Auburn and LSU will have their spring football games televised by ESPN2, but it will be a little more complicated for traditional television viewers who support one of the 12 other Southeastern Conference teams.
The SEC has announced that, for a fifth consecutive year, every league spring game will be carried on one of ESPN’s various platforms. This year will be different, however, as fans of some league teams will have the option of watching contests in their entirety on SEC Network+ or view a sampling of games on the SEC Network’s “whip-around” coverage.
Confused? Proceed with caution.
On April 11, the SEC Network will offer whip-around coverage from 1 to 4 p.m., televising parts of the Kentucky and Mississippi State games already in progress and some of the Missouri contest, which starts at 2. The SEC Network will offer similar coverage from 2 to 4 on April 18, showing some of the Florida game in progress, as well as samplings of the Alabama and Georgia contests, which each start at 2.
Tennessee’s Orange & White game on April 18 starts at 4, so it will not be involved in the SEC Network’s whip-around coverage, leaving SEC Network+ as the only option.
SEC Spring Game Schedule
Friday, April 3Vanderbilt (8 p.m./SEC Network+)Saturday, April 4South Carolina (1 p.m./SEC Network+)Saturday, April 11Kentucky (Noon/SEC Network+)Mississippi State (12:30 p.m./SEC Network+)Auburn (2 p.m./ESPN2)Missouri (2 p.m./SEC Network+)Saturday, April 18LSU (1 p.m./ESPN2)Florida (1 p.m./SEC Network+)Alabama (2 p.m./SEC Network+)Georgia (2 p.m./SEC Network+)Tennessee (4 p.m./SEC Network+)Texas A&M (7 p.m./SEC Network+)Ole Miss (7:30 p.m./SEC Network+)Saturday, April 25Arkansas (TBD/SEC Network+)
SEC Network+ is different from the SEC Network and the SEC Network Alternate in that it is not a television channel. According to the SEC Network website, SEC Network+ is complementary to SEC Network, offering “digitally exclusive events available through the ESPN App on smartphones, tablets, over-the-top (OTT) streaming devices and on computers via ESPN.com.”
Although SEC Network+ is not a television channel, events can be viewed on a television screen through the ESPN App via the major OTT streaming devices. SEC Network+ is different from ESPN+ in that it is not a paid subscription.
The league’s spring games start with Vanderbilt on Friday, April 3, and South Carolina on Saturday, April 4. Arkansas will wrap up the SEC’s spring-game schedule on April 25.
Cochran replaced
Alabama football coach Nick Saban announced Tuesday that David Ballou and Matt Rhea would be the new strength coaches of the Crimson Tide.
Ballou and Rhea spent the past two seasons together at Indiana, with Ballou having formerly worked at IMG Academy. The Tide had been without a strength coach since Scott Cochran left to become Georgia’s special-teams coordinator on Feb. 24.
Cochran, who had desired a full-time assistant role, made $595,000 last season in Tuscaloosa and will earn $550,000 in his first year in Athens.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.