CFB Fans Outraged Over New SEC Anthem

It is a huge year for the SEC after the conference added two of college football’s most prominent programs, Texas and Oklahoma. The conference is also entering its first year of a ten-year deal with ABC and ESPN, both owned by parent company Disney.

Of course, this means a shift away from the SEC on CBS and its iconic anthem, which was nearly universally loved by fans across the country as they tuned into one of the conference’s premier games every Saturday afternoon.

In July, the new graphics and score bug were released and garnered largely positive reviews from fans on social media. However, on Monday, ABC/ESPN released the new anthem for the broadcast, an updated rendition of “Fly Away” by Quavo and Lenny Kravitz, and things went south quickly. The reviews from fans turned so negative that the original tweet announcing the news from ESPN’s PR account was deleted.

You can listen to the new anthem here:

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As the SEC had at least one team in 37 of the 50 games with the highest TV rating in 2023, this will likely just annoy fans and not cause a significant number to not tune in, but it certainly isn’t the best start for ABC entering a deal with the conference for a decade.