Monday, October 29, 2012

11/10 TV Confirmations

My guesses
Full list of games

Its one giantic six day hold.  If you're game isn't listed, go to the full list of games, scroll to the bottom and show non-televised games and it might show possible TV windows for your game.

12pm CBS & CBSSports.com: Arkansas at South Carolina
12pm FSN: Kansas at Texas Tech
12pm BTN & BTN2Go.com: Purdue at Iowa
12pm SEC Network & ESPN3 (split): Missouri at Tennessee
12pm SEC Network & ESPN3 (split): UL-Lafayette at Florida
12pm Longhorn Network & LonghornNetwork.com: Iowa St. at Texas
1:30pm F/X: Colorado at Arizona
3pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3:
3:30pm ABC with ESPN2 Reverse Mirror: Penn St. at Nebraska
3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go.com: Minnesota at Illinois
7pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Georgia at Auburn
7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Vanderbilt at Ole Miss
7pm FSN: Southern Miss at SMU
7pm Longhorn Network & LonghornNetwork.com: Louisiana Tech at Texas St.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

11/10 Selection Guesses

Abbreviated.  I thought I had this article already written.

* ABC has a 12pm window to use
* CBS has an afternoon doubleheader with the SEC, 12pm & 3:30pm.  They pick 1st, then 4th, with ESPN in the middle
* The FSN/SEC regional package ended on 11/3
* F/X is again an early afternoon kickoff, likely for Pac-12
* I think FOX strays from the script again

Since its short, let me know what I missed or what you think is wrong.

12pm CBS: Missouri at Tennessee
12pm ABC: Notre Dame at Boston College
12pm ESPN/ESPN2: Northwestern at Michigan
12pm ESPN2/ESPN2: Louisville at Syracuse
12pm ESPNU: Vanderbilt at Ole Miss
12pm FSN: Kansas at Texas Tech
12pm BTN: Purdue at Iowa
12pm BTN: Wisconsin at Indiana
12pm SEC Net: Arkansas at South Carolina
12pm Big East Net: Cincinnati at Temple
12pm Longhorn: Iowa St. at Texas
12:30pm ACC Net: Miami (FL) at Virginia
1:30pm F/X: Colorado at Arizona
3pm FOX: Oregon St. at Stanford
3pm ACC RSNs: Georgia Tech at North Carolina
3pm Pac-12 Net: Utah at Washington
3:30pm CBS:  Texas A&M at Alabama
3:30pm ABC with RM: Penn St. at Nebraska
3:30pm ABC with RM: Baylor at Oklahoma
3:30pm ABC: Maryland at Clemson
3:30pm ESPNU: Wake Forest at NC State
3:30pm FSN: West Virginia at Oklahoma St.
3:30pm BTN: Minnesota at Illinois
5pm Longhorn: Louisiana Tech at Texas St.
7pm FOX: Kansas St. at TCU
7pm ESPN: Mississippi St. at LSU
7pm ESPN2: Georgia at Auburn
7pm ESPNU: UL-Lafayette at Florida
7pm FSN: Southern Miss at SMU
8pm ABC: California at Oregon
10:30 pm ESPN: Arizona St. at USC
10:30pm Pac-12 Net: UCLA at Washington St.

ESPN Exclusive
Army at Rutgers

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Late selection guesses for 11/3 and some other stuff

* First, because I don't want it skimmed over, I'll be unavailable most of next week.  Will post selections on Sunday & Monday because I'll have time to do so & fix up the site for Saturday 11/3 during late evenings.  For the most part your tweets and emails will go ignored/unanswered until late evening.

* Unlike the SEC contract, which I'm told forbids it when unless both sides agree to it, the ACC contract must allow for Raycom to do a split regional game.  The ACC may also have a limit on the number of conference games that can be placed on ESPN3 exclusively and this is the way around it.

