The Athletic reported on Thursday that Netflix was nearing a deal with the SEC to produce a documentary series about college football.
“While the contracts are not yet signed, all indications are that an agreement is close and Netflix will take viewers behind the scenes during this upcoming football season,” wrote Athletic reporters Seth Emerson and Andrew Marchand.
The reporters compared the possible SEC football documentary series to the Netflix golf series Full Swing and the Formula 1 series Drive to Survive.
A behind-the-scenes documentary about SEC football sounds like a blast. While we’d love to see the interworking of basically all of the league’s football teams, there are five that would really intrigue us.
Let’s count them down and why they’re especially interesting for a documentary study.
Texas
The most popular college football player who probably won’t play in 2024 has to be quarterback Arch Manning, who will presumably take over for the Longhorns in 2025. Watching Manning train on the sidelines as quarterback Quinn Ewers and coach Steve Sarkisian navigate Texas’ first season in the SEC would be excellent television for this documentary project.
Alabama
Former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer filling Alabama legend Nick Saban’s shoes as the coach for the Crimson Tide is going to be one of the biggest storylines in college football this season. The promise of watching DeBoer figure out how to lead a historic program like Alabama in his first season in real time is tantalizing. It’s why these doc projects exist.
Georgia
Coach Kirby Smart’s SEC juggernaut underachieved last season compared to its lofty standard of winning back-to-back championship games during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. How will the Bulldogs get back on top? We’d love to watch that all play out behind the scenes as new stars emerge in Athens.
Tennessee
The Volunteers haven’t won a national title since 1998, but coach Josh Heupel has reinvigorated Rocky Top after a period of struggle. Ballyhooed quarterback prospect Nico Iamaleava will be charged with leading Tennessee to the College Football Playoff this season, and it’d be fun to watch the Vols try and finally bring home that elusive title that has evaded the program.
Vanderbilt
Outside of the James Franklin years, Vanderbilt has been the SEC’s punching bag for a good part of the past two decades. Coach Clark Lea enters a pivotal year of his tenure in Music City as he’ll try to get the Commodores to a winning record for the first time since 2013. Not all documentary subjects should be contenders, as Vandy just being able to win more than it loses would make for an engaging possible storyline on the series.
