ESPN Dangling Financial Bump to SEC If It Makes One Significant Change

The ever-disruptive conference has remained stubborn on the scheduling front.

The SEC logo sits on Texas's home field before its CFP game against Clemson in 2024. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Generally, if college football's state of affairs is changing, the SEC is either driving the bus outright or helping it dutifully along.

The league's addition of Arkansas hastened the demise of the Southwest Conference in the 1990s. Longtime commissioner Roy Kramer masterminded the BCS. The SEC's additions of Oklahoma and Texas this decade kicked off the current round of conference realignment.

However, there is one area where the SEC remains uncharacteristically conservative. The league plays eight conference games in a world where its closest rival, the Big Ten, eagerly plays nine (and has for over a decade).

Wednesday afternoon, Seth Emerson and Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported that ESPN is dangling money in front of the SEC in a bid to get the conference to tack on a ninth conference football game.

"There is no formal offer yet, those sources added, and the exact amount of the increase is unclear," Emerson and Marchand wrote. "But the sources said the additional money would likely be in the range of $50 to 80 million annually on top of the current deal, in which ESPN pays the conference $811 million per year to broadcast its sporting events."

The league has had an eight-game conference schedule since 1992, when it split into two divisions upon the addition of the Razorbacks and South Carolina.

Conference play in the SEC is scheduled to begin this year on Sept. 6, when Ole Miss travels to Kentucky.

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