* The bad news at 12pm-3:30pm on 11/3 is that a few games aren't likely going to be shown through GamePlan.  GamePlan only has six channels available to use at any time.  With three SEC regional games, a Big East game, two ACC games, two ABC regional games and a MAC game, someone is likely going to get set aside.  At least the MAC game will get tossed, maybe joined in progress.  I'm pretty sure the ACC games can be viewed regardless of location over at the ACC website, so those two may have to sit the bench too.

* Sometimes when it comes to deciding who goes in what slot, sometimes I go with a ranking order with the combined number of wins by the two teams.  In that case, assuming that ESPNU is in more homes than the Big East Network, I wouldn't have placed UConn-USF in that slot since it had the least number of combined wins compared to the other two Big East games.

* Inquiring minds: ABC/ESPN will have used 14 of its 18 allotted slots once the 11/3 announcements come out.  10 on ABC, 2 on ESPN and 2 on Longhorn Network...The Big East minimum of 17 telecasts on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 has also been hit (they're at 18), but they have not yet used their one Saturday night window on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2.  Don't think that the Florida St./USF 6pm start counts towards that either...ABC/ESPN have a max of 41 total football selections from the Big Ten.  There used to be a limit to the number of games on ABC (max of 16) and ESPN/ESPN2 (max of 25), but those no longer exist.  The selections can be spread out.  31 games, including two games on 11/3, have been set for ABC/ESPN/ESPN2.  I do not know if ESPNU games are part of the count.  If so, the number is 33...ABC/ESPN has scheduled 18 of its 22 Pac-12 windows, FOX has scheduled 17 of its 22 including the two Black Friday games on FOX & F/X.  FOX will likely use three more broadcast windows, meaning that the two remaining Pac-12 windows probably come from F/X on 11/10 and 11/17.

Here's the guesses

12pm ABC:  Oklahoma at Iowa St.
12pm ESPN: Texas A&M at Mississippi St.
12pm ESPN2: Ole Miss at Georgia
12pm BTN: Nebraska at Michigan St.
3pm FOX: Texas at Texas Tech
3:30pm CBS: Missouri at Florida
3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror:  TCU at West Virginia
3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror: Michigan at Minnesota
3:30pm ESPN: Illinois at Ohio St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Penn St. at Purdue
3:30pm BTN: Iowa at Indiana
8pm ABC: Oklahoma St. at Kansas St.

Monday, October 22, 2012

11/3 CFB TV Confirmations

My guesses, which you'll find to be incorrect
Full list for week 10

Following slots are on six day pick:

12pm ABC & ESPN3: Big 12 (split with Temple-Louisville)
12pm ESPN & WatchESPN: SEC
12pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: SEC
12pm BTN & BTN2Go.com: Big Ten
3pm FOX: Big 12
3:30pm CBS: SEC
3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror: Big 12 & Big Ten
3:30pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Big Ten
3:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Big Ten
3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go.com: Big Ten
8pm ABC: Big 12

Confirmations
TBA BTN: Iowa at Indiana (12pm or 3:30pm)
12pm ABC & ESPN3: Temple at Lousville
12pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Vanderbilt at Kentucky
12pm FSN: Houston at East Carolina
12pm SEC Network & ESPN3: Tulsa at Arkansas
12pm Big East Network & ESPN3: Syracuse at Cincinnati
12pm SEC/FOX RSNs & ESPN3: Troy at Tennessee
12:30pm ACC Network (split) & ESPN3: Virginia at NC State
12:30pm ACC Network (split) & ESPN3: Georgia Tech at Maryland
12:30pm SEC/CSS & ESPN3: New Mexico St. at Auburn
2pm F/X: Stanford at Colorado
3pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Washington St at Utah
3:30pm FSN: Kansas at Baylor
3:30pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Boston College at Wake Forest
7pm FOX: Oregon at USC
7pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Clemson at Duke
7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Connecticut at USF
10:30pm ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU & WatchESPN: Arizona St. at Oregon St.
10:30pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Arizona at UCLA


Sunday, October 21, 2012

11/3 CFB TV Selection Guesses

Notes on the guesses (EDIT: 10/21/12 3:42 PM - disregard the strikethrough item)

