Yet another end to another era

If there’s one thing we know about the current state of college athletics, it’s that money talks.  Which means CBS walks.

CBS will walk away from the SEC when its contract ends after the 2023 football season, and all indications are that the package will move to ESPN/ABC. CBS decided to exit the negotiations for college football’s most-watched TV package after making an aggressive bid in the neighborhood of $300 million per season — a massive increase from the $55 million it currently pays annually. CBS Sports execs decided that it made more sense to invest the money they would have paid the SEC into other sports. When contacted this afternoon by SBJ, CBS Sports PR emailed the following statement: “We made a strong and responsible bid. While we‘ve had success with the SEC on CBS, we are instead choosing to aggressively focus on other important strategic priorities moving forward.”

Multiple sources said ESPN/ABC is in the final stages of negotiating a deal that is expected to pay more than six times the $55 million per year fee that CBS currently pays, sources said. Fox Sports execs still are planning to make an official bid presentation at SEC HQ in Birmingham next month. But sources say ESPN’s negotiations are in the final stages. ESPN and Fox Sports would not comment.

CBS plans to carry SEC football for the four seasons it has left on its contract, unless the conference or winning network is able to buy it out. CBS has carried SEC football since 1996 and network execs were interested in extending. When bidding went well over $300 million per season for 15-17 football games, including the conference championship game, CBS opted to bow out.

The math is not insignificant.  The contract works out to more than an additional $20 million a year per school, a big deal if you’re an SEC president engaged in a dick measuring contest with your Big Ten peers.

I get it.  The current deal with CBS is certainly undervalued in today’s market and it’s not realistic for Sankey to subsidize that ad infinitum.  Still, there’s some non-monetary value in the deal, which means jumping to Mickey carries a sort of risk.

The decision to move away from CBS carries some risk for the SEC, especially considering that it has been college football’s most-viewed package for more than 10 years running. The conference will go from a network where it is the only college football conference to one where it will be one of many conferences. Insiders credit some of the SEC’s success on Saturday afternoons with being the sole focus of CBS’ Emmy-winning coverage.

Not only that, it’s benefited from being carried nationally on a non-cable network.  All that goes out of the room.  Instead,

ESPN won the conference over with its argument that it can be more creative with scheduling when it controls all of the rights. With ESPN owning all of the SEC’s football rights, it’s possible that more than one game will be produced for broadcast TV; more top-tier games can be moved to primetime; and the conference can schedule more late afternoon games without having to worry about running into CBS’ exclusive window.

C’mon, man.  All ESPN had to say was $300 million to win the conference over.  Scheduling creativity is a benefit for the network more than it is for the SEC and it’s a major reason it’s willing to throw that kind of jack Sankey’s way.

All in all, this is a perfect metaphor for the biggest underlying story of college football, its steady transition from a sport rooted in regional loyalty and passion to a more bloodless appeal to a national audience.  That’s where the money is.

The sad thing to watch as this unfolds is the way the people running the conference will continue to try to fake attention to that regional appeal as it slowly fades away.  But that’s Sankey’s choice.  More power to him.

Today, in from your lips…

I can’t think of a surer way for the fan base’s grumbling to dissipate than this coming to fruition.

Never once in this cycle, have I thought #UGA would have a shot at the No.1 class in 2020. Consistently predicted Top 5. With some news last night, Georgia may have a very good shot before it is over with.. (VIP) @Dawgs247 https://t.co/IUYCngpQxG pic.twitter.com/86iIlNFPyq

— Rusty Mansell (@Mansell247) December 20, 2019

If Georgia somehow runs down Clemson’s class, Kirby is a wizard.

The song remains the same

Shot.

NEWS | Steve Shaw has been named the National Coordinator of Football Officials

"We are grateful for Steve’s lengthy service to the SEC and are confident he will provide outstanding leadership to college football in the years ahead.” –@GregSankeyhttps://t.co/AErc6W0d8l

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) December 20, 2019

Chaser.

The search for a replacement is expected to cover all of Tuscaloosa County. https://t.co/ofD4D5gzd6

— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) December 20, 2019

“It’s the Green Tide and Roll Greed Roll. That’s my new motto.”

