Southeastern Conference

The SEC consists of 14 member institutions located in the U.S. states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. The SEC is divided into East and West Divisions, although the divisional alignment is not strictly geographic, with Missouri in the East Division while being further west than several West Division schools, and Auburn in the West Division despite being located further east than East Division schools Missouri and Vanderbilt.[4] These divisional groupings are applied only in football and baseball, for both scheduling and standings purposes. In football, the two division winners meet in the SEC Championship Game.

Since July 1, 2012, there are 14 members, with Vanderbilt being the only private institution.

The SEC was established December 8 and 9, 1932, in Knoxville, TN, when the thirteen members of the Southern Conference located west and south of the Appalachian Mountains left to form their own conference. Ten of the thirteen founding members have remained in the conference since its inception: the University of Alabama, Auburn University, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University ("LSU"), the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss"), Mississippi State University, the University of Tennessee, and Vanderbilt University.

The other charter members were:

• The University of the South ("Sewanee") left the SEC on December 13, 1940, and later de-emphasized varsity sports.[5] It is currently a member of the Division III Southern Athletic Association.
• Georgia Institute of Technology ("Georgia Tech") left the SEC in 1964. In 1975, it became a founding member of the Metro Conference, one of the predecessors to today's Conference USA. Georgia Tech competed in the Metro Conference in all sports except football, in which it was independent (the Metro did not sponsor football). In 1978, Georgia Tech joined another Southern Conference offshoot, the Atlantic Coast Conference, for all sports, where it has remained ever since.
• Tulane University left the SEC in 1966. Along with Georgia Tech, it was a charter member of the Metro Conference. Unlike Tech, however, Tulane remained in the Metro Conference until it merged with the Great Midwest Conference in 1995 to form Conference USA. Tulane remained an independent in football until C-USA began football competition in 1996. Tulane left C-USA in 2014 for the American Athletic Conference.

It was not until 1966 that African Americans first participated in an SEC athletic contest, and the first black scholarship athletes did not play in the SEC until the 1967–68 school year. The first African American to compete in the SEC was Stephen Martin, who walked on to the Tulane baseball team in that school's final SEC season of 1966.[6] In August of that same year, Kentucky enrolled Nate Northington and Greg Page on football scholarships,[7] and Vanderbilt enrolled Godfrey Dillard and Perry Wallace on basketball scholarships.[8] At the time, the NCAA did not allow freshmen to compete on varsity teams, which meant that these pioneers could not play until 1967. Page died from complications of a spinal cord injury suffered during a football practice before ever playing a game,[7] while Dillard suffered a career-altering injury before getting a chance to play for Vanderbilt's varsity and transferred to Eastern Michigan.[8] The remaining two both played in the 1967–68 school year. Northington made his overall debut against Indiana on September 23, 1967[9][10] and his SEC debut against Ole Miss the following week on September 30 (the day after Page's death[7]), while Wallace made his varsity debut later that year.[11]

In 1990, the SEC expanded from ten to twelve member universities with the addition of the Arkansas Razorbacks and the South Carolina Gamecocks. The two new members began SEC competition with the 1991–1992 basketball season.

At the same time, the SEC organized competition for some sports into two divisions. The Western Division comprised six of the seven member schools in the Central Time Zone, while the Eastern Division comprised the five member schools in the Eastern Time Zone plus Vanderbilt, which is in the Central Time Zone but was placed in the Eastern Division to preserve its rivalry with Tennessee. Initially, the divisional format was used in football, baseball, and men's basketball. The divisional format was dropped for men's basketball following the 2011–2012 season.

Following expansion, the SEC was the first conference to receive permission from the NCAA to sponsor an annual football championship game that did not count against NCAA limits on regular-season contests, featuring the winners of the conference's Eastern and Western divisions.[12] The 1992 and 1993 championship games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, and all championship games from 1994 onward have been held in Atlanta—first at the Georgia Dome until its closure and demolition after the 2016 season, and since 2017 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.[12]

On September 25, 2011, the SEC Presidents and Chancellors, acting unanimously, announced that Texas A&M University would join the SEC effective July 1, 2012, with Texas A&M to begin competition in nineteen of the twenty sports sponsored by the SEC during the 2012–13 academic year.[13] On November 6, 2011 the SEC commissioner announced that the University of Missouri would also join the SEC on July 1, 2012.[14] For football, Texas A&M was scheduled to compete in the Western Division, and Missouri in the Eastern Division.[15][16][17][18] Texas A&M and Missouri both left the Big 12 Conference.

