SEC Network gets lazy with Arkansas takeover day
You know we've reached the dog days of summer when the SEC Network announces the schedule for the annual SEC Network Takeover series.
For nine straight summers, the network has put together a two-week stretch in July, during which it fills an entire day with games and documentaries for each team.
Arkansas' takeover day was Sunday, and the network really worked hard to pick out a fun and exciting schedule of historic games throughout Razorback history. Well, sort of.
Featured on Arkansas' takeover, which began at 11 p.m. CT on Saturday and ran through 11 p.m. Sunday, were four football games from 2022, two documentaries and one game each for baseball, softball, men's basketball, women's basketball and gymnastics. Not a single game featured happened before 2022.
We can all agree here that it's hard to get fans excited for sports on July 2, but if you're going to do this whole takeover thing, at least do it right. Most Arkansas fans watched all of these games within the past year and if they didn't catch the game, it likely wasn't that important to them.
A part of the ESPN family, the SEC Network might not have the rights to some of Arkansas' greatest games, but that hasn't stopped it from airing them in the past.
Back in 2015, the channel featured Arkansas' 28-24 win over Tennessee from 1999 and the seven-overtime win over Ole Miss in 2001. In 2016, the 1994 men's basketball national championship win over Duke — a game aired on CBS — was featured on Arkansas' takeover.
In 2018, the SEC Network once again replayed the basketball program's only national title win, along with the game prior to it — a 91-82 win over Arizona in the Final Four.
Over recent years, it's become more common for the SEC Network to play games from the past year for whatever team is taking over that day. That's the case for this year as well, and it's honestly just very bland and boring.
No disrespect is meant toward the student-athletes who worked hard for the victories that aired Sunday, but an event like this seems like it would be viewed as more exciting if historically great games were being played.
Maybe the SEC Network isn't allowed to play those old games anymore or maybe its staff just got really lazy. To me, a game like the 2001 Arkansas-Ole Miss seven-overtime showdown is a lot more interesting than four games from 2022 that Arkansas won by a combined 48 points.
Does it really matter what old games the SEC Network plays on a random day in July? No, but don't make it out to be a fun event for fans to tune in to when it features games that are still relatively fresh on the mind.