ESPN Relationship with SEC Has to End with Bidding War of 2034

The relationship between the SEC and ESPN needs to end. There is just too much disrespect toward the fans by the Mouse-driven network to continue.

Of course, that's not going to be possible for a few years seeing as the conference is only halfway through its current contract, but when the dust settles on the bidding war of 2034, if the money is even remotely close, it can't be ESPN. Arkansas fans, nor any other SEC fan base should continue to be subjected to this.

Not after the way they have abused SEC fans all this time. There just simply zero respect or care for the customers who prop this company up and it can't continue to be tolerated.

Some might be wondering what brought this on. After all, they may have checked for a network outage created by one of those patented TV provider disputes and don't see anything.

Oh, no. It's the wrong time of year for that. Mickey Mouse doesn't start barging into corporate offices and holding a TV provider president's face to a grinder demanding more money until the perfect, most leverageable moment of the SEC football season.

Then, just as your favorite team is slated to play an important game, a gloved hand with too few fingers reaches over and snatches a lever on the wall, cutting off all access right as Pat MacAfee jumps up on a desk ready to proclaim whether he thinks Nick Saban is an idiot or a wise man for picking your team to win.

No games. No access.

Despite you having already paid a ton extra to see it as a massive chunk of your TV bill, it is gone. Fans are left to suffer while Disney/ESPN relishes in every complaint because they know their demands will soon be met.

While disgusting in how manipulative it is to intentionally hurt loyal customers, that's not it.

Perhaps you looked around to see if it's still basketball season. After all, mice apparently can't read clocks, nor do they have any idea how long basketball games need to finish.

But, they do. Fans aren't channel hopping hoping to catch the first 10 minutes of their favorite team's basketball game because Disney/ESPN isn't capable of figuring thus out.

They are intentionally punished to justify branches of the network like ESPN News. Otherwise, why would that channel remain on the itemized list of products TV providers have to charge fans for the right to have?

There also would be no justification for pushing fans to the ESPN app. And while the frustration that comes with trying to enjoy or cover various SEC games during basketball is a major bullet point as to why Mickey Mouse's continuous disrespect toward customers across the SEC footprint needs to end, it's not what spurred this piece.

It's close though. Those who try to seriously watch SEC sports, especially this time of year, already know what's coming.

It was teased. It's that awful ESPN app and the joy executives at the network seem to take in having dumped the most useless, dysfunctional list of computer code ever written onto customers with no intention of ever making the quality of service even bearable.

Regardless of whether someone pays for the premium version of the ESPN app or settles for what is supposed to be provided with a general TV subscription, it's borderline impossible to watch a game on this thing. That's because every time they flip on the television, slide over to the ESPN app and find the desired game, customers are usually met with a message saying they are required to reauthenticate.

For a lot of people across the SEC footprint, that command is confusing. They don't know what it means.

Basically, the app doesn't think you belong there. You aren't part of the club, so you aren't getting in.

It's not a problem people usually experience after initially logging into an app on their TV unless the credit card on file expires. Every other app works perfectly fine.

Even the Disney+ app works with minimal flaws despite supposedly being created by the same computer programmers who built the ESPN+ app. The difference is they company cares about the Disney+ app and its subscribers because it is seen as a gateway to get families into the theme parks, which is where the focus and the money is for Disney.

Even the movies, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe cash cow is simply viewed as an expensive commercial for the Disney parks.

What doesn't get people into the parks is a weekend of watching No. 22 Arkansas sweep No. 8 Alabama.

So, even though pretty much all subscribers know for certain they have an operational log-in that works because they watched their favorite college baseball or softball team play in Game 1 Friday night, now, less than 24 hours later, they can't get in because of a neverending glitch in the app that Disney is unwilling to address.

Unfortunately, even for those who are aware of what reauthenticate means and have little trouble dealing with apps, there is no information provided on the screen for how to go about getting authenticated.

The simple solution would be to have a button that lets you choose your TV provider or login for your Disney/ESPN premium access account, but that's not a thing. It's an afternoon of digging out a device, Googling how to reauthenticate, trying multiple versions of the ESPN url with things like /stream after it, only to open the app, fight through a poor layout to find the game and be told to reauthenticate again.

It's a nightmare that maybe ends in eventually wearing down the system enough that it lets you in after logging out everything Disney on the TV and finding an old iPad the system likes after two computers and a phone that are logged in didn't work. However, odds are authentication isn't happening, so customers are left to find the game on the radio or miss it altogether while Mickey Mouse quietly slides an envelope of that person's money into his sleeve to deposit later.

There are reports all over sites like Reddit of people saying they have to fight through this process three or four times a day. Someone needs to hook these people up with high level government jobs because those are some mentally tough dudes to go through that process over and over in a single day without throwing something through the screen.

Money is very important, especially in the unstable times created by NIL. However, if a group like YouTube, with its well-built app that comes standard on every television with its inability to have games overlap and no need to negotiate with television providers, submits a bid even remotely close to ESPN's, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has to think about his customers.

While Disney doesn't care about them, it's his sworn duty to do so. In that case, YouTube has to get the contract and ESPN has to fade into the distance.

ESPN either adapts or dies. People who spend time watching sports can't be treated like this anymore.