The SEC on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of Southeastern Conference college football games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. CBS has been a television partner with the SEC since 1996, when the network returned to carrying regular-season college football on a weekly basis during the season. Televised games featuring teams outside the Southeastern Conference are branded as College Football on CBS.
History
CBS College Football Theme High Quality - This is the cleanest version of this song you will find.
CBS has been televising college football games since it launched a sports division, and did so on a weekly basis during a period from the 1950s to 1966, when ABC gained exclusive rights to all NCAA regular season games. CBS was reduced to airing the Cotton Bowl Classic, which it had aired since 1958. It added the Sun Bowl in 1968, which remains on CBS to this day as of 2016. From 1974 to 1977, it also aired the Fiesta Bowl, and from 1978 to 1986 it carried the Peach Bowl.
1982â€"1983
For the 1982 season, CBS was made an additional partner in the NCAA contract, and regular season coverage returned to the network. CBS and ABC would alternate the 12:30 and 3:30Â p.m. slots from week to week during the seasons, carrying either a national game or several regional games in those frames, and also occasionally aired games in prime time, and on Black Friday. CBS broadcast games from every major conference, as well as the games of the then major independents such as Penn State (now a Big Ten member), Notre Dame (still an independent in football, though a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for non-football sports), and Miami (now in the ACC).
As required by the NCAA, the network also televised Division I-AA, II and III games to very small audiences, giving teams such as The Citadel and Clarion State some television exposure (during the 1982 season, because of a player strike in the National Football League, these Division III contests aired nationwide). The pregame show was titled The NCAA Today in the vein of its pro football counterpart The NFL Today. Both shows were hosted by Brent Musburger. However, for the NCAA pregame show, Pat O'Brien and Ara Parseghian were the analysts/feature reporters, although Lesley Visser made occasional appearances on the show. Gary Bender was the lead play-by-play announcer for game coverage, working with analysts such as Pat Haden and Steve Davis. Other CBS game commentators were Verne Lundquist, Lindsey Nelson, Frank Herzog, Jack Snow and Dennis Franklin. This arrangement was in place during the 1982 and 1983 seasons.
1984â€"1990
In 1984, after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the NCAA contract in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the College Football Association was formed to handle affairs between television networks and college football programs, the result was an exclusive contract with ABC that granted the network rights to all CFA partner conference games and the games of most major independents. However, the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences were not included in this package, and signed their own agreement with CBS. Miami also reached an agreement for CBS to televise its most important home games, and in 1985, the Atlantic Coast Conference was added to CBS' list of college football properties. In 1985, Musburger took over the role of lead play-by-play voice, with Parseghian moving to the booth with him. Jim Nantz succeeded Musburger as studio host.
In 1987, CBS took over the CFA contract, which it would hold until 1990. CBS' tendency during this period was to air one marquee game each week, such as the legendary 1988 "Catholics vs Convicts" matchup between Notre Dame and Miami, though regional telecasts would occasionally be aired. For 1987 and 1988, Pat Haden joined Musburger in the booth, with John Dockery manning the sidelines. Nantz hosted what was now known as the "Prudential College Football Report", which was mostly a roundup of the day's scores (not always limited to college football) and top headlines, though sometimes key figures in the sport would be interviewed. Verne Lundquist, Tim Brant, Dick Stockton, Steve Zabriskie and Brad Nessler also called games for CBS during the CFA period. In 1989, Nantz became lead play-by-play announcer, but Haden remained the lead analyst for that year, being replaced by Brant in 1990. After 1990, ABC obtained exclusive network coverage of regular season college football, as it won back the CFA and retained the Pac-10/Big Ten rights.
1991â€"1994
As the 1990s began, CBS' Division I-A college football coverage was reduced to its bowl game contracts, which it had with the then-John Hancock (reverted to Sun Bowl in 1994), Cotton and the then-Blockbuster bowls. However, it lost the rights to the Cotton Bowl to NBC after the 1992 game, leaving the network with just two bowl games to round out its college football coverage. CBS televised Major League Baseball from 1990 to 1993, so as a result the network was not without major sports coverage on Saturdays during the fall after the loss of college football. In 1994 and 1995, CBS did not have any major sports coverage in the fall.
