SEC Network overflow channels to be introduced

photo SEC Network

The University of Tennessee football team will be looking to build on its opening rout of Utah State this Saturday when the Volunteers host Arkansas State at noon on the SEC Network.

Alabama will face Florida Atlantic in its home opener Saturday, which will have a noon kickoff on the SEC Network.

Wait. What?

Tennessee and Alabama will be playing concurrently on the SEC Network, which will have its providers unveiling alternate channels to house both telecasts. The SEC Network will also televise two games Saturday at 4 - Eastern Michigan at Florida and Nicholls State at Arkansas - as well as two more at 7:30 - Sam Houston State at LSU and Lamar at Texas A&M.

ESPN announced this week that Alabama, Florida and LSU will play on the SEC Network, while Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas A&M would be on the network's alternate or overflow channels.

The overflow channels are 84 and 384 high-def on the city-owned EPB, 329 and 803 high-def on Charter, 1608-1610 on AT&T U-Verse, 611-1 on DirecTV and 596-599 on Dish Network.

Comcast Xfinity's overflow channels for the SEC Network will be 786 and 787, with both of those in standard definition. So Tennessee's game this week will not be in high-def for Comcast subscribers.

"Our primary goal was to make SEC Network overflow channels available as widely as possible to our customers across the South," said Alex Horwitz, the vice president of public relations for the Comcast Big South Region. "Carrying the overflow channel in HD format would not have been the most effective use of our bandwidth - which we strategically reserve for routine product upgrades, new programming content and the latest services for our customers."

By Saturday night, the SEC Network will have televised a game from every league campus with the exception of Georgia, Ole Miss and Missouri.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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