A media-focused preview of the SEC Championship Game, which this year serves as the final game in the history of the SEC on CBS.
How to watch the SEC Championship Game
Date: Saturday, December 2
Time: 4:00 PM ET
Networks: CBS, Paramount+
Streaming options: Paramount+, Fubo, DIRECTV STREAM, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV. (If you purchase a subscription, this site may receive a commission.)
The full college football schedule is available here.
Backstory
Less than 24 hours after the final game in the history of the Pac-12 comes a lesser milestone, but still one of note: the final game of the “SEC on CBS.” For years, CBS Sports’ SEC rights deal stood as the ideal partnership for a network, annually producing the largest college football audiences of any given season for a bargain basement price of just $55 million per year. It was a good deal for the SEC as well, giving the conference a consistent, marquee window on broadcast television throughout the season (save for the first two weeks). Particularly over the past 15 years — a period of time in which the SEC became the dominant conference in college football — the partnership has produced on the field and in the ratings like no other in the sport.
What the SEC had in CBS was unusual in modern college sports. All of the other conferences are partnered with networks who have multiple mouths to feed. ESPN may have conference-specific networks and branding, but one does not necessarily associate the network with any one conference. The CBS-SEC deal had more in common with Notre Dame’s NBC contract: all the trappings of a team-specific RSN, but on a major broadcast network. From the announcers to the theme music — which CBS has used on college football since well before it acquired SEC rights — the network’s coverage has come to be synonymous with SEC games.
All good things must come to an end, particularly in sports television, yet one wonders how CBS managed to find itself on the outside looking in after this season. One could look at the spiraling price tag of the CBS package, which went from the aforementioned $55 million to north of $300 million per year, but the network was willing to spend that kind of money on a lesser Big Ten rights deal. Surely if CBS is willing to pay the Big Ten nine figures for a secondary deal, it could have paid the SEC a similar amount to retain its “A” package. Perhaps it is the case that any amount CBS bid would have been exceeded by ESPN, which surely was willing to spend whatever it took to bring all of the SEC media rights under its umbrella. Regardless, it is somewhat surprising that CBS did not fight just a bit harder to retain the SEC.
Ratings prediction
The CBS era ends Saturday with what has become a regular occurrence, an Alabama-Georgia SEC title game. The Crimson Tide have not played at their highest level this season, but after a Hail Mary against Auburn last week, Alabama enters championship Saturday one win away from a likely playoff berth. All that stands in their way is two-time defending national champion Georgia, which defeated Alabama in the national title game two years ago. It is not every conference that is delivering national championship quality matchups in their conference title games.
Expect viewership to comfortable outdraw Georgia-LSU last year, which averaged 10.89 million viewers. The last time Alabama and Georgia met in the title game two years ago, viewership topped the 15 million mark.
SEC Championship: #1 Georgia – #8 Alabama (4p Sat CBS). Prediction: 18.01 million viewers.
Most-watched SEC title games on CBS
#1: 2009 Alabama-Florida, 17.97 million viewers.
#2: 2018 Alabama-Georgia, 17.50 million.
#3: 2012 Alabama-Georgia, 16.20 million.
#4: 2021 Alabama-Georgia, 15.28 million.
#5: 2008 Florida-Alabama, 15.01 million.
