THE CHATTER
The regional sports network CSS is shutting down June 1 after a 15-year run.
About 20 full-time employees will lose their jobs, a person familiar with the decision told staff writer Rodney Ho on Friday.
A new SEC sports network, working with ESPN, is set to debut in August, depriving CSS of valuable SEC programming. CSS also carries Sun Belt Conference games (including Georgia State), which will have to find a new home.
CSS has been available to local Charter and Comcast subscribers.
SEC NETWORK
In 2015 and beyond, the SEC Network, ESPN’s soon-to-launch network, will air exclusively the first three rounds of the SEC men’s basketball tournament when it moves to Nashville, Tenn. The expanded coverage will mark the first time the entire tournament will be nationally televised.
“This is an example of the in-depth basketball coverage the SEC Network will give fans across the country,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said.
The multiplatform network will launch Aug. 14 and showcase more than 100 SEC men’s basketball games annually. The debut of SEC men’s college basketball games on the SEC Network has been set for Nov. 14. The season will tip off with a doubleheader featuring Kentucky and Florida, both against opponents still to be decided.
LOOKAHEAD
Keep this in mind as the brackets are released Sunday night: The NCAA adopted two changes in August that could change the bracketing process. New guidelines allow conference teams that played once during the regular season to meet as early as the first weekend of the tournament. The other change calls on the committee to avoid first- and second-round rematches with non-conference teams that have already met. That includes the First Four games in Dayton, Ohio.
BY THE NUMBERS
35 Years since Tennessee won the SEC men's basketball tournament (1979 in Birmingham, Ala.)
4 Teams with four or more road victories in the SEC this season, (Florida had nine, Kentucky five and Georgia and Tennessee four apiece.) Not coincidentally, those teams are the top four seeds in the tournament.
ONE FAITHFUL CAT
Tyler Austin Black, a 22-year-old Kentucky fan, doesn’t care that the Wildcats are 30-1 odds to win the national championship.
He told ESPN (and also gave the sports network a photo) that a Berea, Ky., tattoo artist at a shop called Vice & Virtue, gave him what he wanted: a tattoo on his right calf that reads “Nati9nal Champions” with a “2014” above it. The Wildcats have won eight national titles. ESPN verified the authenticity of the tattoo with the artist involved.
“I’m not delusional,” Black said. “I know we’ve had a rough season. Big Blue Nation is down, and the majority of people have no faith in us. But we have faith in ourselves.”
CELEBRITY TWEET
“Great win by the Gators!! Keep it going boys. 8 more win!! #GatorNation” — @ChrisDiMarco (Chris DiMarco, PGA Tour pro)
HE SAID IT
“It’s hard to get 30 wins.” — Gators coach Billy Donovan. If his Gators reach DiMarco’s wish (see Celebrity Tweet), then Florida would tie Kentucky’s 2012 national champions for most victories by a title winner, with 38.
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