SEC Nation, the traveling college football pre-game show featuring Tim Tebow and Marcus Spears alongside Paul Finebaum, Kaylee Hartung and host Joe Tessitore, will debut Thursday, Aug. 28 at 4 p.m. ET, with a customized version of Robert Randolph and The Family Band’s “Take The Party” as its opening theme song.
Robert Randolph and The Family Band gained national recognition for their multicultural American funk and soul sound led by pedal guitarist Robert Randolph – listed on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” – accompanied by members of his family. The band has a ground-swell following nationwide, with a particular affinity for the southern states, having delivered marquee performances at Bonnaroo and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in recent years.
Randolph worked closely with network producers to develop custom lyrics that complement the show’s goal of bringing the sights and sounds of a SEC football tailgate to viewers every Saturday. The show will air on SEC Network, a new national sports network dedicated to the Southeastern Conference and operated by ESPN, every Saturday at 10 a.m. from a different campus. The network launches on August 14. The show, SEC Nation, debuts two weeks later from Columbia, S.C. with a special Thursday show at 4 p.m.
The soon to launch network and the band enlisted fans and band members from all 14 SEC schools to shoot the show’s dynamic opening this week in Macon, Georgia.
SEC Network
The Southeastern Conference and ESPN have signed a 20-year agreement through 2034 to create and operate a multiplatform network which will launch August 14, 2014. The new network and its accompanying digital platform will air SEC content 24/7 including more than 1,000 events in its first year. The network will televise 45 SEC football games, more than 100 men’s basketball games, 60 women’s basketball games, 75 baseball games, and events from across the SEC’s 21 sports annually. Programming will also include in-depth commentary and analysis in studio shows, daily news and information original content such as SEC Storied, spring football games, and more. Hundreds of additional live events from various sports will be offered exclusively on the digital platform. AT&T U-Verse, Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox, DISH, Google Fiber, Time Warner Cable and National Rural Telecommunications cooperative (NRTC) have agreed to carry the SEC Network.
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Media Contact: gracie.blackburn@espn.com