In 2005, the member institutions of the Southeastern Conference formed the SEC Academic Consortium (SECAC), a collaborative endeavor designed to promote research, scholarship, and achievement amongst the universities.[20]

In 2011, the SEC Academic Consortium was relocated to the SEC headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, from its original home on the campus of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas and was renamed SECU. The SECU rebranded its mission to better serve as a means through which the collaborative academic endeavors and achievements of Southeastern Conference universities would be promoted and advanced. The SECU's goals included highlighting the endeavors and achievements of SEC faculty, students and its universities; advancing the academic reputation of SEC universities; identifying and preparing future leaders for high-level service in academia; increasing the amount and type of study abroad opportunities available for students; and providing opportunities for collaboration among SEC university personnel.[21][22] The Big Ten Conference has a similar program called the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

The SEC Symposium component of SECU was crafted by Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos, who at the time was the Vice President of the SEC Executive Committee and liaison to SECU.[23] In an interview with Dr. Zeppos about the formation of the SECU he noted, "that the member institutions of the Southeastern Conference are committed to a shared mission of fostering research, scholarship, and achievement. The SEC Symposium represents a platform to connect, collaborate and promote a productive dialogue that will span disciplinary and institutional boundaries and allow us to work together for the betterment of society."[24]

The SEC Academic Network was created in 2009 in partnership with ESPN. The SEC Academic Network was an online library of institutionally produced videos featuring academic initiatives and stories from all Southeastern Conference institutions. The SEC Academic Network was officially merged into the SECU operation.[25]

Four SEC institutions are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities: Florida, Missouri, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Prior to the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M from the Big 12, the SEC had the fewest AAU members among Power Five conferences. The Big 12 Conference had seven AAU members through the 2010–11 school year, but four of these schools left the conference in 2011 and 2012—Nebraska for the Big Ten in 2011 (a move that took effect shortly after that school was expelled from the AAU[26]), Colorado for the Pac-12 in 2012, and Missouri and Texas A&M for the SEC in 2012, leaving that conference with three AAU members.

School	Baseball	Basket­ball	Cross country	Football	Golf	Swimming & diving	Tennis	Track & field (indoor)	Track & field (outdoor)	Total SEC Sports
Alabama	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Arkansas	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	8
Auburn	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Florida	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Georgia	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Kentucky	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
LSU	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Mississippi	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	8
Mississippi State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	8
Missouri	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	8
South Carolina	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Tennessee	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Texas A&M	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Vanderbilt	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	N	6
Totals	14	14	13	14	14	10	13	13	13	118

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Southeastern Conference which are played by SEC schools:

• * = Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. Kentucky has a coed team.

School	Basketball	Cross country	Equestrian	Golf	Gymnastics	Soccer	Softball	Swimming & diving	Tennis	Track & field (indoor)	Track & field (outdoor)	Volleyball	Total SEC sports
Alabama	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	12
Arkansas	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
Auburn	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	12
Florida	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
Georgia	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	12
Kentucky	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
LSU	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
Mississippi	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Mississippi State	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Missouri	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
South Carolina	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
Tennessee	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Texas A&M	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
Vanderbilt	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	8
Totals	14	14	5	14	8	14	13	12	14	14	14	13	148

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Southeastern Conference which are played by SEC schools:

• (RS) indicates regular-season champion
• (T) indicates tournament champion

Source: SECSports.com.[61]

SEC teams did not play a uniform number of conference games until 1974. Prior to that, the number of conference games teams played ranged from four to eight, but most played a 6-  or 7-game schedule. The league adopted a uniform 6-game schedule from 1974 to 1987, and added a seventh conference game from 1988 to 1991. Through this period and through the earlier years each SEC school had five permanent opponents, developing some traditional rivalries between schools, and the other games rotated around the other members of the conference.

After expansion to twelve programs in 1992, the SEC went to an 8-game conference schedule, with each team playing the five other teams in their division and three opponents from the other division. The winners of the two divisions would then meet in the SEC Championship Game.

