The ABC broadcast of Saturday’s college basketball game between Kentucky and Auburn was suddenly interrupted due to “technical difficulties.” It never returned.
Viewers at home were forced to watch an extended commercial break followed by the pregame analysis for the Winter Classic hockey game in Columbus. They could not watch the game they wanted to watch.
As someone who spent a few years in the broadcast world, I understand how these kinds of thing happen. A wire gets crossed up and everything inside the booth goes dark, someone hits the wrong button and kills the entire broadcast, signal between the production truck and the station itself gets interrupted and causes a static feed, etc. The list goes on.
However, I cannot say that I have ever seen a college basketball game just… not return. The SEC broadcast went out with over 12 minutes remaining in the second half at approximately 2:55 p.m. ET. It never came back and eventually (after more than 20 minutes) switched over to ESPN News!
The Auburn-Kentucky broadcast went out with technical difficulties on ABC with over 12 minutes remaining in the 2nd half at about 2:55 p.m. ET.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 1, 2025
The broadcast has not returned. 🏀📺😵💫 pic.twitter.com/yBbOYSSSH2
ABC initially aired an extend commercial break after the feed went down. Upon realization that there was no hope for the basketball game to return, it cut to a previously scheduled broadcast of the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. the Boston Bruins and killed time before puck drop with a brief impromptu studio show.
I am sure it was an accident. I am sure of it. Sources say there was a major technical issue outside of Rupp Arena and the ABC truck lost all power. That is the real story. But…… I am also a sucker for a good conspiracy theory and there are two main theories to discuss.
First and foremost, Auburn got up big on Kentucky so maybe ABC wanted to get on with its next broadcast and cutaway from the college basketball game on purpose. Probably not.
The other theory comes straight out of Lexington and the surrounding areas. Big Blue Nation feels as though the officials were actively helping the No. 1-ranked Tigers instead of the Wildcats.
For example, Kentucky was called for a flagrant foul on this play during the first half:
They called this a flagrant pic.twitter.com/3PI2p9fqvV
— Rare Rookies #BBN (@rarerookies) March 1, 2025
Auburn was not called for a foul at all on this play during the second half:
Did the SEC call on its broadcast partner to intentionally sabotage the broadcast feed so that fans at home couldn’t watch the favoritism? That is definitely not what happened, but I am all for this line of thinking.
To imagine that Greg Sankey got on the phone with Mickey Mouse and told Disney to shut it down because Kentucky fans were starting to figure out his conference’s favoritism toward Auburn is truly hilarious. That is the truth I am choosing to believe! Big Blue Nation strikes again.