THE BIG STORY

What does the SEC’s 15-year, $2.25 billion deal with ESPN (starting next football season) include?

A whole bunch such as:

As part of the agreement:
o ESPN and ESPN2 will continue to offer premier SEC games, including Saturday night and two primetime Thursday football games, triple the basketball offerings with three nights (two new) of men’s basketball and present SEC Championships in women’s basketball, baseball, softball and gymnastics.

o ESPN Regional Television will become the new over-the-air syndication home for SEC football and basketball games. In addition, ESPN and the SEC will work together to offer multi-sport packages (including football, men’s and women’s basketball, Olympic sports and conference championships) of SEC content for regional cable syndication.

o ESPNU will now offer exclusive SEC telecasts, including football and basketball and selected conference championships. In addition, the network will present a weekly, hour-long program on SEC sports throughout the academic year as well as sport-by-sport previews, reviews and specials.

o The semifinals and championship of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament will be televised nationally for the first time on ESPN on ABC.

o All SEC championship games except football will be aired on either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN on ABC, ESPNU or ESPN Classic.

o The agreement will also showcase the academic successes of SEC student-athletes by including twice-annual programs dedicated to academic accomplishments of SEC student-athletes; an annual Campus Connection (students take part in the production) telecast at each SEC institution; a weekly segment on an SEC show featuring academics; and an online SEC Academic Network utilizing ESPN360.com technology.

o Extensive coverage of women’s basketball and Olympic sports will be offered nationally through ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU and regionally through ESPN Regional Television, including both regular-season and conference championships.

o Comprehensive multimedia rights are also an integral part of the agreement as live SEC action, including football and basketball, will be offered via simulcasts on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV and extensive content rights have been granted to ESPN.com.

o ESPN International, ESPN GamePlan, ESPN FULL COURT, ESPN Classic and ESPN Deportes will also feature the SEC.

o Each SEC institution retains the right to continue a local multi-media rights package.

Elsewhere in the SEC:

ALABAMA: The Crimson Tide will start three true freshmen in the season opener against Clemson: Nose tackle Terrence Cody, inside linebacker Don’ta Hightower and wide receiver Julio Jones, who will also return kickoffs. Jones caught five passes for a team-high 125 yards and one TD in a preseason scrimmage. “He’s consistently made plays in practice as well as both scrimmages,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said of Jones. “In this last week he certainly solidified his position as a starter.”

ARKANSAS: The Hogs have 18 true freshmen on its 66-man offensive and defensive depth chart, including four first-year players who will start the season opener on Saturday against Western Illinois. The Fab Four are wide receiver Jarius Wright, weakside linebacker Jelani Smith, free safety Elton Ford and tight end Mitchell Bailey. “There is a lot (of freshmen),” first-year Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said.. “They’ve had a good three weeks of practice. Certainly, we’ll have a lot to learn as far as understanding the speed of the game and how fast it’s going to go.”

AUBURN: Thanks to Alabama’s loss to Louisiana-Monroe last year, nobody at Auburn is taking the season opener against ULM lightly. New Auburn offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was a coordinator at Troy for the last two seasons. He pointed out that said everyone in the the Sun Belt Conference pounded their chests after the Louisiana-Monroe upset at ’Bama. “There’s a tremendous amount of pride in that conference right now,” Franklin said. “I know because I was in that conference, and I had a lot of pride. I know what we felt like when we went on the road and played in the SEC. We took a tremendous amount of pride in making sure that when we left the field, they knew that they’d been in a game and hopefully, you had a chance to win in the fourth quarter. (ULM) has gone one step further. They’ve won one in the fourth quarter on the road. (The Warhawks) are coming in here and they believe that they’re going to win.”

FLORIDA: Quarterback Tim Tebow is still holding out hope that wide receiver Percy Harvin (off-season heel surgery) plays in Saturday’s opener against Hawaii. “He’s done more and more the past few days,” Tebow said. “I expect him to get some time in there. I don’t think (our timing) would be 100 percent, but it can pick up pretty quickly because we’ve been throwing it and catching it a lot the past couple of years. Later down the line, it will get better. He looks pretty good, but he doesn’t want to push it too hard. In practice, it doesn’t matter what we’re doing, he’s not getting any contact.”

GEORGIA: Georgia running backs Knowshon Moreno (shoulder) and Caleb King (hamstring) were finally out of their green, non-contact jerseys as Georgia Southern game week arrived on Monday. “It’s good to see more healthy bodies out there,” coach Mark Richt. “Caleb looked pretty good today. I wouldn’t have known that he had any problem before today.” King said he’s back to full-speed. Richt said the pecking order behind Moreno at tailback will be determined after a final staff personnel meeting.