1995â€"1997
For 1995, CBS re-acquired the rights to the Cotton Bowl Classic, and also acquired the rights to two of the three bowl games in the newly formed Bowl Alliance, which was formed following the season to help determine an undisputed national champion (as a precursor to the Bowl Championship Series). Under the terms of the contract, which ran from 1995 through 1997, CBS aired the Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl, which guaranteed the network two opportunities to air a national championship game (CBS did not gain rights to the Sugar Bowl, the third bowl in the Bowl Alliance, as those were retained by ABC).
CBS was the first network to air a Bowl Alliance national championship game, as Nebraska defeated Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl (on the same token, CBS also aired the last Bowl Alliance national championship game, where Nebraska defeated Tennessee in the 1998 Orange Bowl to split that year's national championship vote as Michigan, which was #1 in both the AP and Coaches Polls going into the bowls, with the latter contractually obligated to name the Nebraskaâ€"Tennessee winner as the national champion, was obligated to play in that year's Rose Bowl). CBS also continued to air the Sun Bowl, but lost the rights to the Carquest Bowl after the game was moved from New Year's Day following the Orange Bowl's move to the home of the Carquest Bowl, Joe Robbie Stadium.
CBS resumed full-time college football coverage in 1996, as the network signed television contracts with the Big East Conference and Southeastern Conference (SEC) to be the exclusive national television home of their in-conference schedules. The coverage was originally branded "College Football on CBS", sponsored initially by NASDAQ, a tag it retains for non-SEC games broadcast on the network.
CBS also televised games featuring non-Big East or SEC teams during this time. As part of the contract signed in 1996, CBS succeeded ABC Sports as the television home of the Army-Navy Game.
1998â€"present
CBS lost the rights to three of its bowl games following the 1997 season, as ABC gained the rights to the Orange and Fiesta Bowls as the exclusive television home of the newly formed Bowl Championship Series and Fox acquired the rights to the Cotton Bowl Classic. However beginning in 2001, CBS became the home of the SEC Championship Game, the rights to which had been retained by ABC following the SEC's move. Following the 2000 season, the Big East decided not to renew its contract with CBS and instead signed with ABC. Shortly thereafter, CBS' SEC football coverage was rebranded to show its exclusivity. CBS aired the Gator Bowl from 2007 to 2010, its biggest bowl acquisition since the Orange and Fiesta Bowls.
Today, CBS airs the top SEC weekly in-conference games as well as rivalry games with various other conferences when the SEC team is the home team. The network shares the rights to SEC conference games with the ESPN family of networks, which also airs the interconference rivalry games when the SEC team is not the home team (with the exception of Notre Dame), as well as all Pac-12/SEC regular season games.
CBS has rights to three non-SEC regular season matchups, including the Army-Navy Game. CBS and NBC Sports split coverage of the annual matchup between Notre Dame and Navy, with CBS televising the game in years where Navy serves as the host team. CBS also added the Mountain West Conference Championship Game to its coverage per a pre-existing contract that the network has with the conference (although most of the games air on CBS Sports Network); the game began in the last hour of primetime for the Eastern and Central time zones, meaning stations in those zones in most cases would not carry a late local newscast that evening. The Mountain West Championship Game was moved to ESPN networks beginning in 2015. The Sun Bowl continues to air on CBS.
In 2011, in addition to Armyâ€"Navy, CBS also broadcast the other two service academy games: Navy-Air Force on October 1 and Army-Air Force on November 5, 2011 (a game which opened up as a result of CBS using its 8:00 p.m. game assignment for LSU-Alabama). Air Force's annual games vs. Army and Navy continue to air on CBS or CBS Sports Network.
Until 2014, CBS maintained exclusivity during its 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time window. As part of an extension to CBS's contract with the SEC through the 2023â€"24 season, CBS no longer has exclusivity during its afternoon window, but still has the first choice of games. CBS is limited to airing five games featuring a particular team per-season; in 2014, the Iron Bowl was given to ESPN in favor of the Egg Bowl, due to its potential effects on Mississippi State's participation in the College Football Playoff).