* November means no more Big Ten night games.  Granted they select them months in advance anyways, but it isn't an option anymore.
* Conversely, the SEC's primetime doubleheader is this week.  CBS has exclusivity in both the 3:30pm and 8pm time slots.
* No ESPN slot at 7pm.  NASCAR Nationwide series duties.
* F/X lists their timeslot as 1:30pm.  Makes it eligible for a portion of the Pac-12 who resides in the mountain timezone (11:30am local time), and on 11/10 & 11/17, the Arizona schools.  F/X might be able to adjust their kick time too for a Pac-12 game slightly.
* My thought with Arizona St.-Oregon St. on Pac-12 Network is that with FOX clearly having the best available game in Oregon-USC, the Pac-12 Network may have a week where they leap over ESPN to take the next best game.  Just a hunch, nothing more.
* I could see a 12 day pick being used on some of the Big 12 games, but it would be rather wasteful, IMO.  Could also see some of the ESPNU slots in a 12 day pick with the ACC & Big East too.
* I thought about placing both Michigan-Minnesota & Illinois-Ohio St. on ESPN & ESPN2.  I'm trying to get clarification from the Big Ten, but they have 16 games already scheduled for ABC.  Under the terms of their pre-Nebraska fact sheet, no more than 17 games can air on ABC.  I don't think ABC has to select a Big Ten game at 3:30pm.  In '07, no Big Ten game was selected on 10/27 at 3:30pm and Michigan-Minnesota aired on ESPN Classic with special permission for Detroit's ABC affiliate to pick up the game (there was an 8pm Big Ten ABC game).
* Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. was on FOX's list to televise.  I don't think they'd pass it up, but the mess involves the Texas-Texas Tech game and I think they have to stray from the list again.  Earlier this week I wrote that Texas is up against the appearance limit in the ABC/ESPN package.  Either the Texas Tech game or the Kansas St. game has to air in the FOX portion of the contract either on cable/broadcast network.  The Texas-Kansas St. game is the final week of the season and FOX does not have a broadcast window scheduled for that day.  If I'm the Big 12 and ABC, I politely ask FOX to take Texas-Texas Tech (which is still a pretty good game involving a top 20 ranked team), so that ABC has the option to take Texas-Kansas St. on 12/1
* Last one: It wouldn't surprise me to see Temple-Louisville land on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 in primetime.  Big East gets one Saturday primetime appearance per year on either of those three networks.  If Louisville is undefeated, it could get a look to flip with Oklahoma-Iowa St. for ESPN2 or be split with Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. on ABC, which would put BC-Wake Forest on television somewhere.

12pm ESPN/ESPN2: Missouri at Florida
12pm ESPN/ESPN2: Ole Miss at Georgia
12pm ESPNU: Troy at Tennessee
12pm BTN: Iowa at Indiana
12pm BTN: Nebraska at Michigan St.
12pm FSN: Houston at East Carolina
12pm SEC/FOX RSNs: Tulsa at Arkansas
12pm SEC Network: Vanderbilt at Kentucky
12pm Big East Network: Connecticut at USF
12:30pm ACC Network: Georgia Tech at Maryland
12:30pm SEC/CSS: New Mexico St. at Auburn
1:30pm F/X: Stanford at Colorado
3pm FOX: Texas at Texas Tech
3pm Pac-12 Network: Washington St. at Utah
3:30pm CBS: Texas A&M at Mississippi St.
3:30pm ABC w/ESPN2: Reverse Mirror: Michigan at Minnesota
3:30pm ABC w/ESPN2: Reverse Mirror: TCU at West Virginia
3:30pm ABC: Clemson at Duke
3:30pm ESPN: Illinois at Ohio St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Syracuse at Cincinnati
3:30pm FSN: Baylor at Kansas
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Virginia at NC State
3:30pm BTN: Penn St. at Purdue
7pm FOX: Oregon at USC (99% confirmed)
7pm ESPN2: Oklahoma at Iowa St.
7pm ESPNU: Temple at Louisville
8pm CBS: Alabama at LSU (confirmed)
8pm ABC: Oklahoma St. at Kansas St.
10pm Pac-12 Network: Arizona St. at Oregon St.
10:30pm ESPN: Arizona at UCLA

