'SEC Football: Any Given Saturday' Opens the World of College Football to All Audiences

College football, and specifically the SEC, is a world full of traditions, passions and stardom.

It’s a sport that’s difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t been exposed to its craziness and excitement. How do you tell a new fan about the Alabama dynasty? What about LSU housing a live tiger on its campus? Or how the fierce rivalries between schools produce hostile stadium environments for any opposing teams?

How does one describe college football, especially the world of SEC football, to someone who knows virtually nothing about it? This is the goal set for the new Netflix docuseries produced by Box to Box Films titled SEC Football: Any Given Saturday. For Box to Box, the task at hand is to introduce this unique world to new, interested fans, while also giving a glimpse at behind-the-scenes moments for the diehards.

Over the course of seven episodes that debuted on Netflix on Aug. 5, SEC Football showcases 10 of the 16 SEC football teams during the 2024 season. Viewers get to hear from some of the 2024 season's biggest stars after watching them play under the lights every Saturday last fall.

Box to Box producer Paul Martin, who has worked on the company’s other sports docuseries like F1: Drive to Survive and Full Swing, spoke with Sports Illustrated and shared his selling point for someone who already calls themself a college football fanatic to check out the new show.

“I think if you’re a fan of college football, I think you’ll really feel like you’re taking into that inner sanctum, whether it’s the locker room and whether it's halftime, the aftermath of wins and losses,” Martin says. “Things that if you’re an SEC fan, you’ll know the result of every game that we feature, but, I think there’s some added value stuff that you really get a different perspective on it.”

Some of those added elements include coach and player interviews with some of last season’s biggest stars. In the first episode of the series, titled “Opening Kickoff,” the show focuses on LSU. Coach Brian Kelly sits down for interviews and opens up more than he normally would in a press conference. Additionally, fans get to watch quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and linebacker Whit Weeks play video games at home and talk about their futures in football (spoiler alert: Nussmeier returns to the program in 2025 after considering a jump to the NFL draft).

If you’ve watched some of Box to Box Films' other series, the format will seem very familiar. Viewers get access to the stars in a way that they normally wouldn’t. And for fans who are contemplating watching SEC Football because they feel that they know nothing about the world or the sport, Martin encourages them to be open to learning about college football. As a British man himself, Martin knew basically nothing about college football, but he quickly learned to love and embrace it.

“I think for the non-SEC or non-college football fan, if you’ve never seen this world up close, it is utterly unique,” Martin says. “You’ll see things that you never thought you would see at a sporting event, whether it’s huge marching bands or tigers on the field or alligators.”

Martin thinks the show will appeal to audiences outside of the United States, too, as viewers can learn about parts of the country that they normally wouldn’t in mainstream media.

“If you’re not from the U.S., it’s an amazing slice of Americana,” Martin says. “It’s an amazing opportunity to see parts of the country that you don’t really get to see documented in the same way. Everyone gets to see L.A. and New York across their media, but no one gets to see Baton Rouge or Tuscaloosa or Knoxville. They’re incredible parts of the country and parts of the world to visit.”

As a British man, Martin was surprised about many elements of the college football scene. For starters, he couldn’t believe how big tailgating culture is within college football. He laughed, reflecting on some of the scenes he witnessed while walking around tailgates, starting with fans cooking the meat of the opposing team's mascot.

“Tailgating is a crazy phenomenon, and it’s taken to another level at the NFL and college football levels,” Martin says. “Alligators on sticks. They seem to love to cook the mascot of the opposing team. You certainly don’t get that in the U.K.”

Martin and the rest of his producing team were impressed with how extensive the traditions in college football are. Each team has their very specific pre-game, mid-game and post-game traditions that have continued for decades or even over a century. Many of these college football-specific customs, like storming the field after a win (Vanderbilt's upset of Alabama, in the show’s case) or Florida fans' sing-alongs in the Swamp, are showcased in SEC Football. Martin noted that the show wanted to highlight these goosebump-worthy moments to introduce a wider audience to what college football has to offer.

“Every school has its tradition, and the tradition goes back like a long way,” Martin says. “I’m English so, you know, we like to say ‘Oh, America’s got no history. It’s got no tradition,’ and all that kind of stuff. Obviously it’s not true, and when you’re in these college towns, some of which have been there for well over 100 years, its tradition is engrained in the community.

“I don’t think until I really properly got into the show, I realized how big the SEC was, how big some of these institutions were and how key they were in the fabric of these communities. I think that suddenly when you get into it, you realize it’s bigger than just the school, really. It’s a cultural phenomenon, especially in that part of the world.”