Auburn will join the rest of the SEC teams for XM Satellite Radio’s live sports line-up in the fall.
XM Satellite Radio is now the official satellite radio provider of the Southeastern Conference, and fall 2008 will be the first time all 12 schools are broadcast. Now fans across the country can hear play-by-play of every football game in the SEC.
Other schools joining the fall lineup include the University of Florida, University of Alabama, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
Prior to the 2007 season, the SEC tried to organize into one channel for official broadcast, but Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina and Vanderbilt already had agreements with Sirius in place. A few schools did not have satellite radio agreements at all.
“It’s a good thing for our fans,” said Jon Cole, general manager of the Auburn ISP Sports Network. “It’s just another vehicle for Auburn fans to be able to listen to us.” Auburn games are also broadcast on TV and the Internet.
The agreement includes broadcasting of all SEC Championship games.
“I think a lot of people in the country don’t really know about teams in the SEC unless they win a championship,” said Catharine Montgomery, a senior in public relations and marketing. “It will make the SEC better known and respected across the nation.”
Montgomery said she thinks having XM as the official broadcaster for every SEC team will give fans a central place to go to listen to sports.
“In a lot of places they can’t watch the game or even listen to it because it’s either not on TV, and they can’t pick it up on the radio,” Montgomery said. “It will unite fans across the nation and give us a wider audience listening to the games.”
Local radio affiliates cover Alabama, west Georgia and the panhandle of Florida. According to Cole, the new XM agreement will benefit Auburn fans in the other 47 states.
So far, the program schedule only includes Auburn’s 12 football games. Basketball and baseball will later be added to the broadcast schedules.
With more than 8 million listeners, XM is the leader in satellite radio stations. Channels for exclusive SEC sports are channels 199, 200 and 201.
Seth Fincher, a junior in mechanical engineering, said he thinks it’s good to have all 12 teams on the same network. “There will be more opportunities to get fans for Auburn out there,” Fincher said.
