Basketball, with the exception of Kentucky, was starting to slip in the SEC, and it was being reflected in conference tournament attendance and bids to the NCAA Tournament.
A concerned Mike Slive, then the commissioner of the most powerful football conference in college football, was concerned. He listened closely to the basketball coaches at the next spring meetings.
They told him they weren't getting the TV exposure that the ACC, Big East and Big Ten were getting and that it was affecting recruiting.
Slive got the league a contract with ESPN, and a few years later the SEC got its own network with ESPN.