ESPN3 Exclusive
Boston College at Wake Forest

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Appearance counts and why they matter to networks

The four football conferences that I know of that stipulate some form of appearance count for schools are the Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.  In most cases, the goal of the appearance count is to make sure that the conference's cable package or conference TV network has some value and chance to pick the top teams.  Here's where we stand as of the kickoffs for 10/27, along with any games in November & December which have been selected for television.

Big 12
The ABC/ESPN portion of the Big 12 contract still has an appearance maximum of six appearances per team, per the Big 12 office.  Only Texas is close with five scheduled appearances so far with two on Longhorn Network (one of Texas' three games on LHN is considered an institutional game), one on ESPN and two on ABC.  TCU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma each have three appearances on the networks.  If TCU's remaining games without television are picked up by the ABC/ESPN package, they would max out at six, so they aren't in trouble.

At a minimum, at least one of the remaining Texas Tech games and two of Oklahoma's November & December games must appear in the FOX network/cable package.  If the FOX broadcast tentative package holds up, those two schools will have games in that package.

Conversely, either of Texas's road games at Kansas St. or Texas Tech must be televised in the FOX package of games.  If the Texas Tech game is chosen by ABC or ESPN, the Kansas St. game must be televised by FOX, probably on their cable outlets since they do not have a game listed for FOX's broadcast network on 12/1.

Big Ten
The Big Ten Network has an two appearance requirement and one of those appearances must be a conference game.  Nebraska and Penn St. have only made one appearance on the network and must make a 2nd sometime in November.

Pac-12
Per the Pac-12 office, each school cannot appear in the FOX and ESPN packages no more than nine times combined.  The perceived goal is that each school will have at least one appearance on the Pac-12 Network if the national packages take a schools' entire conference schedule and leave the non-conference schedule alone, or if the national packages pick up any non-conference games, a conference game is there for the Pac-12 Network

Arizona St. and USC have the highest number of scheduled appearances in those at six with three remaining games not set for television, so they are in the clear.  Oregon has five appearances in those packages with four games not set, so they are also OK.

In other words, no team is in danger.

SEC
The CBS package of games has an appearance limit of six per school, with four exceptions over the life of the contract where a team can be shown seven times.  The appearance limit excludes the conference championship game.

Alabama, LSU and Florida are at three scheduled appearances each.  None seem to be in danger of hitting the six appearance limit and would only be able to max out at six appearances.

Again, no team is in danger of having a major game deliberately fall to the ESPN or regional packages.


Monday, October 15, 2012

10/27 CFB TV Confirmations

Here's the timeslots to be filled.

What I thought would happen and will be proven incorrect.
Entire list of games for week nine

12pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Tennessee at South Carolina
12pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Iowa at Northwestern
12pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Kentucky at Missouri
12pm FSN: Texas at Kansas
12pm BTN & BTN2Go.com: Indiana at Illinois
12pm Big East Network & ESPN3: Temple at Pittsburgh
12pm SEC Network & ESPN3: Ole Miss at Arkansas
12:30pm ACC Network & ESPN3: NC State at North Carolina
1pm ESPN3: Maryland at Boston College
3pm F/X:  UCLA at Arizona St.
3pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: BYU at Georgia Tech
3pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Colorado at Oregon
3:30pm FOX: Texas Tech at Kansas St.
3:30pm ABC with ESPN2 Reverse Mirror: Michigan St. at Wisconsin
3:30pm ABC with ESPN2 Reverse Mirror:  USC at Arizona
3:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Duke at Florida St.
3:30pm FSN: TCU at Oklahoma St.
3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go.com: Purdue at Minnesota
3:30pm FOX College Sports: Navy at East Carolina
5:30pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Ohio St. at Penn St.
6pm ESPN3: Western Kentucky at FIU
6:15pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Washington St. at Stanford
7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Texas A&M at Auburn
7pm FSN: Baylor at Iowa St.
7pm SEC/FOX RSNs & ESPN3: Massachusetts at Vanderbilt
7pm ESPN3: Syracuse at USF
8pm ABC: Notre Dame at Oklahoma
8pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Michigan at Nebraska
8:30pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Mississippi St. at Alabama

