20
The 14-team conference has been negotiating with both networks this year after the SEC expanded...
The 14-team conference has been negotiating with both networks this year after the SEC expanded with Texas A&M and Missouri. That triggered a clause in the SEC's deal that allows the league to go back to the negotiating table with its partners, just as the ACC recently renegotiated its media contract with ESPN after its own expansion with Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
The bigger negotiation is with ESPN, and talks appear to revolve around an SEC-branded cable channel that could launch as early as 2014. ESPN's current arrangement with the SEC — negotiated in 2008 — pays an average of $150 million a year over 15 years.
— According to a CBS Sports report through Sports Business Daily, the SEC is a lot closer to adding a television network of their own than previously thought.
And the game continues to change. Also, according to the report, if the SEC does indeed begin its own network, it won't begin until 2014.
