We’re getting a tour of @SECNetwork studios in Charlotte this afternoon. Stay tuned for a sneak peek. pic.twitter.com/xddsRsmRPT

— Kentucky Athletics (@UKAthletics) August 6, 2014

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Since the Southeastern Conference and ESPN jointly announced the launch of the SEC Network 15 months ago, hundreds of people have been hard at work.That year-plus of labor will come to a head in barely week when the SEC Network launches on Aug. 14.The nerves, of course, are there. Given the pressure that comes with covering the nation’s best conference and serving its insatiable fans 24/7, that’s natural. That feeling, however, is outweighed by excitement to finally go on the air.”Hey, let’s go,” Dari Nowkhah said. “We keep rehearsing. When you guys are going around asking football players, ‘What will it be like to go hit somebody else?’ Well, that’s exactly what this is.”Nowkhah’s comments came at an open house hosted at the SEC Network’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Media members were invited to tour the facility, which has long been home to ESPNU. The tour included stops in the studios where cornerstone SEC Network shows will be filmed, as well as access to the personalities that will be the face of the network.”Our on-camera talent, I think, rivals any network anywhere,” said Stephanie Druley, ESPN’s vice president of college networks.That begins on the set of SEC Now, the SEC Network’s SportsCenter equivalent hosted by Nowkhah, Peter Burns and Maria Taylor. It extends to the Paul Finebaum Show and SEC Nation.Perhaps nothing better demonstrates what the SEC Network will be about than SEC Nation, which will make stops at all 14 conference campuses this season. Florida star Tim Tebow and LSU national champion Marcus Spears will serve as analysts alongside host Joe Tessitore and reporter Kaylee Hartung for the SEC Network’s answer to College GameDay.”For us, we want to be that same thing for the SEC, but more in a way of we want to give the viewer an opportunity to experience what’s it like to be in a tailgate, what’s it’s like to be a fan, what it’s like to be a player,” Tebow said.The show will have a distinctly SEC flavor, with all talent having deep ties to the conference they’ll cover.”When I think about the SEC Network and especially our show, the one thing that comes to mind is that we’re of the people,” Spears said. “That’s the difference, more than anything, is that we’re dedicated to one conference.”It’s a conference that deserves that kind of dedication, as well as the unprecedented distribution it will receive at launch. With Wednesday’s announcement that Charter Communications has signed on, the SEC Network will be in more than 90 million American households on Aug. 14.Oh yeah, and the International Space Station.”A lot of people asked, ‘What do you do next?’ ” ESPN Senior Vice President of College Networks Justin Connolly said just after announcing the Charter deal. “And I thought the Tennessean beat us to the punch on that. We’re going to outer space.”Rabid SEC fan Barry Wilmore, an astronaut set to depart for his next mission on Sept. 25, lobbied successfully for NASA to provide the SEC Network in the space station. He’ll enjoy the more than 450 live games that will air on the network, not to mention the hundreds more that will be shown on the SEC Network’s digital platform. Wilmore won’t be in space in time for the Kentucky basketball games in the Bahamas that will be shown on the SEC Network Aug. 15-17, but most of the Big Blue Nation will surely be watching.Three years ago when UK played preseason exhibitions in Canada, games were shown only locally on the UK IMG Network. This international trip will be on national television.”I actually think it crystallizes how this network can create opportunities that haven’t existed in the past,” Connolly said. “Ordinarily I don’t think those games get televised. We made a decision: The ability to have Kentucky on and show players that fans haven’t seen before, show the Harrisons back and be able to do that over the Bahamas tour, we just jumped at it.”Millions of fans throughout the country figure to jump at the chance to watch as well.