From 1992 through 2002, each team had two permanent inter-divisional opponents, allowing many traditional rivalries from the pre-expansion era (such as Florida vs. Auburn, Kentucky vs. LSU, and Vanderbilt vs. Alabama) to continue. However, complaints from some league athletic directors about imbalance in the schedule (for instance, Auburn's two permanent opponents from the East were Florida and Georgia – two of the SEC's stronger football programs at the time – while Mississippi State played Kentucky and South Carolina every year) led to the SEC reducing the number of permanent inter-division opponents to one starting in the 2003 season. The TV networks televising SEC games were also pressuring for the change so attractive match-ups between non-traditional opponents would happen twice every five years instead of twice every eight years. With the subsequent expansion to 14 members in 2012, non-permanent cross-division opponents face each other in the regular season twice in a span of twelve years.

Under the current format, each school plays a total of eight conference games, consisting of the other six teams in its division, one school from the other division on a rotating basis, and one school from the other division that it plays each year. The permanent cross-division matchups are: Alabama–Tennessee; Arkansas–Missouri; Auburn–Georgia; LSU–Florida; Mississippi State–Kentucky; Ole Miss–Vanderbilt; Texas A&M–South Carolina.

The current scheduling arrangement was originally set to expire after the 2015 season, but the SEC presidents voted 10–4[62] in April 2014 to keep the current format for an additional six to eight seasons beyond 2015.[63] Additionally, beginning in 2016, SEC teams will be required to schedule at least one opponent each season from the other so-called "Power Five" conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, or Pac-12); games against football independent schools also qualify, including Army, BYU, and Notre Dame.[63][64][65]

Through end of the 2019 regular season including SEC Championship Game. Records reflect official NCAA results, including any forfeits or win vacating.[66]

Notes:

• Alabama's record reflects 21 wins being vacated (2005–2007) and eight wins and one tie forfeited (1993).
• Mississippi State's record reflects 18 wins and one tie being forfeited (1975–1977).
• Ole Miss's record reflects 33 wins being vacated (2010–2016).
• Two former members have also won conference titles, Georgia Tech five and Tulane three.

The SEC Championship Game pits the SEC Western Division representative against the Eastern Division representative in a game held after the regular season has been completed. The first two SEC Championship football games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Since 1994, it has been played in Atlanta—first at the Georgia Dome through 2016, and since 2017 at its replacement, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with the current hosting contract running through 2027. The "home team" designation alternates between the division champions, going to the East champion in even-numbered years and the West champion in odd-numbered years. As of 2018, the West leads 15–12 in overall wins in the championship game against the East.

The post-season bowl game tie-ins for the SEC for the 2014–2019 seasons are:[67]

Payout is per team for the 2014 season; if different for opposing conference, payout for the SEC team is shown. Each conference member, irrespective of bowl participation, also receives an equal split of a payout to the SEC conference.[68][69][70]

^ The Sugar Bowl is contractually obligated to select the SEC champion if that team is not participating in the College Football Playoff. In years where the champion is unavailable the Playoff Committee will assign another SEC team to participate in the Sugar. Alternatively, in years where the Sugar hosts a playoff game the SEC Champion will be sent to the Fiesta, Cotton, or Peach Bowl if not selected for the playoff.

† The Big Ten and SEC will be eligible to face the ACC representative in the Orange Bowl at least three out of the eight seasons that it does not host a semifinal for the Playoff over a 12-year span. Notre Dame may be chosen the other two years if eligible.

° In years when the Big Ten places a team in the Orange Bowl, the Citrus Bowl will select from ACC teams remaining after the Playoff Committee and Orange Bowl make their selections.

‡ The Big Ten and ACC will switch between the Music City and Gator bowls on alternating years.

The total pay of head coaches includes university and non-university compensation including base salary, income from contracts, foundation supplements, bonuses and media and radio pay as of January 24, 2020.[71]

Each year, the conference selects various individual awards. In 1994, the conference began honoring former players from each school annually with the SEC Football Legends program.

In 1982, the SEC Skywriters, a group of media covering the Southeastern Conference, selected members of their All-Time SEC Team for the first fifty years (1933–82) of the SEC.[73]

The table below lists each school's permanent men's basketball-only scheduling partners beginning in 2014-15.

The SEC Men's Basketball Tournament (also known simply as the SEC Tournament) is the competition that determines the SEC's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Notably, it does not determine the SEC conference champion in men's basketball—the conference has awarded its championship to the team(s) with the best regular-season record since the 1950–51 season.[77] It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records.

With the expansion to 14 members in 2012, the 2013 tournament was the first with a new format covering five days. The teams seeded eleven through fourteen play on the first day, with the winners advancing to play the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds on Thursday. The top four teams receive a "double bye" and do not play until the quarterfinals on Friday.

