BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- ESPN's influence continues to shape college football. The game is now tied with Major League Baseball as America's second-most popular sport behind the NFL, according to a 2011 survey of fans by the Harris Poll.

So it was hardly surprising last month when ESPN secured the Rose Bowl through 2026 for a reported $80 million annually -- a 167-percent increase from the current deal. As SI.com pointed out recently, the 2015 Rose Bowl will be worth nearly as much money as the entire college football season was in 1984 after the Supreme Court deregulated the NCAA's control of TV.

By accumulating media rights to games, ESPN pays conferences exorbitant amounts of money. In return, ESPN owns much of the most desirable content and receives more than $5 a month per cable subscriber -- easily the highest subscriber fee for a channel as the rates get passed on to customers' bills by cable and satellite operators.

In a wide-ranging interview, ESPN Senior Vice President for College Sports Programming Burke Magnus addressed multiple topics about ESPN's role in college football, including its pursuit of owning the postseason, interest in an SEC channel and the perceived influence ESPN carries in conference realignment.

Realignment

Magnus said ESPN was better off financially before the recent wave of schools changing conferences. ESPN used to pay far less to conferences and lately has been reworking deals to account for membership changes in the SEC, ACC and Big 12.

Earlier this summer, The Daily Oklahoman acquired a memo by then-Big 12 Commissioner Chuck Neinas that said Notre Dame is the only school the Big 12 could add that would enhance the league's TV value. Neinas cited discussions with Fox and ESPN executives, including Magnus.

Neinas wrote in the memo that the networks agreed a 10-member Big 12 was preferred, but they could live with 11 or 12 teams. He also said both networks supported Notre Dame becoming a partial Big 12 member if the Fighting Irish played a specific number of football games at Big 12 schools.

"The notion that Chuck Neinas called Fox and ESPN and asked us if Notre Dame added value -- to which we responded yes -- does not seem like a groundbreaking development to me," Magnus said. "We've had those kinds of conversations with a lot of leagues over time because television and media revenue is such an important part of the overall financial picture that I believe they have to have those conversations.

"There's a difference in my mind between answering a question about value and advocating a particular move to be made. That's where I draw the distinction. Some people may be skeptical of that. I'm part of these conversations so I know what we say and what we don't."

SEC Network

Now more than ever, the SEC and ESPN are married to one another.

Last month, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive essentially confirmed a well-known secret: The SEC wants its own television network, which he calls "Project SEC." Because the vast majority of the SEC's multimedia rights are owned by ESPN for another 12 years, starting an SEC channel in the near future would have to be partnered with ESPN.

Adding Texas A&M and Missouri figures to increase the SEC's television dollars. Magnus said those discussions have been rolled into the SEC channel talks. "We've all kind of taken the approach to say it doesn't make sense to talk about that in a vacuum if Project SEC is going to go forward," Magnus said.

The earliest a channel could be launched would be 2014, when ESPN gets back syndication rights it sublicensed to regional sports networks operated by Fox Sports and Comcast. An SEC channel could air 40 to 50 football games a year.

"If there's a viable business there and we can secure what is a really positive partnership with a very powerful league that we have a great relationship with now, I think there's a lot of underlying reasons to do it," Magnus said. "Obviously, it has to be a viable concept at face value. We're talking about the SEC. The passion and depth of the fan base now spreads across 14 schools in 11 states. It's a compelling proposition to evaluate."

In the short term, ESPN has the first pick of SEC games twice this season ahead of CBS. That's the result of ESPN trading its primetime slot to CBS last November so CBS could air Alabama-LSU at night. Magnus won't say which weeks ESPN picks first, except that it's not early in the season.

ESPN prefers choosing first in weeks with multiple quality games since it also has the third pick. Possible targets: Oct. 6 (Arkansas-Auburn, LSU-Florida, Georgia-South Carolina) and Nov. 10 (Alabama-Texas A&M, Arkansas-South Carolina, Georgia-Auburn).

Meanwhile, Week 2 offers a template for ESPN's interest to air more quality SEC games earlier and later in seasons. ESPN airs a tripleheader Sept. 8 with Auburn-Mississippi State, Florida-Texas A&M and LSU-Washington, along with Georgia-Missouri on ESPN2 at night.

"There's really nothing else on that week around the country of major consequence," Magnus said. "Week 2 is fabulous for us."

Longhorn Network

ESPN's network with the University of Texas still has not secured distribution deals with the biggest cable and satellite operators in Texas. Magnus expressed confidence that the Longhorn Network will benefit once new Big 12 contracts with ESPN and Fox are soon executed.

"That will secure our future with the conference for the next decade," Magnus said. "I think a lot of the issues around the Longhorn Network are based on the instability that's existed in the last two or three years, both in that league and in the college landscape in general. This sort of puts that to bed."

Fox could acquire some Big 12 football games for its broadcast channel, and ESPN could get cable rights for its channels. That could provide the Longhorn Network with some more attractive Big 12 games to increase viewer demand for the channel.

"We're working on a pretty complicated deal," Magnus said.

Future playoff

ESPN's 30-day negotiating window with the Bowl Championship Series will begin around Oct. 1. ESPN is the favorite to own the playoff rights, especially since it locked up the Rose and Champions bowls. They will both be part of the playoff rotation, likely four times in the 12-year cycle.

ESPN currently pays $125 million annually for the BCS plus $30 million for the Rose Bowl. The new Rose Bowl deal increased to $80 million and the value of college football's championship game, two semifinals and four major bowls could reach $600 million a season, according to The SportsBusiness Journal.

"We're keenly interested in all of it," Magnus said. "We have a substantial investment in college football broadly so we hope that continues. Obviously there's a lot of wood to chop still. We intend to pursue it aggressively."

A criticism of the new setup is higher-profile schools still have better access to the more lucrative non-playoff bowls, no matter where they're ranked. If the SEC and Big 12 champions aren't in the playoffs, they'll be in the Champions. Same with the Pac-12 and Big Ten champions with the Rose, and the ACC champion with the Orange.

"On the one hand, you've expanded access for teams to compete for national championships from two to four," Magnus said. "On the other hand, you do have historical tie-ins for those conferences. It's a little bit of a hybrid."

Whether the new playoff money stabilizes college sports and minimizes schools jumping conferences remains to be seen.

"Stable is a relative word," Magnus said. "I think everybody seems to be excited about their membership and everybody seems to be taking a breath. Now how long that lasts, your guess is as good as mine."

Don't miss The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register's college football preview section Sunday, Aug. 26, where we're "Kicking off the campaign: Football and politics have much in common."

E-mail:

jsolomon@bhamnews.com.