ESPN’s College Networks Make New Schools Feel at Home
Months spent on graphics packages, new theme music to get ACC Network & SEC Network up to speed
EDITOR’S NOTE: Videos produced by Jon McLeod and Amanda Brooks
The summer of 2024 kicked off a new era of college sports with schools switching conferences, new rights agreements starting up, and the launch of the 12-team College Football Playoff. ESPN faced a challenge of championship-sized proportions: how do you make new teams and fans feel a sense of ownership and belonging in a conference network on Day 1?
ESPN’s Creative Studio, Music, Marketing, and College Networks production and programming teams collaborated over the past year to build that home for Cal, SMU and Stanford on ACC Network, and Oklahoma and Texas on SEC Network. All elements and animations used for live events, studio programming, sales, marketing, production edits, and more across both networks needed to be updated to reflect the new look of these conferences and align with the passion and pageantry of the schools.
The teams representing Edit, Animation, Graphics Innovation, Playout and Creative Production each spent the past year planning, taking stock of what needed to be created and on what timelines, to ensure razor-sharp execution. Starting their work in earnest in January 2024, more than 40 ESPN staffers across four different offices created nearly 400 animations that were delivered by mid-June to reflect and represent the new makeup of these conferences.
Starting in March 2024, the ESPN Music team and SEC Network studio production group collaborated to revamp The Paul Finebaum Show and SEC Nation theme songs to incorporate Oklahoma and Texas. They called upon the original artist of “Call Paul,” American Idol winner and revered American blues-soul singer Taylor Hicks to develop new lyrics and re-record the song with a new sound.
“We are always striving to make sure the music and sonic brand of ESPN’s programs are current, catchy, and unique,” said Ian Shooshan-Stoller of ESPN Music. “The addition of Oklahoma and Texas into the conference gave us the perfect opportunity to not only update the theme’s lyrics but also their overall feel and develop the sounds that will encompass the conference’s new era on SEC Network.”
For SEC Nation, it was time to welcome in a new artist for a new era, and the ESPN Music team of Kevin Wilson, Caitlin DelVillano and Shooshan-Stoller alongside coordinating producer Baron Miller loved the idea of a powerful female voice fronting the new sound of SECN’s signature pregame show. The quartet listened to various artists and kept coming back to country music star Brooke Eden. A Florida Gator alum and SEC football fan, she was a natural fit. According to Miller, “Brooke wrote the new lines and her version of ‘Party Wherever We Go’ was even better than we imagined.”
When the switches flipped on the 1st of July (Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, SMU to the ACC) and August (Cal and Stanford to the ACC), ESPN, SEC Network and ACC Network made sure the lights were on, the front door was unlocked, and the welcome mat was ready to greet five new institutions as they joined new conference network homes.
