It is official. As expected, the SEC Network belongs to ESPN (Every Sports Person’s Network).
The announcement came Thursday in Atlanta during a joint news conference with SEC Commissioner Mike Slive and ESPN officials, and the rich just got richer.
How rich wasn’t revealed, but you can bet your grandma’s buttermilk biscuit recipe that it is the richest contract in all of college athletics.
The deal is for 20 years and includes televising 45 SEC football games, more than 100 men’s basketball games, 60 women’s basketball games, 75 baseball games and other events.
Plus signing-day and pro-day coverage, studio shows, spring football and original features.
All 14 members of the SEC will get an equal share of the revenue, but only time will tell if Alabama gets more prime-time football coverage and Kentucky gets more basketball coverage than the rest of the league.
The announcement wasn’t a shock. The SEC had been working closely with the most powerful sports entity for years, and the ESPN logo is emblazoned alongside the SEC’s in signage.
When Slive boosted the league to 14 teams by adding Missouri and Texas A&M, he took a size-12 footprint in the world of televised sports and made it about a size 20.
Missouri brings major markets in St. Louis and Kansas City, Texas A&M adds the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio markets, and that almost automatically meant a renegotiation with ESPN.
It has taken several months, but the deal is done and the rich get richer.
If you are one of the thousands who will watch the telecast of the Kentucky Derby while at Oaklawn Park, and you plan on making a wager, keep in mind that right now there is a 70 percent chance of rain in Louisville, Ky.
A wet track can be a difference-maker.
Some horses just don’t like mud. They don’t like to run in it, and they sure don’t like having it kicked in their face.
If it wasn’t hard enough to pick a winner, this year’s Derby could be different simply because it went to a point system that awards points for how horses finished in the major prep races.
In the past, the field of 20 was determined by money earned in graded stakes races, but that rewarded Derby fever for owners and trainers of horses who won most of their money in shorter races, even sprints.
Before this year, there would be several such horses and they’d go out front and clog up the field, especially when they hit the wall somewhere around the turn for home.
Since 2000, six winners rallied from at least 10th place to win. There was only one wire-to-wire winner in that same span, War Emblem, who had been switched to trainer Bob Baffert before the race.
With less speed in the race, the stalkers - the horses who stay just off the pace - will have a better chance of having enough gas left to finish the 1 ¼ miles in strong fashion.
The Superfecta pick in this space is:
Orb, winner of the Florida Derby and trained by Shug McGaughey. There was a little scare Thursday when Orb was schooling in the paddock and someone started the engine of a lift. The noise upset Orb and he kicked the back of his stall, but he was fine later.
Normandy Invasion, who looked like a superstar as a 2-year-old. Throw out the Wood Memorial, when he finished second to Verrazano, and he could be the favorite.
Goldencents, owned in part by Rick Pitino, won the Santa Anita Derby in impressive fashion, knocking off a speed horse and holding off a closer.
Overanalyze, winner of the Arkansas Derby. In the past nine Derbies a horse from the Arkansas Derby has finished among the top four, including Smarty Jones, who won it in 2004.
Sports, Pages 19 on 05/03/2013