Sad.  Pathetic.  But entirely predictable.

A surgical $106 million renovation to the 90-year old structure is doing away with those approximately 2,200 modestly priced nine rows of seats on the U1 and U2 levels tucked between the west side’s upper and lower bowls. These were quality seats, covered from the elements and chair-backed unlike the majority bench seating in the 101,821-capacity stadium.

That space will now be occupied by the Champions Club, one of the several new premium options replacing more traditional seats in the U1 and U2 levels of the stadium’s west side. Starting next fall, those in Section P will have cushioned seats, access to an indoor, temperature-controlled club and an all-inclusive buffet.

That doesn’t come cheaply, and that’s where the issue for families like the Burnettes come into play. Each seat now requires a $10,000 one-time donation and an additional $3,500 contribution every season. That doesn’t include the price of the actual tickets, which were $495 apiece last year for the top tier seats.

Burnette in 2019 paid $940 a ticket including a $480 donation for each of his four seats minus the amenities.

That same seat next year is $13,995 in the Champions Club if the initial donation is paid up front or $5,995 if spread into five equal portions. It comes with a 10-year commitment meaning each seat will cost $49,950 and only if the $495 season ticket prices never rise.

And this quote is a perfect of example of someone trying to sound sympathetic without actually being sympathetic.

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said the school intends “to be transparent and you also want to be empathetic” to those impacted by the changes.

“One of the things that we had to balance here is we don’t take any satisfaction in moving anybody out of their seats. Zero,” Byrne said in an interview with AL.com. “And we want to be very sensitive to all of our season ticket holders and all of the stadium. At the same time too, we have to balance that with what do we do to move the program forward? One of the worst things we could do as a program is while we’re having historical success to not look at where our long-term strategies are for our department.”

Those long-term strategies ain’t gonna pay for themselves, Mr. Burnette.

I assume this is something else from Tuscaloosa we can look forward to being imported to Athens soon.  You can’t stop progress, fellow wallets.

(h/t SSB Charley)

“We want to get the best football players we can and student-athletes we can.”

Of all the things to criticize Kirby Smart about, not signing enough in-state players in a highly rated recruiting class seems a mite bit silly.

Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart, a former Georgia High School football product himself, explained that it’s not a matter of the UGA staff looking any more or less in state or out of state.

“It (out-of-state recruiting) hasn’t been an emphasis, it’s been more of what are our needs and who can we get?” Smart said at his Wednesday press conference.

“We try to go out and evaluate and find the best character, football player, students — all of those factors for us are important.”

You go where the talent is.  As long as you’re not doing it in an arrogant manner that pisses off local high school coaches, why wouldn’t you?

“A playoff of a kind”

Jim “A Playoff Over My Dead Body” Delany has certainly changed his tune.

Delany called it “painful and damaging” for a league to be left out of the playoff, echoing the recent comments from Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott. He reiterated that adjusting the current model will be difficult during the remaining six years of the cycle — “It’s no better than 50-50 that things would change,” he said — but thinks changes should continue to be discussed.

“You don’t know what it means to your brand and to your recruiting prospects and so on, what it means to be left out,” Delany said. “The irony to me is you’ve doubled the access points from two to four, but you’ve at least doubled the damage and the pain associated with being left out.”

Playoff expansion needed for branding and recruiting is the new black.  The thing is, once you go down that road, there’s zero reason to stop at eight.  Think I’m exaggerating?

Delany also said he’s surprised by how important the so-called “eye test” has been in shaping the playoff field, noting that it never came up in forming guidelines for selecting playoff teams.

“Somebody like an Iowa or a Kentucky or any other program that is a developmental program, taking players from three stars to compete with teams with five stars, if you used the eye test in that area, they would never be considered to be better,” Delany said. “We thought it would be résumé-based, ties would go to conference champions, and strength of schedule. In that area, it doesn’t reflect what I thought would occur, but it is occurring.

“I don’t inject bad faith into it. I just don’t think it’s nearly as predictable on outcomes as I thought it might be, but it’s human.”

