SEC To Earn Average Of $55M Annually From CBS Rights Deal

SEC To Earn $55M Annually On Average From Recently Renewed 15-Year CBS Deal

OLD COLLEGE TRY: In Raleigh, J.P. Giglio wrote there should be "more marquee in-season" college football games, in a setup called the "BCS Challenge," which would pit two teams from each of the six BCS conferences. The six games would be played in the "first two weekends of the season." Giglio: "The sport wins. ... TV wins." Ohio State Univ. (OSU) AD Gene Smith said of the proposal, "That's a great idea, but ... the execution might be a problem. Football scheduling is complicated." College football schedules are done "three, five and 10 years in advance." This season's OSU-USC game was scheduled in '96. Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione: "There's a lot of luck involved in scheduling. You just can't predict what will happen five or 10 years down the road." ESPN Senior VP/College Sports Programming Burke Magnus, who has helped with college basketball's ACC-Big Ten Challenge, said of the idea, "That would make the basketball schedule look easy in comparison. If we could translate the same logic of basketball to football and the end result was a really meaningful competition, absolutely we'd be interested." Atlanta Sports Council President Gary Stokan, whose organization is hosting next week's Clemson-Alabama game at the Georgia Dome, indicated that he would "be willing to stage three games in Atlanta on the opening weekend -- on Thursday, Saturday and Monday nights -- and create the 'Daytona 500 of college football'" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 8/17).

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