The SEC's 10-year contract with ESPN/ABC will allow member schools to make any even larger financial investment in athletics and trigger the next round of battles between the Big Ten and SEC for dominance of the college sports landscape, increasing the possibility the two leagues leave the rest of the Power Five in the dust.
And at a time when nearly every conference and college program are tinkering with annual budgets to meet the demands of the coronavirus pandemic, the contract reflects how the biggest names in college sports and TV may be immune to the belt-tightening occurring across amateur athletics.