The SEC and ESPN are hammering out the final details on a contract that will see college football's top broadcast TV property move from CBS to ABC, according to multiple sources. An official announcement is not imminent. Both sides had hoped to announce something around Monday's CFP National Championship, but it's unlikely to be completed by that time. A deal could come in the weeks after the championship game. Sources said that ESPN/ABC have committed to pay an annual fee in the low $300M range -- a substantial increase from the $55M per year that CBS currently pays on average. It's difficult to pin a number on this deal since ESPN already held all of the conference's cable TV rights plus the SEC Network. Notably, the conference still has not formally told either Fox or NBC that it plans to go with ESPN/ABC. ESPN's winning bid is predicated on the fact that it could be more creative with scheduling SEC games, especially since ESPN holds all of the conference's cable TV rights. The big question is when ESPN would take over. CBS' deal ends in '23, meaning that it has four years as a lame-duck broadcaster. ESPN will negotiate to get control of those games sooner. But at $55M per year, CBS has a sweetheart deal, and it will take a strong offer to get the network to leave the deal early.
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