9:45pm Pac-12 Network (Bay Area & Rocky Mountain) & Pac-12.com: California at Utah

10:15pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Oregon St. at Washington

Early kickoff times and the SEC

When you've been on the west coast for four days, then come to the east coast, stay at your parents' for a few days while watching Yankee games go far too long into the evening for a week, then drive a few hours back to your house for the 1st time in several days...your sleep patterns get totally messed up.

Hence, I'm writing at 2am ET.  Let's see how this goes.

I spotted a back & forth between an ESPN PR employee and Clay Travis, who runs Outkick The Coverage.  I don't have Clay as one of the people I follow on Twitter.  I have ESPN PR because they often tweet out game times for both college football and men's college basketball.  Its the crux of my site, so that's the decision that I made.

Anyways, Clay wrote an article and wasn't happy that his first trip to College Station for a game will be a pre-noon local time kickoff.  As I read the article, he seems to place the blame on ESPN "protecting" the Baylor-Texas game, which will be at 8pm on ABC.  I don't share his viewpoint at all, at least the opinion that Baylor-Texas is being "protected".

First, I don't believe that LSU-A&M should be the 12pm game.  When I did my late predictions this week, which were done before any games were played on Saturday, I felt the LSU-A&M game was going to be on CBS.  Someone in the know from an SEC school inferred to me that CBS wanted to do one home game each from the new members, Missouri & Texas A&M.  Missouri had a home game on CBS on 10/13 vs. Alabama (in part due to ESPN selecting South Carolina-LSU ahead of CBS thanks to concessions from CBS airing LSU-Alabama as a 2nd primetime game in '11), and A&M would not have another SEC home game until the Missouri game on 11/24.  Of the three available games, Alabama-Tennessee seemed like the lesser of the three games even though Alabama was likely going to be #1 after their game with Missouri.

Here's where things became messy with the six day pick.  Some blame lies with ESPN, some of this is a shared problem between the SEC and the networks:

1) ESPN committed specific games to specific time slots, but not a particular network - They did this with the Big 12, ACC and SEC games.  Did North Carolina-Duke, Georgia-Kentucky & Middle Tennessee-Mississippi St. need to be slotted for 7pm?  Could they have been available for 12pm?  Why wasn't Baylor-Texas available for 12pm, or Texas Tech-TCU available at 8pm, or why was Iowa St.-Oklahoma St. an option for all three time slots (12pm FX, 3:30pm & 8pm ABC), but not the other two games.  Why did Virginia Tech-Clemson have to air at 12pm?

I believe the time slot "locking" was part of the problem.  I don't know if the conferences/schools stipulated that a kickoff time decision had to be made on some of these games.  I did see that TCU, Kentucky & Mississippi St. have their games on 10/20 as homecoming, and much like the Big Ten schools could have requested a fixed kickoff time, or at least a limited range of times, instead of being open.

Then again, Oklahoma St. is having homecoming on 10/20 and were open about their kickoff time.  Different strokes for different folks maybe.

2) More people, at least nationally, are going to see LSU-Texas A&M regardless of when it kicks off compared to Baylor-Texas.  As Clay notes, Baylor-Texas is being split with Florida St.-Miami.  Of those four teams, FSU is the highest ranking team and I'd expect that game to be seen by the majority nationally.  The only place they'd be protecting anything is inside of Texas.  The rest of us probably are going to need ESPN3 or Gameplan if we even want to watch that one.

