Tuesday, June 28, 2011

CFB TV Scheduling Update, 6/28/2011

Because I feel the need to write something....

It's the very end of the 2010-11 athletic year so I suspect some college administrators and maybe some TV folks are laying low.  On Friday, the athletic calendar turns to 2011-12 which does mean some realignment will occur (Boise St., BYU, Colorado, Nebraska and Utah: welcome to your new homes in FBS; same to you Savannah St. in FCS, moving football into existing all-sports conferences Old Dominion & Lamar, plus startup program UTSA).   Expect some college athletic websites to transition over to new hosts as Nevada, Ohio St., Minnesota, Army and Missouri St. transition over to the CBS College Network, which could also mean downtime.  I'll probably keep track of that on Friday as its been a day to redesign or fire up a new website host in prior years. 

Here's what we're waiting on, conference by conference, regarding some final TV decisions for the 1st few weeks

ACC - Nothing major.  The regional cable package will have some Fox Sports affiliates and probably at least one Comcast Sports affiliate.  Because of the Comcast negotiations with Raycom, some FCS conferences like the CAA are waiting to set their TV schedules.

Big 12 - Regional/local/PPV/FOX College Sports games.  There's a few open holes, namely one at 3:30pm ET on 9/3.  Sounds like the Rice at Texas game is targeted to the Longhorn Network and that would enable other schools to make plans for regional, PPV or FOX College Sports games on that day.  But if it becomes an ABC game, it becomes an exclusive TV window and pushes everything outside of that window.

Big East - Local games and/or ESPN3.com exclusives.  After the Wake Forest-Syracuse game was moved to Thursday for ESPN3.com (bleh), teams are likely working with ESPN and/or regional networks to air games.

Big Ten - Making the official announcement that Nebraska's games vs. Chattanooga & Fresno St. will air on BTN.  Widely alluded to during interviews with BTN and Big Ten staff, but both sides want Nebraska's cable systems on board with how the network is distributed in other Big Ten states.

C-USA - Removing of "TBA" from the kickoff times of several games, plus addition of some local/regional telecasts, notably for East Carolina.  Most of the FSN game times are known or have been found, but the CSS games are likely waiting on finalizing of the SEC's regional TV schedule (see below).

Independent - Besides the rumored move of the Air Force-Navy game to CBS (its apparently being discussed), I don't have a great feeling as to whether all BYU kick times will be known before the season or not.  Four home games are TBA.  At least one game must be televised by ESPNU.  Maybe ESPN would release the Idaho St. game to BYUtv so they can work on televising that one.

MAC - Maybe a few regional telecasts from Northern Illinois and any announcement regarding a conference web-streaming package such as the All-MACcess package offered previously.

MWC - Nothing.  Everything is in place.

Pac-12 - A fair number of games during the 1st three weeks are waiting for local carriers to pick them up.  Only one has been finalized, UCLA's home game vs. San Jose St.

SEC - The ESPNU, CSS, Fox Sports regional and institutional packages (PPV or other distribution means).  These often come out at the SEC media day.

Sun Belt - The Sun Belt Network regional package.  CSS helps in production of these games, so while they might announce the package of games, the kick times, along with the C-USA slate of CSS games, may have to wait until the SEC's games are decided.

WAC - Maybe a few ESPNU games, plus the Hawai'i PPV package and the AggieVision games for New Mexico St.

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