Verne Lundquist retired from his role as lead play-by-play commentator for CBS after the 2016 Army-Navy Game. Brad Nessler, formerly of ESPN, joined CBS as a secondary play-by-play announcer during the 2016 season, and officially replaced Lundquist on September 9, 2017 for CBS's first game of the season.
Typical games
The games aired as part of this package are the premiere SEC matchups of the week. Top teams like the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Tennessee Volunteers, South Carolina Gamecocks and LSU Tigers usually appear on these telecasts. Since 1996, Florida has had the most appearances with 97 of their games broadcast by CBS, followed by Alabama with 88, LSU with 67, Georgia with 65 and Tennessee with 61. The ESPN family of networks get the subsequent picks of games among the SEC's national television partners. Since 2001, the SEC Championship Game has been televised by CBS.
The Vanderbilt Commodores have appeared on the CBS package only six times, with a 2013 game against Georgia (a 31-27 victory) marking their first appearance since 2001, and the first Vanderbilt home game televised by the network since 1982. Before their remarkable 2014 season, when they appeared four times (including the first Egg Bowl ever broadcast by CBS), Mississippi State had only seven CBS games as part of the package.
During the regular season, typical games that are shown almost every year include Florida-Tennessee (which will air for the 20th time in 22 years in 2017), Georgia-Florida (all but 2002), Auburnâ€"Alabama, (the Iron Bowl) (since 2000, except for 2003, 2007 and 2014), LSUâ€"Alabama (Every year since Nick Saban took over at Alabama, and every year at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time since 2011), LSUâ€"Florida (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005â€"2009, 2011â€"2013, and 2017), LSUâ€"Ole Miss (2003, 2007â€"2010, 2012, 2015) and LSUâ€"Arkansas (1996-2013, except 2009), which was traditionally aired the day after Thanksgiving. The Arkansas-Missouri game is now aired the Friday after Thanksgiving, since Texas A&M has replaced Arkansas as the final opponent on LSU's schedule.
In addition, the interconference rivalry games, Floridaâ€"Florida State, South Carolinaâ€"Clemson, Georgiaâ€"Georgia Tech and (since 2014) Kentuckyâ€"Louisville, sometimes air on the network when the SEC schools host the games and they fall into SEC television contracts (otherwise, those games air on ABC or the ESPN networks, as the ACC's contracts dictate). When the interconference rivalries air on CBS, the broadcasts are generally branded as "College Football on CBS" instead of "SEC on CBS". In addition, CBS will occasionally televise games where SEC schools host marquee non-conference opponents, such as the Miami Hurricanes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
CBS Sports Network rebroadcasts the previous Saturday game several times throughout the following week.
Top 10 SEC on CBS games
*-SEC Championship Game
Team records
1996 through December 2, 2017 â€" does not include bowl games
Note: 1 One Penn State win over Pittsburgh was vacated (Later restored) following the NCAA investigation into the Jerry Sandusky case.
