The SEC has plenty of good stuff to fill its TV network.

In 2014, the Southeastern Conference launched its own exclusive network on ESPN, which paid millions of dollars to keep the SEC from syndicating its own network like the Big Ten did in partnership with Fox Sports.

The SEC network promised to provide “unparalleled content from one of the most competitive conferences in the country with the highest quality, most innovative production partner in the sports industry” – that being ESPN, which was not losing any more programming to competing networks.

While the Big Ten Network was seen as a gamble, when it began in 2007, the SEC has long been considered the best football conference in America, and virtually every SEC game is either seen on live TV or streamed on various ESPN platforms. And besides studio shows and Olympic sports galore, the tradition of SEC football is a platform of its own.

Currently running is a special on the 2009 Texas Long Horns, who aren’t even in the SEC. But because the Big 12 juggernaut played most of its games on ESPN that season, the special can air on the SEC Network. That season went down to the BCS championship game, won by Alabama of the SEC.

That was another brilliant move by ESPN, making its entire historical inventory available to the SEC Network. And it was not restricted by highlighting that Texas team, coached by former Carolina mentor Mack Brown. It just proved that any good football is of interest to fans of all conferences.

It led me to wonder whether the so-called ACC Network, which is supposed to debut on ESPN in 2019, will also show games from other conferences, since the ACC is in an ongoing recruiting battle with the SEC. If the coaches and ADs won’t allow that, then the ACC Network will lack quality inventory.

The 2009 Longhorns were led by senior quarterback Colt McCoy, who after beating arch rival Oklahoma three out of four years was injured in the BCS title game. But the march to Pasadena showed Texas at its best and the charisma of Brown addressing his team before, at halftime and after key games, was mesmerizing stuff — even eight years later.

SEC football is magic, which makes its network free to be such.

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