KENTUCKY: Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said his main objective for 2008 is to build on the positive momentum as the program strives to reach an elite level, starting with Sunday’s opener against Louisville.”I think this is a real key year for us,” Brooks said. “Recruiting is going well finally after two back-to-back bowl wins, and if we can make it three years in a row to the post-season, then I think (national prominence) is possible. We need to build continuity in the program and recruit well, but we also have to win games. Now it’s just a matter of whether we’re going to move forward and if the new faces will make their own names, or whether they’ll slide and not be as productive as I anticipate we can be.”

LSU: Andrew Hatch was the first quarterback listed on the LSU depth chart released today, but the word “or” was next to Jarrett Lee’s name. It was the same situation at tailback, where Charles Scott was listed first with “or” next to Keiland Williams and to Richard Murphy. The only development on the offensive line had true freshman Greg Shaw backing up Ciron Black at left tackle. Shaw was behind Joseph Barksdale at right tackle recently. Redshirt freshman Ernest McCoy is the No. 2 right tackle now. At wide receiver, Terrance Toliver is listed as one of the starters when the Tigers go to three wide receivers. Chris Mitchell is behind him. At the top two receiver slots are Brandon LaFell and Demetrius Byrd with Jared Mitchell and Ricky Dixon behind them, respectively. On defense, true freshman Ryan Baker of Grand Ridge, Fla., was the No. 2 weak side outside linebacker behind Kelvin Sheppard. True freshman Kellen Theriot, who enrolled early last January and went through spring practice, entered August practices at No. 2. Harry Coleman was listed as the No. 1 strong safety ahead of Chad Jones.

MISS. STATE: Tyson Lee, all 5-11, is State’s backup quarterback as the Bulldogs travel to Louisiana Tech to open the season. As he told the Jackson Claron-Ledger’s Kyle Veazey, he’s overcome being vertically challenged. “I laugh,” he said. “Because for a while I was like, man, I am too short. Then you realize I’m not going to grow anymore. Nothing really I can do about the height. You learn to work with it, and do the best that you can with it and when people say it you try to just laugh at it and keep on going.” In his second season at Itawamba Community College last year, Lee completed 201-of-323 passes for 2,308 yards and 12 touchdowns. He finished third in the nation in passing yardage.

OLE MISS: Look for nose tackle Jerrell Powe to see action against Memphis as a second-teamer behind starter Marcus Tillman. Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said the 6-2, 340-pound Powe had greatly improved after becoming eligible following a three-year fight to play. “We have a plan for this game for anybody’s who on that (depth chart),” Nutt said.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier announced Taylor Rank will start Thursday ahead of senior Mike Davis, who missed the final two weeks of preseason camp because of a shoulder injury and stomach virus. Rank, a redshirt junior from Vancouver, Wash., has one previous start. He made the most of it, rushing for 101 yards on 15 carries two years ago against Florida Atlantic when Cory Boyd was injured and Davis was held out the first series for breaking curfew. Rank, the Class 4A player of the year in Washington in 2004, had just two carries for five yards last season. He began the preseason third on the depth chart behind Davis and sophomore Brian Maddox. “Taylor’s had a little bit better preseason practice. He had a good summer going to workouts - and Mike did, too,” Spurrier said Monday. “Mike will be in early, though. He’s ready to play.” Davis injured his shoulder when he fell on it during a noncontact drill in the Gamecocks’ first full-pads practice. He said he does not know how his shoulder will respond to getting hit until the game.

TENNESSEE: Linebacker Gerald Williams’ academic situation is still on hold, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel. The transfer missed his fourth straight practice awaiting academic clearance. The hoopla is surrounding an online class that Williams took at UT to complete his junior college requirements. The Vols are waiting on the certification paper work to be completed and returned. This isn’t the first time Williams has had to wait to play for UT. He signed to be a Vol in 2005 and has since taken a year off to focus on academics, gone to prep school and attended junior college. Missing the entire season seems unlikely, yet Vols’ coach Phillip Fulmer admitted that every day Williams isn’t on the field, it gets more disconcerting. Despite being less experienced in UT’s system than senior starter Ellix Wilson and sophomore backup Nick Reveiz, Williams has shown enough in preseason camp that Fulmer said he’d make the trip to UCLA as long as he’s eligible. “He’s just a big, physical presence in the middle there,” Fulmer said. “When he tackles you, they go down. He could definitely impact our football team and I’m hopeful that it all works out.”

VANDERBILT: Vandy coach Bobby Johnson plans to pick one quarterback – whether it’s
Mackenzi Adams, who started the final six games of the 2007 season, or Chris Nickson, who started 18 consecutive games before that – and stick with him. “We’ve always been going by the old-school thing of picking a guy and sticking with him and getting him ready,” Johnson said during his Monday press conference. “In the preseason, you have the luxury of getting quarterbacks a lot of reps. We’ve had 26 practices; we can pick and choose when they get reps. I don’t think any of them is lacking for reps right now. But when you’re limited on the number of days you have to get ready for the next opponent, I think it is extremely important to get one guy more reps than the other guy because you plan on him playing.”