It’s a subjective process, Jimbo.  That’s what you and your fellow geniuses willed into being.  If you want to take the eye test out of the mix, either remake your sport so that the postseason is based solely on conference championships, or enlarge the field enough that Larry Scott’s fee-fees are never hurt again.

Nobody said a father’s love can’t turn a profit.

Way to go, Dad.

Vegas had two bettors place a $2,000 preseason Heisman bet on Joe Burrows at 200/1 odds. One of those bettors was Jim Burrows, Joe’s Dad. pic.twitter.com/1AbSonehSw

— Jared Christopher (@JaredLChris) December 19, 2019

Another signing day in the books

And some random thoughts about it:

• It’s a very talented class, even if it may not wind up on quite as lofty a perch as its two predecessors.  (Clemson is going to be hard to catch at number one.)  That being said, according to the 247Sports Composite, Smart’s class is tied with Clemson for the top spot in average ranking.
• One thing to like a lot about Georgia’s class is that it’s loaded with top-flight receiving talent, a huge need, considering what we saw this season.  Three of the signees are ranked in the top 15 at the position and the fourth is 48th.  That’s a good haul.  Must have been a helluva sales pitch, is all I can say.
• On the o-line, Pittman’s departure didn’t hurt too much with this class.  The Dawgs signed four, with two more likely to come by February, assuming Auburn doesn’t sway Jones away.
• Five SEC teams are in the Composite top ten, two more cracked the top seventeen and two more finished in the top twenty five.  Everybody’s oohing and ahhing over Pruitt’s work at UT, although I tend to credit some of that to the low bar of overcoming a horrendous start the the Vols’ season, but I think the class that’s quietly impressive is Kentucky’s.
• It’s worth mentioning that the only SEC East team with a five-star commitment besides Georgia is South Carolina, but note I said commitment, not signee.  Jordan Burch, whom Georgia has been heatedly seeking, didn’t sign, but did offer his verbal to the ‘Cocks yesterday.  What that means I have no idea, other than I doubt Kirby’s gonna quit chasing him.
• By the way, probably need to hold off on that Nick Saban’s slipping talk for at least another year.

Add your thoughts in the comments.

Fixin’ to fix

Sorry, but I can’t resist.  Here’s Smart’s answer to yesterday’s presser question about whether he’s considering taking any action to improve Georgia’s moribund offense:

“But we want to score points. I mean you guys want a simple answer like it’s just going to poof and happen. It’s all philosophy, it’s all the plays that are called and the play designs. It’s not everything. It’s a lot of things that go into having a successful offense and we need to be better. I think everybody acknowledges that. And that’s what we’re working on really hard.”

Maybe that just means they’re hard at work on improving the receivers’ downfield blocking.

I have not come to bury Geoff Collins…

Seriously, I’m somewhat surprised at how little credit Mr. 404 is getting for resurrecting Tech’s recruiting from the dead.  The Jackets currently stand 24th in the 247Sports Composite rankings, good for fifth in the ACC, and yet I find hardly any mention in the national media of what he’s done.

He may be running around like a crazed wombat, but he’s getting results at a place where results have been hard to come by since Chan Gailey.  I mean, even Mark Bradley (softly) criticizes the genius’ half-assed approach to recruiting.

We pause for the obligatory mention of Paul Johnson. Tech football was relevant for most of his tenure, but it was a footnote-y relevance. Tech football was a curio, almost a trick of the light. Johnson took not-very-good players and plugged them into his stylized offense and beat Georgia three times. Gailey took better players and never beat Georgia. Nobody else — well, nobody at a Power 5 outpost — played like Johnson’s Tech. Anybody else’s Tech will require much better players, scads of them, to think about beating Georgia again.

Wow, “beat Georgia three times”.  In eleven seasons.  Like that’s some sort of special accomplishment instead of the historical track record of the series since Dooley’s arrival.  But I digress.

Anyway, the man deserves a tip of the cap, if only to shut up every pissant Tech fan who’s moaned about how academics have been the school’s death knell on the recruiting trail all this time.  Amazing how far a little effort can take you.  If he can now manage to steal the occasional recruit from the likes of Auburn, all the better.  Kudos, Geoff.