As of the most recently completed 2017–18 season, the tournament has most often been held at two venues that have each hosted twelve times. Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky served as the regular host from 1941 until the tournament was discontinued after the 1952 edition. The Georgia Dome in Atlanta first hosted the tournament in 1995 and most recently hosted in 2014. Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee is now the regular host, with that venue hosting the tournament from 2015 through 2025, except in 2018 and 2022 (years in which it will instead host the SEC women's basketball tournament).[78] Sometimes, the tournament will take place at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, or Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The 2018 tournament was held at Scottrade Center, now Enterprise Center, in St. Louis, Missouri, and the 2022 tournament will be at Amalie Arena.[79]

Prior to moving to the Georgia Dome, the tournament (during its modern, post-1979 era) was most often contested at the venue now known as Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, home of the SEC's headquarters and centrally located prior to the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina. Other sites to host include on-campus arenas at LSU, Tennessee and Vanderbilt; Rupp Arena in Lexington; and the Orlando Arena.

† denotes overtime games. Multiple †'s indicate more than one overtime.

The SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year is awarded to the player who has proven himself, throughout the season, to be the most exceptional talent in the Southeastern Conference. Various other awards, such as the best tournament player in the SEC Tournament and all conference honors are given out throughout the year.

Note: Teams in bold are current SEC members who advanced to the CWS while in the conference. Teams in bold italics are current SEC members who were in another conference at the time of their appearance.

Several baseball rivalries have developed in the SEC:

• LSU–Tulane

Historically these schools were arch-rivals in all sports, but following Tulane's decades-long de-emphasis of sports, including its exit from the SEC in 1966, baseball is the only sport in which the two schools are relatively evenly matched. On several occasions match-ups between the two have drawn national record-setting attendances. Tulane reached its first College World Series in 2001 by defeating LSU in three games in the NCAA Super Regional. In 2002, the Tigers and Green Wave drew an NCAA regular season record crowd of 27,673 to the Louisiana Superdome.

• LSU–Mississippi State

Before the arrival of Skip Bertman as LSU's baseball coach in 1984, Mississippi State had long dominated the conference in baseball, with most of that success coming under coach Ron Polk, who returned to coach the Bulldogs in 2002 after retiring in 1997. When Bertman arrived in Baton Rouge, LSU's long-dormant program took off, winning eleven SEC championships and five College World Series championships between 1984 and 2001.

• South Carolina–Clemson

This instate rivalry is an intense local affair, with the Gamecocks and Tigers meeting each regular season, and has gained national prominence as both teams are often ranked in the top ten nationally. The highlights of the rivalry include the 2002 and 2010 meetings in the final four of the College World Series. Each time, South Carolina emerged from the losers bracket to beat Clemson twice and advance to the national championship series.

• South Carolina–North Carolina

The Gamecocks and Tar Heels met five times in the NCAA tournament between 2002 and 2013, including the 2002 NCAA Regional, 2003 NCAA Super Regional, 2004 NCAA Regional and 2013 NCAA Regional, with the Gamecocks holding a 3–2 edge.

The SEC Women's Basketball Tournament is currently held a week before the men's basketball tournament. Like the men's version, it is a single-elimination tournament involving all conference members, with seeding based on regular season records. With the expansion to 14 schools, the bottom four teams in the conference standings play opening-round games, and the top four receive "double byes" into the quarterfinals. The winner earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA women's basketball tournament. Also paralleling the men's tournament, the women's tournament does not determine the SEC champion; that honor has been awarded based on regular-season record since the 1985–86 season.[85]

The tournament, inaugurated in 1980, was originally held on campus sites; the first tournament to take place at a neutral site was in 1987. The two most frequent sites for the tournament have been McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee (seven times) and the Albany Civic Center in Albany, Georgia (six times); however, the tournament was last played in Albany in 1992 and Chattanooga in 2000. Because demand for women's tournament tickets is generally lower than for the men's tournament, it is typically played in a smaller venue than the men's tournament in the same season. The most frequent venues since 2000 have been Bridgestone Arena in Nashville (five times), Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia (four), and Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas (four).

† denotes overtime games. Multiple †'s indicate more than one overtime.

• Tennessee–UConn

The Lady Vols have historically been one of the nation's dominant programs in that sport. Starting in the mid-1990s, UConn has emerged as Tennessee's main rival for national prominence. The Huskies won four national titles between 2000 and 2004; in three of those years, their opponent in the NCAA final was Tennessee. Connecticut also defeated Tennessee in the 1995 Championship game, the Huskies' first-ever title. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame brokered a deal that will see the teams renew their rivalry with a home-and-home series in 2020 and 2021.

