Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images / Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey addressed Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek’s public complaint about ESPN’s early-season scheduling on Wednesday, acknowledging he had already raised the issue with the network before the schedule was released, and that it made no difference.

Yurachek released a pointed statement after the early-season schedule was released showing Arkansas playing at Utah at 10:15 p.m. ET on Sept. 12, then hosting Georgia at noon ET on Sept. 19. Yurachek, who also serves as chairman of the College Football Playoff committee, called the scheduling “unacceptable” and named ESPN directly, arguing the condensed schedule was “not simply a competitive disadvantage” but “a genuine welfare issue for the young men who represent our program.” He said he would not quietly accept the situation and called on the SEC and ESPN to aggressively pursue an alternative solution.

Sankey’s response at the SEC spring meetings this week amounted to a frank acknowledgment of the conference’s limitations under its current deal with ESPN. “We have communicated the displeasure in advance,” Sankey said. “It hasn’t changed. That’s one of those points of authority that are given to our broadcast partner. And the squeeze on the West Coast games, we don’t have to do what other college conferences do by comparison. And then the squeeze with the early kickoff is not something that I’m thrilled about either, but we do delegate that authority as part of our TV contracts.

The SEC’s current deal with ESPN is a 10-year pact worth $710 million per year that began in 2024, and kickoff time authority is among the powers the conference ceded to the network as part of the arrangement. That context matters because Sankey, at the same spring meetings, separately acknowledged that the deal undervalues what the SEC actually delivers. The conference has dominated college football television ratings for two consecutive seasons under the current arrangement — ABC won 34 of 42 Saturday windows last season, with SEC teams featured in the vast majority — while collecting roughly $400 million less per year than the Big Ten gets from Fox, CBS, and NBC.

The deal runs through 2034, and until it doesn’t, ESPN holds the authority the SEC signed away, including the power to put Arkansas on a plane to Salt Lake City for a 10:15 p.m. kickoff and back home six days later for a noon kickoff against Georgia, regardless of what the commissioner thinks.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

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