In college sports, there’s the SEC and everyone else. The powerhouse conference boasts 39 national championships in football, 11 in basketball, 11 Heisman trophy winners and enough notable alumni to fill a few Hall of Fames. It’s no surprise ESPN is putting considerable resources behind the launch of SEC Network later this year after reaching a 20-year deal with the conference.

Last month, ESPN, in conjunction with North Carolina-based ad agency McKinney, released 14 unique spots, one for each school in the SEC, depicting the traditions and rich heritage of the conference’s schools. The spots are tied into the new network’s “Take It All In” campaign.

In one, a shaky hand-held camera shoots out the window of a moving car at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn, Alabama, the morning after the Tigers iconic last second victory over Alabama in the 2013 Iron Bowl.

In another, a young mother coos her son (wearing a tiny Volunteers T-shirt of course) to sleep as she sings the school’s fight song “Rocky Top.”

“That baby actually does have a long history and lineage attached to Tennessee football,” says Jonathan Cude, McKinney’s chief creative officer. “His uncle and his uncle’s father played at Tennessee and his mom was a cheerleader.”

“We didn’t really need to make anything up,” says Cude. “We just needed to tell the stories that actually exist.”

To strike the right note for all 14 SEC schools was a challenge Cude and the team at McKinney happily embraced.

“You’re doing something for an audience that is as passionate as SEC fans are in the SEC, in their schools and in their teams, so that’s just a lot of fun,” he says.

McKinney worked closely with ESPN as well as the conference and its commissioner Mike Slive and each individual SEC school to ensure the authenticity of each ad. The agency is also creating print ads as well as social and digital media plays for all the member institutions of the conference.

“We really wanted to show a range of tone because there are so many different things about the SEC that touch so many people in so many different ways,” said Michelle Berry, ESPN’s senior director of marketing.

The ads are airing across ESPN’s TV networks and digital platforms. ESPN has also given the content to all of the SEC’s schools for promotion. At least three more compilations spots will be released over the summer, according to Berry, though she’s mum on the details. The network is scheduled to launch August 14th.

SEC Network will also roll out some longer form ads that highlight some of the upcoming programs. ESPN has already announced a Saturday football preview, SEC Nation. It will air 45 SEC football games this year, more than 160 men’s and women’s basketball games and 75 baseball games in addition to other sporting events.

Cude was a walk-on track and cross country runner at UT (“I’m a Longhorn, but I’m not really supposed to talk about it now,” he jokes), but worked with a McKinney team that included several SEC alumns. They were instrumental in leveraging certain insights about what it means to be a fan of the Southeastern Conference.

“When you grow up in the SEC, you are born into this,” Cude says. “It’s not necessarily a choice. You’re born into it and you’ll stick with it forever.”

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