One of the most valuable television properties in all of college football is the SEC’s primary media rights. The conference and CBS have been in business together since the turn of the century. That relationship comes to an end after the 2023 college football season, but CBS Sports boss Sean McManus says don’t think that means the network is done with college football.
“We plan to be involved in the business of college football, big-time college football, going forward, and to take advantage of that tradition we’ve established,” he said at the Sports Business Journal’s Media Innovators Conference.
McManus pointed out that the SEC has been good for CBS, but that CBS has been good for the SEC as well.
“You know, when we put the SEC on national television back in 2001, people thought we were crazy; ‘The Southeastern Conference? Who in the Midwest and the Northeast and the West is going to care about the SEC?’ But we promoted it, and we said ‘Every week at 3:30, you’re going to see the best SEC game. We grew it. And I think for 12 years in a row, it’s been the most-viewed window in all of college football.”
So how would CBS remain a player in the college football space? Well, the network already has deals with the three service academies. It also has deals with the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA. None of those fit the bill of “big-time college football” though.
The options will likely be limited. The SEC is gone. The ACC is locked up with ESPN through 2036. The Big Ten rights deals at FOX and ESPN expire after the 2022 season, but it is likely that at least the FOX deal will be off the table, as the network and the conference are partners on the Big Ten Network. That could leave just the PAC-12 or the suddenly-less-valuable Big 12 as the only potential options and those conferences likely have limited appeal.