The SEC Network will kick off the college football season with a doubleheader on Thursday Aug. 28. In addition to the previously announced Texas A&M at South Carolina game, Temple-Vanderbilt will also air on the network that day.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive and ESPN senior vice president Justin Connolly, speaking at a press conference at the Georgia Dome, said that the service, which thus far has only inked a carriage pact with AT&T U-verse, will present five football games during the opening weekend of the 2014 college football season. Subsequently, the service will air a pigskin tripleheader each Saturday during the campaign.
Riffing off the success of College GameDay, the SEC Network will feature a weekly on-campus pregame show. ESPN’s Joe Tessitore will serve as the host of SECNation, which will make its initial stop at Columbia, S.C. before the Gamecocks and Aggies. The show’s first Saturday stop will be in Auburn, Ala., on August 30 prior to the Tigers’ matchup against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
ESPN is ramping up its commitment to the SEC Storied franchise, with 10 installments scheduled in 2014. Next up: be Bo, Barkley and The Big Hurt, a retrospective look on a rare moment in time when three of the country’s great athletes overlapped at Auburn. It will debut on ESPNU Feb. 24 at 9 p.m. (ET.)
SEC Network also unveiled its brand campaign, aspiring to convey the experience of being a fan of the conference, while sporting the "Take it All In" tagline. School specific creative is being produced to represent each of the 14 SEC schools. The campaign begins next year.
