SEC and CBS network had parted ways long back. And as game day nears, many of us have wondered what music will grace our ears once the games start. Well, we finally have an answer now. ESPN and ABC decided to enter a deal back in 2024. Currently valued at a massive $3 billion, ESPN and ABC now own the entire broadcast rights to SEC football. SEC has already started a massive campaign by bringing in iconic shows like Out of Pocket, Marty & McGee, and many more. However, while the games and the rivalry draw in the fans, it is the anthem that adds the cherry on top and ESPN has finally revealed it.

On3 took to X on August 29th to break the news. “The SEC on ABC is bringing back an old ESPN College Football tune from the early 2000s as its official theme song,” On3 mentioned in the caption of the post. The anthem goes way back. It was first seen back in early 2000. The promotional video made by ESPN features multiple teams like Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, and many more. The music just strikes the cord with a good nostalgia hit. From what we found, it is the recreation of ESPN’s “College Football Saturday Night” which was used between the 1990s and early 2000s. Bob Christianson takes up the task of presenting his rendition of the tune. Marked as a “re-orchestration”, this anthem is bound to stick around for a while for SEC on ABC.

Burke Magnus, who is the president of content for ESPN, noted in an interview, “The opportunity to resurrect a theme song that means so much.” The anthem is set to debut during the Florida and Miami games. One major fact is that fans would be able to spot the anthem only on SEC home games which are being broadcasted by ABC. While people watching the games on ABC are in line for a nostalgia rush, others can find Jelly Roll’s ‘Get By’ as the official anthem of College GameDay. This brings our discussion to an interesting point. Have you ever wondered about the greatest hit anthems in the history of college football? No? Well, let’s check them out.

College Football’s greatest anthems

The first iconic song that comes to our mind would be ‘Centuries’ by Fall Out Boys. Featured back in 2014, “You will remember me….for centuries” is something every fan of that era would be synonymous with. ESPN decided to go with this to mark the start of the season and the Bowl Championship. Following this came ‘History’ by Lauren Alaina in 2015. “Time to show ’em what we’re made of,” it genuinely couldn’t get better than this. ‘History’ was the perfect pick to follow after ‘Centuries’.

The next few years had some major hits. X Ambassadors ‘Collider’ in 2016, then ‘Walk on Water’ by 30 Seconds to Mars in 2017. The 2020-2022 era brought us a mix of new artists and other well-known ones as well. 2020 was graced by Juice Wrld with ‘Come & GO’. 2021 had DJ Snake’s ‘Run It’ and finally 2022 had ‘The Emperor’ by Yung Blood. Now, as the 2024 season clocks in, we have Jelly Roll. But who knows, in 2025, maybe we will get to see Shedeur Sanders’ rap becoming the national anthem. Still, what we do know is that this year is going to be a hit.