College football is finally back, and the Southeastern Conference hopes to keep its reputation as the nation's best league.
With two historic television deals signed in the offseason, the 12 teams will have plenty of chances to make their case from coast to coast.
The SEC signed 15-year contracts with ESPN and CBS - worth $2.25 billion and $825 million, respectively - during the offseason to showcase its athletes nationwide.
Florida coach Urban Meyer likes the fact the Gators will be seen in even more places this fall but guards against overextending their recruiting focus.
"Our job's not to go on a national level and recruit," Meyer said. "Now we'll cherry pick, and I tell our guys: It better be a first-rounder for us to go do that because there's plenty of great football players within five hours of our school.
"I do believe [the TV deals] will help, but what I don't want to have happen is [national recruiting] be our focus because now all of a sudden we're on TV somewhere."
The CBS deal extends its current status as the national broadcast network and will show one SEC game per week at 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays.
But now one 12:30 p.m. game per week will be shown on ESPN Regional Television, which is syndicated to more than 66 million households in 75 different markets.
The so-called SEC Network will be ESPN's third-largest "channel" from noon to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays, according to a ESPN press release, available in more homes than ESPNEWS or ESPNU during that block. There also will be a new SEC-focused pregame show at noon with Rob Stone and Matt Stinchcomb. This SEC Network will debut with Western Kentucky-Tennessee on Saturday.
Of the league's 12 season openers, only one will be carried only on in-state pay-per-view (Missouri State-Arkansas). Nine will be carried on ABC or an ESPN network, including the first game of the season Thursday night (South Carolina-N.C. State).
"Opening games are really different," Auburn coach Gene Chizik said. "It's almost overkill because you've got so much film you've watched over the summer and in the preseason. You've watched about every game you can watch, which sometimes is a little bit too much."
Only four SEC schools (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, LSU) are facing an opponent from a BCS conference in the first week, but two of those feature premier matchups between ranked teams - No. 13 Georgia plays at No. 9 Oklahoma State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., while No. 5 Alabama plays No. 7 Virginia Tech in the Georgia Dome at 8 p.m.
Alabama coach Nick Saban said national exposure was a big reason the Crimson Tide agreed to play the Hokies in the neutral-site Chick-fil-A College Kickoff. Last year, Alabama participated in the same event, using a 34-10 upset over preseason No. 9 Clemson to make a statement en route to going undefeated until the SEC Championship Game.
"I certainly think that last year our team probably didn't know how good they could be," Saban said. "The national exposure that we get from playing in games like this enhances overall exposure and helps recruiting everywhere."
