CFB Fans Make Their Opinion of ESPN’s ‘SEC on ABC’ Theme Song Very Clear

The move of the SEC—the college football juggernaut conference that has produced five of the last six national champions—and its programming from CBS to ESPN was always going to be met with a lot of backlash from fans.

Think about it—an entire generation of fans has only known the familiarity that "SEC on CBS" brought them. Since 1996, what seemed like the perfect partnership developed between the television company and what would become the mega conference.

By 1995, most of the major conferences in college football had begun striking deals with television companies, including the SEC. The SEC and others decided to depart from the College Football Association, which they originally agreed to sell their television rights to.

That changed everything. For nearly 30 years, SEC fans had a Pavlovian response to hearing that unforgettable music that played in harmony with the voices of broadcasters like Jim Nantz, Gary Danielson, and Verne Lundquist. Saturday starts a new chapter not only for the SEC but also for a group of individuals who may not be fully prepared for it, marking the end of a bygone era.

The beginning of the end of a lot of people’s childhoods started Thursday morning when ESPN released the "SEC on ABC" commercial. It came with a touch of familiarity in hopes of integrating fans into the new move. The song used is a revamped version of the original ESPN College Football theme.

“Music is a crucial element in shaping the storytelling of any broadcast,” ESPN president of content Burke Magnus said. “The opportunity to resurrect a theme song that means so much to college football fans, and so many of us at ESPN, was important as we start this new chapter in our relationship with the SEC.”

However, the song has so far been met unfavorably by fans.

ESPN signed the SEC to a 10-year media rights agreement in December 2020. However, that deal is "co-terminus with the separate, existing 20-year agreement between ESPN and the SEC that also runs through 2033-34," reported ESPN. The deal is worth $300 million annually ($3 billion total) and far exceeds CBS’s previous yearly payment of $55 million to the conference.

Like every season, fans are excited for college football to be back on their television screens, even if their eyes may twitch a little when they don’t see the SEC and CBS associated any longer. Fans will see the first SEC on ABC matchup this Saturday, Aug. 31, when No. 19 Miami meets Florida at 3:30 p.m. ET.