ManifeSECt Destiny

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CBS carries the SEC Game of the Week into living rooms across the nation every weekend. CBS' deal is the only national broadcast of any collegiate conference. (Independent Notre Dame, of course, has an eight-game deal with NBC.) ABC also carries football games on network television. But the ABC games, featuring Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Pac-10, and Big East teams are carried regionally. That means ABC carries teams split geographically, which would theoretically lead to higher overall ratings. That's been the case every year.

Until now.

For the first time since CBS added the SEC in 1996, the SEC games are outdrawing their regional counterparts on ABC. This season's SEC ratings are up 29 percent over comparable ratings last season. Given that CBS still has Alabama-Auburn and what will probably be the highest rated game of the season prior to the BCS bowls, Florida-Alabama in the SEC championship game, CBS and the SEC are likely to triumph over ABC for the season.

Should the SEC thank Tim Tebow? Maybe so. But even without Tebow, does this represent a fascinating turn in the ratings game? I think so. Read on for seven reasons why this is incredibly significant.

The SEC's ascension in television ratings has slid under the radar this fall. That makes sense with all the attention being directed to the controversies on the field, but in the sporting arena, this year represents a seismic tipping point, the year the SEC went national while the rest of the country kept fighting over their Balkanized football-watching regions.

In fact, I'll even coin a phrase for it, ManifeSECt Destiny.

Most of the implications from the SEC beating regional broadcasts of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-10 games of the week haven't yet been written or talked about. In fact, go ahead and consider this your first primer on why the SEC's national rankings represent such an important move in collegiate athletics.

1. As I predicted when this contract was signed, the SEC is becoming the de facto No. 2 brand in football behind the NFL.

No matter where you are across the country, you can flip on your television and watch the top SEC game of the week on CBS. Need to watch the lower tier games because you've gotten hooked on the SEC's storylines thanks to the gobs of national coverage? Then you can find them on ESPN's network of stations.

I've written this before, but it bears repeating, it's easier to watch your favorite SEC team on television if you live out-of-market than it is if you live out-of-market in the NFL.

Winning nationwide in football is just the first step. What's coming next? The SEC tide is going to be lifted in every sport, particularly those with a major television presence. For now though, there is only one football brand in America more valuable than the SEC, the NFL.

2. Whither the Tebow Effect?

Skeptics might point to the return of Saint Tebow as the reason for a one-year bump in the ratings. I think that argument is flawed. The trend lines are moving in the SEC's favor no matter who is lined up under center for Florida. That's because each year of the national television contract becomes more of an engine driving viewership. Year after year of increased coverage feeds on itself. There's so much money at stake, ratings have to grow.

Having said that, clearly a big draw for the SEC this year has been Tim Tebow's national prominence as the fourth-year quarterback of a very successful defending national champion. That's why Florida has been the top draw all season long when it comes to television ratings. It also helps that the state of Florida, as the fourth biggest in the nation with over 18 million people, is the biggest in the SEC footprint by a substantial margin. Georgia, the second biggest state by population, is barely half as large.

So, for ratings purposes, if CBS had to pick one team that they wanted to dominate, Florida would be the selection. But how much of this influx in ratings is a function of the Tebow effect? It's hard to be certain on a yearly basis. That's why the conference has a back-up plan.

3. Selling coaches.

No conference in America sells their coaches as celebrities better than the SEC.

Quick, who are the coaches of Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee?

You'd have to be living under a sports rock not to know that, right?

Now, quick, who are the coaches of the Houston Texans, the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons?

I used to think the cult of the coach idea was absurd, now I think it's pretty shrewd. The SEC has positioned their coaches to be celebrities because the players come and go every few years. But the coach stays in the program. Unlike the NFL where coaches vanish beneath the star wattage of a major player, the coaches in the SEC are the constellations. And while coaches may not be there forever, they last much longer than any one particular player.

Which means, even if you're a fan who isn't that well-versed on the players for a particular year, you feel like you understand the vibe of the program because you have an opinion of the man in charge.

That also means that SEC Commissioner Mike Slive's move to cut down on the sniping between coaches might be counterproductive. Ironically enough, coaches taking shots at one another is one of the best ways to strengthen the SEC brand.

And, not coincidentally, the SEC ratings.

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4. ESPN/ABC's awkward position benefits the SEC tremendously.

CBS's best SEC game competes against ESPN/ABC's regional coverage of games. Yet ESPN/ABC has its own major television deal with the SEC to promote the conference. Talk about hamstrung. ESPN/ABC finds itself in the unique position of building up interest in the SEC to help draw viewers for their coverage of the SEC. Meanwhile, in providing that coverage, they're simultaneously stripping away viewers from their own featured content on ABC.

That 29 percent yearly increase is also a nice bump for CBS that's indicative, I believe, of the increased attention that ESPN/ABC has been paying to the SEC's big stories. For instance, the ESPN-fueled drama between Lane Kiffin and Urban Meyer led to a, wait for it, 60 percent increase in viewers for Tennessee-Florida in 2009 over 2008's rating.

Getting ABC/ESPN on board for the majority of the games was an incredibly shrewd move by the SEC. Their biggest foe in primetime telecasts is also, paradoxically, their greatest ally.

5. The networks want to build SEC stars.

With CBS Sports College Television and ESPN's focus on recruiting and high school games across their network platforms, football recruits are increasingly becoming celebrities before they ever reach a campus.

Why?

Because in college football these networks can book at least three years worth of attention from these players. The earlier these networks can make football recruits stars, therefore, the more interest the sporting public has for them, and the greater the resulting ratings.

See, with basketball, recruits become stars but they vanish off the collegiate stage in a hurry. For ESPN that's no big deal, they can carry someone like Carmelo Anthony from high school, to college for one-year at Syracuse and then on to the NBA and make money off of him for the entire career path. Because they carry games at all three levels.

So one-and-done players in college really don't hurt them.

But with college football players, thanks to the collective bargaining agreement you get three years of play guaranteed. So if you're one of these networks you're incentivized to make these guys stars as quickly as you possibly can.

Guess which players are going to be given star-billing the most?

The ones whose games are featured most frequently on the network.

Which leads to...

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Labels: manifesect destiny clay travis cbs college football ratings sec abc college football television ratings

Posted by Clay Travis at 7:53 PM
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