Monday, April 1, 2013

Week One CFB Guesses

I figure if they can keep scheduling, I can keep writing these articles guessing their TV decisions for the early season.  Revision of week one now that we know the full Big East schedule, a few weeknight schedule adjustments, some MWC games will air on ESPN networks and the creation of a network known as FOX Sports 1.  I'm also assuming that ESPN2 will be unavailable on Thursday & Friday due to US Open tennis commitments, along with Saturday night for NASCAR Nationwide Series racing.

All times Eastern.  If a game isn't listed, assume a regional telecast, web video from the school or ESPN3.

Thursday
North Carolina at South Carolina, 6pm ESPN (confirmed)
Akron at UCF, 7pm ESPNU
UNLV at Minnesota, 8pm BTN
Indiana St. at Indiana, 8pm BTN
Utah St. at Utah, 9pm FOX Sports 1
Ole Miss at Vanderbilt, 9:15pm ESPN (confirmed)
Rutgers at Fresno St., 10:15pm ESPNU
USC at Hawai'i, 11pm CBS Sports Network

Friday
Morgan St. at Army, 7pm CBS Sports Network (confirmed)
Western Michigan at Michigan St., 7:30pm BTN
Texas Tech at SMU, 8pm ESPN (confirmed)
North Dakota St. at Kansas St., 8:30pm FOX Sports 1 (confirmed)
Northern Arizona at Arizona, 10pm Pac-12 Networks

Saturday
Penn St. vs. Syracuse, 12pm ESPN
Purdue at Cincinnati, 12pm ESPN2
Old Dominion at East Carolina, 12pm FOX Sports 1
Ohio at Louisville, 12pm ESPNU
UL-Lafayette at Arkansas, 12pm SEC Network
Massachusetts at Wisconsin, 12pm BTN
Central Michigan at Michigan, 12pm BTN
BYU at Virginia, 12:30pm ACC Network
Louisiana Tech at NC State, 3pm ACC RSNs
Nicholls St. at Oregon, 3pm Pac-12 Network
Buffalo at Ohio St., 3:30pm ABC
Northwestern at California, 3:30pm ESPN2
Temple at Notre Dame, 3:30pm NBC
Washington St. at Auburn, 3:30pm ESPNU
Northern Illinois at Iowa 3:30pm BTN
William & Mary at West Virginia, 4pm ROOT Sports or Moutaineer Sports
Miami (OH) at Marshall, 3:30pm FOX Sports 1
Virginia Tech vs. Alabama, 5:30pm ESPN (confirmed)
Austin Peay at Tennessee, 6pm PPV
Boise St. at Washington, 7pm FOX
UL-Monroe at Oklahoma, 7pm FOX Sports 1
Rice at Texas A&M, 7pm ESPNU
Toledo at Florida, 7pm SEC/FOX RSNs
Wofford at Baylor, 7pm FOX Sports SW
Wyoming at Nebraska, 7pm BTN
Southern Illinois at Illinois, 7pm BTN
McNeese St. at USF, 7pm Bright House Sports
Murray St. at Missouri, 7pm PPV
Georgia at Clemson, 8pm ABC (confirmed)
Colorado vs. Colorado St., 8pm CBS Sports Network
Northern Iowa at Iowa St., 8pm CyclonesTV
New Mexico St. at Texas, 8pm Longhorn Network
LSU vs. TCU, 9pm ESPN (confirmed)
Nevada at UCLA, 10pm Pac-12 Network
Eastern Washington at Oregon St., 10pm Pac-12 Network

Sunday
Mississippi St. vs. Oklahoma St., 3:30pm ESPN - With Reliant Stadium unavailable on Friday due to Southern-Houston, the date for this game may depend on how quickly they need to turn over the stadium and if the Texans are scheduled for a preseason game at home on August 28-29

Monday
Florida St. at Pittsburgh, 8pm ESPN (confirmed)

ESPN3 Exclusives (Saturday unless noted)
Presbyterian at Wake Forest (Thursday)
Towson at Connecticut (Thursday)
FAU at Miami (FL) (Friday)
Southern at Houston (Friday)
FIU at Maryland
Elon at Georgia Tech
NC Central at Duke
Villanova at Boston College
Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky

10 comments:

bigddan11 said...