• Alabama–Georgia, women's gymnastics

These two storied programs have often butted heads for not only SEC titles, but NCAA titles as well. Georgia has won ten national championships to Alabama's six. For decades the rivalry was dominated by the two long standing coaches of the two schools, Suzanne Yoculan of Georgia and Sarah Patterson of Alabama. Yoculan and Patterson have since retired, bringing their personal rivalry to an end.

• Alabama–Florida, women's softball

These two nationally acclaimed softball programs have proven to be the elite of the SEC and the nation. While consistently being ranked in the nation's Top Ten, both teams find their way to the SEC Tournament Finals and often clash once more in the Women's College Softball World Series.

• Tennessee–LSU, women's softball
• Auburn–Texas, men's swimming and diving

One of the youngest rivalries featuring an SEC team, the Tigers and Texas Longhorns are the two most successful swimming and diving programs in the country. The two have combined for 17 NCAA National Titles since 1981 (nine for Texas, eight for Auburn) and between 1999 and 2007 won every national title awarded. The two regularly face off in a meet during the regular season, Auburn's men own a 12–9 record over the Longhorns. The women just recently began an annual series, with the Tigers winning the series so far 3–1. Texas was the only team to beat the Auburn men between 2001 and 2007.[86]

The fourteen members of the Southeastern Conference claim over 200 national team championships in sports currently or formerly sponsored by conference members. The following totals include national team championships sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from 1906 to the present, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1972 to 1982, and, in football, the Bowl Alliance, Bowl Coalition, Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and College Football Playoff (CFP) since 1992, as well as consensus national championships determined by the major football polls prior to 1992.

• LSU – 47
• Arkansas – 43
• Florida – 40
• Georgia – 37
• Alabama – 25
• Tennessee – 23
• Auburn – 19
• Texas A&M – 17
• Kentucky – 12
• South Carolina – 9
• Vanderbilt – 4
• Mississippi – 3
• Missouri – 2
• Mississippi State – 0

The following totals include national team tournament championships sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from 1906 to the present and the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1972 to 1982. The NCAA did not sponsor tournament championships in women's sports before the 1981–82 academic year, and the NCAA has never sponsored a national championship playoff or tournament in major college football. To date, the fourteen members of the SEC have won 216 NCAA and four AIAW championships,[89] including:

• Arkansas – 46
• LSU – 44
• Florida – 37
• Georgia – 29
• Tennessee – 17
• Auburn – 14
• Texas A&M – 12
• Kentucky – 11
• Alabama – 10
• Vanderbilt – 4
• South Carolina – 3
• Missouri – 2
• Mississippi – 0
• Mississippi State – 0

During the 2007–2008 fiscal year review meeting, there was discussion among SEC leadership about the possibility of starting a TV network dedicated to its conference, much in the same way the Mountain West Conference and Big Ten Conference have done with the mtn. and Big Ten Networks, respectively. A decision was made to postpone the decision until at least the following year.[95]

In August 2008, the SEC announced an unprecedented 15-year television contract with CBS worth an estimated $55 million a year. This continues the relationship the SEC already has with CBS, which puts the SEC in the unique position as the only conference to have its own exclusive national television network of the four major over-the-air broadcast networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox) to display the SEC's events.[12]

In the same month, the league also announced another landmark television contract with ESPN worth $2.25 billion or $150 million a year for the life of the contract, which is for fifteen years. It is the longest and wealthiest contract among all television deals among the major conferences. With these contracts, the SEC had, at the time of the deal, the richest television deals in the country outside the Big Ten and helped make the SEC one of the most nationally televised and visible conferences in the country with the coverage that was provided by these contracts.[96]

The SEC Network is a television and multimedia network that features exclusively Southeastern Conference content through a partnership between ESPN and the SEC.[97] The network launched on August 14, 2014 with the first live football game scheduled for two weeks later between Texas A&M and South Carolina on Thursday, August 28 in Columbia, South Carolina[98]

The network is part of a deal between the Southeastern Conference and ESPN which is a 20-year agreement, beginning in August 2014 and running through 2034. The agreement served to create and operate a new multiplatform television network and accompanying digital platform in the hope of increasing revenue for member institutions and expanding the reach of the Southeastern Conference.