Heck, if anything, I'm surprised both weren't airing at the same time.  I've seen ESPN tout how well it does when it airs three Big Ten-SEC bowl games simultaneously over three networks on New Year's Day (Outback, Capital One, Gator).  I've seen ESPN PR toss their ratings numbers around when their great.  They'd love to let you know that some insane number of households in Texas were viewing either A&M or Texas AT THE SAME TIME across their networks!

3) Expansion has made things a cluster**** for SEC television scheduling - CBS didn't take more SEC games when A&M and Mizzou were added.  Neither did the FOX RSN package nor did Comcast/Charter's CSS, especially now that they know they won't have those games in a couple years once the SEC builds out their 24/7 network.  ESPN is stuck with a glut of SEC games, still has to fit in games from several other conferences on Saturdays, and they didn't increase the number of hours in the day nor find a way to fit games into smaller time slots.  The only thing they did was add the new late evening slots for the Pac-12 and last I checked, there aren't any SEC teams yet residing in the Mountain or Pacific time zones.

There are 99 SEC controlled games this year, up from 85 last year, not counting the conference championship.  CBS is taking the same 14 regular season games.  FOX & CSS took 15 games last year and are taking only 14 this year it appears.  There were nine PPV games last year.  There have been eight so far this year.  Let's say that there will be 12 this year.

Last year, ESPN had to spread 47 games across its cable networks plus the SEC Network syndication package.  This year that number should be 59 games.  That's 12 more games ESPN has to find a place for.  One of which they elected to use on their syndication package as part of a double header on 9/8 (WKU-Alabama).  Assuming that they won't do any split regional games as I've been told that the SEC asked that the package not have split regional games, 11 games will have to fit on the ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU schedule somewhere.  Roughly an extra game per week has to be placed somewhere, and because CBS has exclusivity in its 3:30pm and 8pm time slots, ESPN is limited as to where they can place those games.

I've heard from folks at SEC schools who have said that fitting in these extra games has been a headache for both ESPN and the schools.  Consider these items:

* The SEC minimum for games on ESPN & ESPN2 is 19.  They had 21 games on those two networks in all of 2011.  As of the 10/20 kickoffs, they'll already have 20 games on those networks with five more weeks of SEC games to slot into the schedule.

* Of those 21 last year, only two aired at 12pm (Utah St.-Auburn on 9/1, Texas A&M-Arkansas on 10/1), and A&M-Arkansas was due to the TV schedule shift when CBS does its primetime game.  We're now at three 12pm starts in '12 (Auburn-Mississippi St., Auburn-Arkansas, LSU-A&M) with a fourth likely coming on 11/3.  I suppose it kinda evens out when you add in that ESPNU had a pair of 12pm starts in 2011 and none have aired at that time in '12 yet, but I'd expect 1-2 12pm starts on ESPNU before the season's done.

So I don't think ESPN was out to protect Texas, though I do believe this game should have been a night game.  Feel free to leave a comment and tell me I'm off my rocker.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

10/27 CFB TV Selection Guesses

A few notes

* CBS has already selected the Florida-Georgia game from Jacksonville for its 3:30pm ET game.  A fairly safe bet either way when you look at the rest of the SEC schedule, save for Mississippi St.-Alabama which looks decent right now.
* FOX does not have a primetime game this week due to the World Series.  They'll have a 3:30pm game on FOX and a 3pm game on F/X
* I've moved the Michigan-Nebraska game up one hour to 7pm on ESPN2.  This is to accommodate a Pac-12 window in the evening, allow for Ohio St.-Penn St. to be a doubleheader on ESPN and give Notre Dame-Oklahoma a full national telecast on ABC at 8pm.
* FOX did have Texas-Kansas in its leaked list.  I'm moving away from that and giving Texas Tech-Kansas St. the 3:30pm slot
* Yes, I crammed four games into ABC's 3:30pm slot.  SEC overcrowding from other slots never helps.  I know the Pac-12 games are supposed to be full national, at least that's what they've told us.  Not much I can do.
* Pac-12 Network is expected to do a tripleheader

