Adieu, CBS

Like any good divorces, it finished because of money. CBS had the media deal of a lifetime, only spending $825 million to the SEC on a 15-year contract, giving the schools $55 million per year each and itself the primary rights to each weekend. They refused to move on the ‘Best Contract On Earth’, and when ESPN threw in a $3 billion, 10-year offer for the conference, the SEC jumped at it.

And so at this year’s SEC Championship game, we say goodbye to an old friend….

On Saturday afternoon, we bid goodbye to CBS’ coverage on CBS, which has been the partner of the Conference That Means The Most for 20 years.

Most of the coverage of the last 20 years was a combination of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson, and later Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson.

For the most part, it was ‘Grandfather Verne’, who arrived in 2000 and left in 2016, much to the tears and him and Danielson.

The leaving moment was both beautiful and saddening.

Then Brad Nessler took over, and it’s been his steady hand – as well as the much-maligned Danielson – that has brought the SEC home to this.

All of them did something that a commentator like ESPN’s Chris Fowler can’t do: Shut up and let a game run. Verne, Gary and Brad were excellent at letting the game speak for itself? Crowd going bonkers on a third down with a game on the line? They didn’t need to tell you that the crowd was going nuts on a third down with the game on the line? Great pass? React to it, don’t describe it. They seemed to know that they were not on the radio. And so when there were great soundbytes to come, they were generally great.

Weirdly, we’re going to miss Gary Danielson – something that we feel a little hypocritical about given the amount of s**t we’ve given him over the last few years about being a Bama-slurper and general frontrunner and stating way too much of the obvious.

And when you hear his voice and THAT jingle, you KNOW that you’re watching Saturday afternoons on CBS. It’s the SEC. It’s hedges, rabid fans, 100,000 people going crazy, and an awful lot of talented football players.

TRANSPORTATION TO HEAVEN

From everywhere from Columbia, Missouri to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a hell of a lot in-between for almost four hours on a Saturday afternoon, CBS transports you into this world where everyone plays on natural grass (none of this turf crap, Michigan), everyone has a shaker, and the shots panned over the student section capture the emotions of the day. Whether it’s the Tri-Del sorority girl dressed up to the nines with her fall skirt, lipstick and badge that says how much her sorority loves The Gators to the Spike Squad at Georgia to the bouncing cheerleaders at Auburn to the screaming corp members at Texas A&M – and many other examples in-between, CBS managed to mix crowd shots, coach shots and football shots perfectly.

Every fanbase on CBS went through the gamut of emotions – best displayed in the 2016 Tennessee- Georgia game.

 

And with the weather generally cooperating in the fall, the fact that the light and the fact that everything was fairly easy on the eye was a great recruiting tool for players and future students alike. Things won’t seem that they’ve changed a lot when ESPN is showing more SEC games. It’s just Fowler & Herbstreit aren’t Gary and Brad. For all the crap that’s been laid out to him, for Danielson it’s water off a duck’s back. With Fowler and Herbstreit, they don’t get any feedback because they are so ubiquitous and, yep, kinda pleased with themselves.

Next year ‘The CBS game’ will no longer exist for SEC fans. The ‘CBS game’ will be that of the Big Ten, meaning that Verne and Brad (unless they get moved on), will be going everywhere from Seattle, Washington to State College, Pennslyvania

To fiddle the words of one Nick Saban, who gave CBS credit for Mark Ingram’s Heisman on a radio show recently: “And [we] hate it that we’re not gonna continue this relationship, but you know you’re always welcome here,” he said in early November. “It’s been a great one. Y’all are great people….You’ve been great to us. You’ve been great to the [our universities], so we appreciate that more than you know.” 

You got that one right, Nick.

(Note that this is full of Georgia/Alabama/LSU/Florida/Tennessee highlights. Everyone else might feel a little muted!!)