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ATLANTA — Netflix is making its entry into college football with a new docuseries about the SEC—after the streamer specifically courted the conference for its first foray into the sport.
SEC: Any Given Saturday is produced by the same company that created Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Box to Box Films. “I didn’t know much about college football,” Paul Martin, who is from the U.K. and executive producer of both series, told Front Office Sports after a screening of the first episode at SEC media days.
“There was a conversation that if we were going to do something in college football, the SEC just seemed like the obvious place to start. We work quite closely with Netflix, kind of pulling it together, and they were always very keen that the SEC was where they kind of wanted to start.”
Martin said it was too early to speak on a potential second season for the SEC series—or even expanding to another conference. “We’ve loved our time with the SEC,” he said. “It’s such an amazing place to watch football. So, we’re very happy in our relationship.”
Coach-Speak
The debut episode of Netflix’s SEC series focuses on LSU and South Carolina, and it’s clear coaches are going to be the stars of the show.
“When we started Formula One, we thought we’d probably lead with the drivers, and it was actually the team principals that became characters,” Martin said. “And I think in this, the coaches, in some ways, are those team principals and the owners of Formula One, where they’re a very good link to the players, as well.”
Ten of the SEC’s 16 football programs opted in to participating in the show.
“What you learn about the football coaches in the SEC is that they’ll soon tell you what they think and how they feel,” Martin said. “So, it wasn’t a hard process. … I think we were lucky that 10 of the 16 teams agreed to do it.”
Culture Shock
In addition to not knowing much about college football before working on the SEC series, Martin found out there was one aspect of the sport he really enjoyed.
“I learned I really like marching bands,” he said.
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