Monday, February 21, 2011

If I were setting the remainder of the '11 Week One schedule...

...this is what I think it looks like:

Thursday
SMU at Texas A&M, 8pm ESPN
Arkansas St. at Illinois, 8pm Big Ten

Friday
Indiana vs. Ball St., 8pm ESPN

Saturday
Akron at Ohio St., 12pm ESPN
Wake Forest at Syracuse, 12pm ESPN2
TCU at Baylor 12pm FSN
UL-Monroe at Florida St., 12pm ESPNU
Chattanooga at Nebraska, 12pm Big Ten
Indiana St. at Penn St., 12pm Big Ten
Western Michigan at Michigan, 12pm Big Ten
Tennessee Tech at Iowa, 12pm Big Ten
Youngstown St. at Michigan St., 12pm Big Ten
Kent St. at Alabama, 12:30pm SEC Network
Troy at Clemson, 12:30pm ACC Network
USF at Notre Dame, 3:30pm NBC
Northwestern at Boston College, 3:30pm ABC
Tulsa at Oklahoma, 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
UNLV at Wisconsin, 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
Minnesota at USC, 3:30pm FSN
Utah St. at Auburn, 3:30pm ESPNU
Delaware at Navy, 3:30pm CBS Sports Network
Rice at Texas, 7pm "Longhorn Network"
Fresno St. at California, 7pm Versus
BYU at Ole Miss, 7pm ESPNU
Middle Tennessee at Purdue, 7pm Big Ten
FAU at Florida, 7pm SEC/FSN Regional
Missouri St. at Arkansas, 7pm PPV
Montana at Tennessee, 7pm PPV
Elon at Vanderbilt, 7:30pm CSS
Oregon vs. LSU, 8pm ABC
Boise St. vs. Georgia, 8pm ESPN
UCLA at Houston, 8pm CBS Sports Network
Colorado at Hawai'i, 10pm ESPN2
New Mexico at Nevada, 10:30pm ESPNU

Sunday
East Carolina vs. South Carolina, 3:30pm ESPN
Mississippi St. at Memphis, 3:30pm FSN
UL-Lafayette at Oklahoma St., 7pm FSN

Monday
Maryland at Miami (FL), 8pm ESPN (confirmed)

I'm thinking that if BYU-Ole Miss were going to be on a Thursday night, it would have been announced by now.  Since there is rumblings of major changes to the Big 12 schedule, and that both SMU and Texas A&M had great seasons last year, why not open with a Big 12 game on ESPN?

Also think that they'll want to showcase Oklahoma St. during the 1st week, so they'll move a game to Sunday to get mostly national coverage.  I've convinced myself that Mississippi St.-Memphis will be on FSN and not on a Saturday, so it could be on Sunday or Monday.  The Braves are on Fox Sports South on Sunday, but on Peachtree TV (w/outer market coverage on FSSO or SportSouth) and that should be relevant for determining TV coverage along with all other FSN MLB games.

Note that the ACC Network package will now start games at 12:30pm.

Other things to take into account is that there is a NASCAR Nationwide Series race on ESPN2 on 9/3 and it is an evening race, so ESPN2 won't have a prime time game, but could have a late evening game. Versus also has an Indycar race on 9/4 so the possibility of them doing a Pac-12 game on Sunday is unlikely. 

For MWC fans, I left the conference dark for week one, though its possible the mtn. could pick up all three MWC vs. FCS games.  In the past, the mtn. has shied away from televising these games.

And right now I'm not listing any ESPN3.com exclusives, PPV games from the Big 12 or regional games from the Pac-12 or Big East.  Those will flow out later.

3 comments:

Paul said...

Moving ACC start times to 12:30 won't affect me in Boston (WSBK is an independent channel) but it's definitely going to mess with ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates down south when they have a game at 3:30. Even moving the start time to 12:20 like the SEC does would be a better idea. 10 minutes can make a world of difference.

Joseph Miller said...

Could the BYU/Ole Miss game end up in on ESPN2 or ESPN in the 3:30 ET slot? With no CBS game ESPN has put SEC games there before.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Its possible Joseph. I left the slot blank because there is a NASCAR race scheduled on ESPN2, but it isn't scheduled until 7:30pm, which could free up a slot depending on how much pre-race coverage they want to do.