I know it'll be called a different name, but I fully expect that one of htose two what new name Big East Conference games would be on ESPN+/ what was Big East Network. I think they've said they'll have loca broadcasters do those, and Southern/ Houston would be one Comcast houston would target, depending on the time of day it is at.

bigddan11 said...

After looking at the Week 1 schedule, I see Louisiana- Monroe at Oklahoma being the Sooner Sports Institutional game, which would likely put it on Fox Sports Southwest and Fox College Sports. Any of Baylor's 3 non-conference home games could easily fit their requirement for 1 FSSW/ FCS game, but only this one really fits Oklahoma's.

If I were to guess the Big 12 conference's institutional controlled games, I'd go with this. I'd place the Georgia State/ West Virginia game as the institutional controlled game so you don't get a surplus in Week 1. Likewise I'd put Baylor's institutional controlled game on Sept 28 when you know it won't clash with other FSSW/ FCS broadcasts.

Louisiana- Monroe at Oklahoma for Sooner Sports/ FSSW/ FCS (Aug 31)
New Mexico State at Texas- LHN (Aug 31)
Northern Iowa at Iowa State- Cyclone TV (Aug 31)
South Dakota at Kansas- Jayhawk TV (Sept 7)
Southeastern Louisiana at TCU- FSSW/ FCS (Sept 7)
Stephen F. Austin at Texas Tech- FSSW/ FCS (Sept 7)
UMass at Kansas State- FS Midwest/ FCS (Sept 14)
Lamar at Oklahoma State- Cowboy Sports Properties/ FCS (Sept 14)
William & Mary at West Virginia- Mountaineer Sports/ ROOT Pittsburgh/ ESPN3 (Sept 14)
Louisiana Monroe at Baylor- FSSW/ FCS (Sept 21)

This would mean that Wofford at Baylor would be on FSN, FS1, or possibly even FCS, but with Baylor's crappy non-conference schedule, and with them wanting to place fairly decent games on FS1 & FSN, it seems to me they'd want to keep the Tulsa/ Oklahoma game more than the week 1 game. I don't think they want to do more than 3 institutional controlled games in a single week either with ABC/ ESPN/ ESPN2, FSN, FS 1, and FOX all broadcasting the games.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

The issue w/CSN is that there is an Astros game that evening. Not sure if they would go with an alternate feed or not. Plus the goal of the Big East deal with ESPN is to distribute 90% of the games nationally and that the Big East Network is going away, so I think it becomes ESPN3 exclusive.

Hokie Mark said...

Matt, I don't see Penn St vs. Syracuse... was that an oversight, or do you really think that game will not be televised?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Big oversight. Has been fixed.

Andrew Landry said...

Do you think ESPNU might pick up the FAU-Miami game on Friday night?

Also could you see Syracuse-Penn State in the 3:30 ABC slot?

chrisbuda said...

Matt, i know when they announced the Fox Sports 1 channel they said they would have prelims special on FS1 and the UFC has a ppv that saturday night and that mostly would air 2 hours before the ppv most likely arould 8pm eastern saturday night so for the Louisiana- Monroe at Oklahoma may not air on FS1 but also nascar will have a saturday night camping world truck series race at the end of september, so please keep that in mind when coming up with prediction for FS1.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Thanks Chris. I'm curious to see how they fit in the NASCAR commitments in. I do wonder if they'll use FX or what will become FXX for a handful of overflow events until they can whittle things down.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Hi Andrew. I think it is possible, but it depends on if ESPN is targeting other events. At times they've targeted high school games on Friday nights on ESPNU.

chrisbuda said...

Matt, a few months ago i was reading this article about Fox scheldue for MLB Baseball scheldue and they didn't list any baseball games for that weekend and i think Fox might be thinking about showing more than 1 game that saturday but i will post a link for that article http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/2013-saturday-mlb-on-fox-schedule-new-york-yankees-boston-red-sox-record-number-of-times-primetime-games-for-8-weeks-021213 but i do think they may show a few games 2 or even 3 for that saturday to start the season off