Notable personalities
Current
Play-by-play
- Brad Nessler lead play-by-play (2017â€"present)
- Carter Blackburn #2 play-by-play (2017â€"present)
Color analysts
- Gary Danielson (1983; lead color analyst 2006â€"present)
- Aaron Taylor #2 co-analyst (2017â€"present)
- Rick Neuheisel #2 co-analyst (2017â€"present)
Sideline reporters
- Allie LaForce (2014â€"present)
- John Schriffen (2017â€"present)
Studio
- Adam Zucker: host (2014â€"present, fill-in host 2011â€"2013)
- Brian Jones: analyst (2013â€"present)
- Rick Neuheisel: analyst (2015â€"present)
Former
Play-by-play
- Craig Bolerjack (1999â€"2010)
- Tim Brando (#2 play-by-play 1997; 2011â€"2013)
- Don Criqui (2008)
- Frank Herzog
- Gus Johnson (1996â€"1997)
- Sean McDonough (1990â€"1996; lead play-by-play 1997â€"1999)
- Brent Musburger (lead play-by-play 1984â€"1988)
- Jim Nantz (1989â€"1990; 1996)
- Lindsey Nelson
- Tim Ryan (1996 Cotton Bowl)
- Gary Bender (1982-1983)
- Charlie Neal
- Verne Lundquist (1982â€"1988; lead play-by-play 2000â€"2016)
- Dick Enberg (2001 Army-Navy Game)
Color commentary
- Trev Alberts (2008)
- Todd Blackledge lead color analyst (1999â€"2005)
- Dean Blevins (2000â€"2001)
- Tim Brant
- Steve Beuerlein (2006â€"2010; 2012)
- Ed Cunningham (1997â€"1999)
- Steve Davis (1996 Cotton Bowl)
- Terry Donahue (1996â€"1998)
- Dan Fouts (2008)
- Dennis Franklin
- Pat Haden
- Craig James (2002)
- Dan Jiggetts
- Mike Mayock (1996â€"1999)
- Jack Snow
- Scott Hunter
- Dan Dierdorf (2001 Army-Navy Game)
Sideline reporters
- Jill Arrington (lead, 2000â€"2003)
- John Dockery
- Mike Joy (1990 & 1991 Sun Bowl)
- Sam Ryan
- Lewis Johnson (2011)
- Otis Livingston (2011)
- Tracy Wolfson (2004â€"2013)
- Marty Snider (2012)
Studio hosts
- Tim Brando (1998â€"2013)
- Greg Gumbel (1989)
- Andrea Joyce (1990)
- Jim Nantz (1985â€"1988; 1997)
- Pat O'Brien (1995â€"1996)
Studio analysts
- Spencer Tillman (1998â€"2014)
- Ara Parseghian (1982â€"1989)
- Mike Francesa (1990)
- Boomer Esiason (1995)
- Butch Davis (1995)
- Craig James (1996â€"1998)
- Lou Holtz (1997â€"1998)
- Archie Manning (2005â€"2013)
Features
- AutoTrader College Football Today (pre-game show aired at 3:00Â p.m. Eastern Time and simulcast on CBS Sports Network prior to their 3:30Â p.m. college game)
- Starting Lineups presented by Chick-fil-A
- Ford Update (throughout the game)
- Nissan Heisman Watch (throughout the game)
- Geico Halftime Report (formerly sponsored by EarthLink until 2004)
- First Half Trends Presented by Enterprise Rent-a-Car (at the start of second half)
- Aflac Trivia Question
- The Home Depot Tools for Success
- Geico Game Recap (formerly showed only scoring plays until 2008 as the "Scoring Recap")
- Quicken Loans Scholar Athlete (formerly sponsored by Red Lobster until 2016)
- DirecTV Player of the Game
- NAPA Auto Parts Play of the Game (formerly named the "Wrangler 5-Star Play of the Game")
- Dodge Post-game Show (formerly sponsored by Jeep until 2016)
- Verizon Red Zone
In addition, CBS Sports Network aired the hour-long SEC Post-Game Show Presented by Geico at 7:00Â p.m. Eastern Time, featuring the wrap-up of the CBS SEC game.
Nielsen ratings
Overall, the SEC on CBS had the top three-rated and most-watched college football games of the 2013 and 2014 season:
- Alabama and Mississippi State (11/15/14), â€" 13.9 million viewers (8.2 rating/17 share)
- Alabama and Auburn (Kick Six) (11/30/13) â€" 13.8 million viewers (8.6/19)
- Texas A&M and Alabama (9/14/13) â€" 11.9 million viewers (6.9/12)
Through 12 weeks of the 2013 season, SEC averaged a national household rating/share of 4.2/9. This was the highest average rating for SEC football game broadcasts on CBS at this point in the season since the network began airing primarily an SEC-only schedule in 2001.
The SEC's unique contract giving them a guaranteed time slot with national coverage on a broadcast television station differs from other conferences, which are not guaranteed during the season at the 3:30Â p.m. slot (the ABC 3:30Â p.m. games are regionally selected, and the Fox slot games vary between different conferences).
References
External links
- NCAA Football â€" CBS Sports.com
- secsports.com
- Sports Media Watch: College Football on CBS