12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Iowa at Northwestern (time confirmed)
12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Tennessee at South Carolina
12pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Ole Miss at Arkansas
12pm FSN: Baylor at Iowa St.
12pm BTN & BTN2Go: Indiana at Illinois (time confirmed)
12pm SEC Network & ESPN3: Texas A&M at Auburn
12pm Big East Network & ESPN3: Syracuse at USF
12:30pm ACC Network & ESPN3: NC State at North Carolina
3pm F/X: Oregon St. at Washington
3pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Washington St. at Stanford
3pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Maryland at Boston College
3:30pm FOX: Texas Tech at Kansas St.
3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com: Florida vs. Georgia (confirmed)
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 RM & WatchESPN: Michigan St. at Wisconsin (confirmed)
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 RM & ESPN3: Colorado at Oregon
3:30pm ABC & ESPN3: TCU at Oklahoma St.
3:30pm ABC & ESPN3: Duke at Florida St.
3:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: BYU at Georgia Tech
3:30pm FSN: Texas at Kansas
3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go: Purdue at Minnesota
6pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Ohio St. at Penn St.
6:30pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: California at Utah
7pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Michigan at Nebraska
7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Kentucky at Missouri
7pm FSN: Navy at East Carolina (selected, time not confirmed)
7pm SEC/FOX RSNs & ESPN3: Massachusetts at Vanderbilt
8pm ABC: Notre Dame at Oklahoma
9:15pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Mississippi St. at Alabama
10:30pm ESPN & WatchESPN: USC at Arizona
10:30pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: UCLA at Arizona St.

ESPN3 Exclusives
Utah St. at UTSA
Temple at Pittsburgh

Friday, October 12, 2012

Week 8 Late Selection Guesses

So many games were left to six day selections that I guess its worth doing guesses against them.  I'll break it down by conference and, more or less, the order that the dominoes will likely fall.

I'm making some assumptions.  Yell at me later if you think I'm on drugs if I don't pick your team.

SEC
Alabama at Tennessee, ESPN 12pm
LSU at Texas A&M, CBS 3:30pm
South Carolina at Florida, ESPN 7pm
Middle Tennessee at Mississippi St., FOX RSNs 7pm
Georgia at Kentucky, ESPN2 7:45pm

Big Ten
Michigan St. at Michigan, ESPN2 12pm
Purdue at Ohio St., BTN 12pm
Nebraska at Northwestern, ABC w/reverse mirror 3:30pm

Big 12
Texas Tech at TCU, F/X 12pm
Iowa St. at Oklahoma St., ABC w/reverse mirror 3:30pm
Baylor at Texas, ABC 8pm

NOTE: USF-Louisville in this scenario becomes a ABC regional game with ESPN3/Gameplan needed to see it in other areas.

ACC
Virginia Tech at Clemson, ABC 12pm
Duke at North Carolina, ESPNU 7pm

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Postscript on 10/13 CFB TV selections

10/13 TV selections

* I don't know that it is 100% set in stone that Oregon St.-BYU will be reverse mirrored with Illinois-Michigan in Big Ten areas.  I know ESPN PR tweeted it was a split national telecast.  I say proceed with caution.  There may be dependencies on the West Virginia-Texas Tech and Washington St.-Oregon St. games, in addition to Utah St.-BYU.  ESPN's website schedule just lists the games as ABC, though what is known is that Illinois-Michigan will be mirrored on ESPN to those who don't see it on ABC.  The Big 12 contract doesn't require every game be full national, nor does it have a limit on reverse mirror games.  Stay tuned.  Wait for maps.

* I think the lack of flexibility that the Big Ten provides with respect to homecoming games hampers some network selections.  I agree with the need to limit and confirm night games early in the year, but don't understand the need to tie down homecoming kickoff times.

