“SEC on ABC” uses revamped ESPN college football theme music

The Walt Disney Company is preparing to begin its first season of broadcasting Southeastern Conference football games under a new 10-year media rights agreement. Prior to the Miami-Florida game on Saturday, August 31 at 3:30 p.m. EST, ESPN announced that it has re-orchestrated its college football theme song from the late 1990s and early 2000s for the broadcast network. This revitalized theme song is a collaboration between the SEC, ESPN Music, ESPN’s college football production team and composer Bob Christianson, who also composed the music for the NHL on ESPN title song.

The new music composition presents elements of nostalgia and passion for viewers who are familiar with the SEC on ESPN broadcast property, and it will introduce these elements to the next generation of football fans and ABC network viewers. This new orchestration will be used exclusively for SEC home games on ABC, including those in prime time during ABC Saturday Night Football and the noon EST window earlier in the day.

“Music is a critical element in shaping the story of every broadcast,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of content, in a statement. “The opportunity to revive a theme song that means so much to college football fans and so many of us at ESPN was important as we begin this new chapter in our relationship with the SEC.”

ESPN’s college football theme song has been used in several notable broadcasts at the former site itself, as well as in a number of other applications. ESPN has previously broadcast SEC football games in prime time on Saturday nights as part of a previous media rights agreement.

The new deal guarantees ABC will broadcast one SEC game each week during the season and will also air the SEC Championship. ESPN+ also has the rights to stream one non-conference football game and two non-conference men’s basketball games per SEC school each season of the deal. The network is now officially adding a soundtrack to the graphics package it unveiled earlier this year as it makes final preparations to officially launch college football broadcasts.

“By reaching into the past and connecting it to the present, ESPN brings a touch of tradition to a new era of televised SEC sports,” Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. “This newly orchestrated composition will enhance ABC’s presentation of SEC football by bringing a little nostalgia to the SEC’s new Saturday television experience.”