For 16 straight years, the annual rivalry game between Florida and Tennessee has been a staple of CBS Sports and its college football coverage of the SEC.
That streak might end right then and there.
Because of the new conference schedule that features new members Missouri and Texas A&M, Florida and Tennessee’s early season matchup may not be broadcast on CBS in favor of another game that features two more nationally relevant teams, Alabama and Arkansas.
“Normally you don’t have that kind of selection on that day because Alabama and Arkansas in past schedules has been a week later,” CBS Sports executive vice president Mike Aresco said, via the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “Alabama and Arkansas is a game we’ve done the last three years, so it does give us some options on that first Saturday.”
Aresco said CBS has until July to make a final decision.
The Florida-Tennessee game is the only SEC matchup that has been featured every year on CBS since 1996, but Florida has been average the past two seasons and Tennessee is a mess right now. Alabama, on the other hand, just won its second BCS championship in three years and Arkansas is coming off a Cotton Bowl win.
Have to please the masses and go with what’s hot.
But, in a way, it’s a kind of a shame if Florida-Tennessee gets passed over. That’s a game that used to matter. But couple marginal records with a one-sided affair -- the Vols haven’t beaten the Gators since 2004 -- and you can’t expect TV tycoons to settle for cafeteria Salisbury steak when there’s a filet available.
Of course, the game can still be broadcast on the SEC’s other major media rights partner, ESPN, so it’s not like anything’s going away. It’s just that the game can’t hide behind a scheduling facade anymore where an early-season matchup between two historical SEC powerhouses automatically equals the best available option. More than anything, passing up the game would show just how far Florida-Tennessee has fallen off the national map.
It feels like the Gators can rebound a little more quickly than the Vols, for which the road back to prominence seems longer and more uncertain. What is certain is that when Florida-Tennessee does matter again, college football, not just the SEC, will be better off because of it.