* The addition of the Texas A&M-Louisiana Tech game to the day, and the Bulldogs great play so far, added several twists to the scheduling.  A fourth ESPNU window was shoehorned in to the schedule to play this game at night and all other ESPNU windows were moved up one hour.  ESPNU initially was to replay their Midnight Madness coverage from the night before.

* Regardless of the A&M-LaTech being added to the schedule, one game was going to be put on ESPN3 from either the ACC or the Big East.  Part of the problem ESPN has with the glut of games it is trying to fit on their networks.

* Don't know if there is a limit on the number of 8:15pm local time starts the SEC will allow in a given season.  I know that the Big 12 does limit it.  That could be why the ESPN2 evening windows were pushed up a little with Boston College-Florida St. starting at 5:30pm ET (up from 6pm) and Tennessee-Mississippi St. at 9pm ET (up from 9:15pm).

* ESPN appears to have used both of its SEC priority picks for 2012 as part of allowing CBS to carry LSU-Alabama in primetime in 2011.  On 9/22 LSU-Auburn was the selection per ESPN's Brett McMurphy and the 10/13 selection of South Carolina-LSU was the other pick per Tuscaloosa News' Cecil Hurt.

* The new Big 12 contract rules (or lack of rules) shows up again with concurrent windows for ABC and FOX cable during both the Red River Shootout national window and the ABC 3:30pm window.  FOX did appear to adjust things with their Big 12 windows.  FOX College Sports showed Big 12 games on FSN at 12pm and 3:30pm with a C-USA game at 7pm.  The 12pm and 7pm windows have flip flopped. Maybe the conference wanted to have an evening game or did not want to overload the 12pm window with games on ABC, F/X and FSN at the same time.

* Don't know how close the NHL is to cancelling regular season games, since the regular season does start next Thursday.  But several RSNs are waiting to add college football games like FSN mid-afternoon and evening games, depending on the status of the NHL lockout.

* Administrative note: Due to travel next week, there's a decent chance I won't be blogging about selections, selection predictions or a look back at the selections made.  In the words of Mike Leach, "don't let it hamp your day".

Monday, October 1, 2012

Apology on 10/13 confirmations

I played a little too fast & loose with the last couple, particularly the Oregon St.-BYU game.  Didn't have complete info on Oregon St.-BYU and didn't read the info out there completely on West Virginia-Texas Tech.   Will do better.

10/13 CFB TV Confirmations

Should be able to update this as the announcements come out this week

What I thought should happen
Complete list of games

11am ESPNU & WatchESPN: Louisville at Pittsburgh
12pm ABC: Oklahoma vs. Texas
12pm F/X: Kansas St. at Iowa St.
12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Northwestern at Minnesota
12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Iowa at Michigan St.
12pm FSN: UAB at Houston
12pm BTN & BTN2Go: Wisconsin at Purdue
12pm Big East Net & ESPN3: Syracuse at Rutgers
12pm SEC Net & ESPN3: Auburn at Ole Miss
12:30pm ACC Net & ESPN3: Duke at Virginia Tech
1pm ESPN3: Temple at Connecticut
2pm ESPN3: Akron at Ohio
2:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: North Carolina at Miami (FL)
3pm FOX: Utah at UCLA
3pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Maryland at Virginia
3pm ESPN3: Western Michigan at Ball St.
3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com: Alabama at Missouri
3:30pm ABC & ESPN3: West Virginia at Texas Tech
3:30pm ABC/ESPN & ESPN3: Illinois at Michigan (confirmed)
3:30pm ABC/ESPN: Oregon St. at BYU
3:30pm FSN: Oklahoma St. at Kansas
5:30pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Boston College at Florida St.
6pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Florida at Vanderbilt
7pm FOX: USC at Washington
7pm FSN: TCU at Baylor
7pm SEC/FOX RSNs & ESPN3: Kentucky at Arkansas
8pm ESPN & WatchESPN: South Carolina at LSU
9pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Tennessee at Mississippi St.
9:15pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Texas A&M vs. Louisiana Tech
10:30pm Pac-12 Net & Pac-12.com: California at Washington St.