Why is SEC football not on CBS: How to watch Texas in-conference games in 2024

For a long time, the SEC has been on CBS and that's just the way things were.

The SEC Network and CBS had a deal that the news network would have rights to the top-tier football games every weekend but this year, fans will have to tune into a different channel.

As the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners join the conference, the best SEC games of every weekend won't be on CBS like fans have grown so accustomed to.

So, what happened and why is it changing?

What was the contract between CBS and the SEC?

For years (12 to be exact), CBS owned rights to the top SEC game in the nation every weekend.

That means when Georgia and Alabama clashed or Auburn hosted the Crimson Tide or Tennessee and South Carolina battled, the game was on CBS.

The network also had rights to two doubleheaders per year.

This contract covered a large chunk of what everyone was tuning into on a Saturday afternoon.

However, this past winter, CBS declined to sign an 'extension' on that contract.

Meanwhile, ESPN was more than happy to shovel over the money for the best conference in the country, because it just means more.

What is the contract between ESPN and the SEC?

This summer, the SEC has expanded to 16 teams as the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners joined the ranks.

As the SEC expanded, ESPN jumped at the opportunity to sign a new contract with the conference.

ESPN and the SEC agreed to a 'pro-rata' deal, increasing the game distribution from 12 to 14 to account for the two new schools.

For non-finance-minded people like myself, 'pro-rata' means that it's a proportional ratio payment. For the amount distribution increased (16 percent), the amount of money increased as well.

The moral of the story is that SEC football games every weekend will almost always be on ESPN or ESPN+ and fans will just need to figure out which channel it's exactly on.

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