dated, but…

    One of the nation’s major satellite uplink facilities is outside of Raleigh. Major fiber links between Charlotte and Raleigh. Lots of redundancy and bandwidth at reduced costs – if they are taking advantage of that. I have no idea if they are.

    Ted Turner launched his broadcasting career in Charlotte. It’s always been a city ahead of the curve in that industry – lots of experience and talent already there.

    That’s in addition to being able to use the ESPNU infrastructure already there, as previously noted by Sanford.

    Atlanta may have worked just as well on those fronts, and certainly HQ does not have to be co-located with the production site.

    Just some random thoughts on the matter.

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  13. Lrgk9
    April 12, 2013 at 8:47 PM

    Better than KnoxVegas or BarnVille.

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  14. Scorpio Jones, III
    April 13, 2013 at 8:00 AM

    Jesus folks, the SALES office is in Atlanta….nothing else matters….ESPN has a huge production facility on the south side of Charlotte…the only thing that goes on there is stuff knowbody cares about. (until there is a technical problem with 30 seconds to go in the fourth quarter.)

    Like