Tuesday, November 6, 2012

College Basketball 2012-13 Viewing Changes & Additions

Want to get a few things out of the way for the 2012-13 listings

* Exhibitions are not listed here.  Don't care about them.
* Tape delayed airings are in the same boat as exhibitions.  Don't care about them.  Will not list them.
* I do the basketball listings a little differently than the football listings.  I don't put the WatchESPN & ESPN3 designation on basketball games like I do football.  General rule of thumb: If its on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU: WatchESPN, otherwise if its on Full Court it will be on ESPN3.  I will list situations where a game is on ESPN3 but not on Full Court, regardless of whether its an ESPN3 exclusive.
* I'm not chasing down all of the free or pay streaming packages.  I'll list ESPN3 exclusives and nothing else.  Consult your favorite school/conference for stuff that isn't listed.
* As of 10/31/12, I'll try to list affiliates for ACC Network, Big East Network (Game of the Week only), SEC Network & Big 12 Network.  But I make no guarantee on that.  When I decided not to list them last year, no one complained.
* Please just take a few minutes and check the site regarding missing games/images.  If there's a image missing, I try to go through the site twice a day in fairly decent detail (you may disagree with that level of detail).  If I don't catch it after a day, say something.  Thanks.

To the changes...

* First, the Pac-12's new deal.  Around 40 games will air on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, 22 will air on FSN and the rest on Pac-12 Network.  For the conference championship, if the year ends in an odd number, ESPN will air the final.  Otherwise FOX Sports has the rights to it.  During conference season, the Pac-12 will have a regular slot on Wednesday nights on ESPN2 and games on Thursday & Saturdays on ESPN/2/U.  FSN's games will air mostly on Saturday & Sundays during conference season.  The Pac-12 Network will pick up the slack in the schedule, including the majority of the conference tournament.  Note that a handful of Pac-12 Network non-conference games will be split regional telecasts.

* With only 22 Pac-12 games, FSN has scaled back its national college basketball coverage by close to 50%.  In addition to the Pac-12, ten C-USA games will air across the network along with a handful of special events.

* NBC Sports Network gets involved big time.  Not just with the MWC, but the addition of the CAA, Ivy League and a sampler of Atlantic 10 games before NBCSN starts up with a 25 game package from the A-10 next year.  NBCSN will have over 50 games this year with the crown jewel being the CAA Championship.  Watch as the season goes on as they may attempt to add more games if the NHL lockout continues.  They've added three more CAA games to their November schedule plus two more Ivy League games.

* CBS Sports Network also added extra Atlantic 10 games, doubling their number from 16 to 32 this year.  They also added a few special events like the Paradise Jam & the Great Alaska Shootout.

* CBS and ESPN made a deal where ESPN will sublicense a pool of Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC games to CBS.  Also included in the package is the MVC Championship for the next few years and the A-10 championship for this season.

* To compensate for the loss of the Pac-12 title game, coupled with the mtn. ceasing operations, CBS & CBS Sports Network will carry the MWC tournament except for the 1st round game.  The quarterfinals will move to Wednesday and air on CBSSN,  then an off day on Thursday (CBSSN is carrying the C-USA quarterfinals that day).  CBSSN will again air the semifinals, but the final will now air on CBS broadcast network instead of NBC Sports Network/Versus where it has aired since 2007.

* The new Big 12 media rights deals focused on football, but several schools negotiated new deals with FOX Sports regional networks to air men's basketball.  I don't know of their availability yet on Full Court, but those who are in-market for these games could see around 40 games on these RSNs.

* Still waiting on the Big Sky's package of games to air on ROOT Sports.  ROOT may have been waiting to finalize their MWC schedule of games, which they did yesterday, before settings their Big Sky schedule.  The Big Sky package on ROOT should be around 10 regular season games, plus parts of the conference tournament.

* The Big South made several adjustments.  It moved its conference tournament to a permanent site and decided to end its conference tournament on a Sunday.  By doing that, I believe it traded it airing the two semifinals on ESPNU for a pair of regular season games.  Meanwhile, it has also traded it in its Game Of The Week package, choosing to place those on ESPN3 exclusively instead of on MASN.  In addition to the Big South, the Southland Conference elected to go with ESPN3 exclusives in lieu of its Southland TV Network package.

* The SoCal FOX RSNs made a deal for increased exposure for the Big West.  This year the increase is around three more regular season games (10 games total) plus the addition of airing the Big West quarterfinal games.  In 2013-14, an additional 12 games will be added to the deal involving San Diego St.

* The WCC made a deal with Time Warner SportsNet for production of a regional Game Of The Week during the conference season to air on RSNs around the WCC.  TWSN will tack on a few Loyola Marymount, San Diego and Pepperdine games outside of the game of the week package, in addition to several San Diego St. and UNLV games purchased from CBS Sports Network to air regionally.

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