Thursday, April 17, 2014

More items related to the Mountain West national TV schedule

ESPN and CBS Sports Network picked their remaining Mountain West television selections for 2014.  Each entity has selected 22 games.

* One Boise St. home game was traded to CBS Sports Network in exchange for one Boise St. road game.  One of ESPN's platforms will televise the Boise St. road game at Wyoming.  In exchange, the home game vs. UL-Lafayette will be televised by CBSSN.

* Does not appear that either network will be trading a selection like last year, when ESPN carried a 23rd Mountain West game (Rutgers at Fresno St.) in exchange for CBSSN carrying an American conference game (Norfolk St. at Rutgers).

* Nearly all (13 of 14) of the kickoff times for the Saturday ESPN games will be set 12 days in advance, in conjunction with other conferences.  The kickoff time for Air Force at Wyoming on 9/6 should be set within the next 6-8 weeks as the networks set their early season telecasts.  In 2013, 14 games had their network and kickoff times set during the season.  Of those games, half (seven) aired on ESPNU, four on ESPN2, two on ESPN3 and one on ESPNEWS.  Nine of the fourteen games kicked off after 10pm ET.

* The choice of the 9/6 Boise St. home game vs. Colorado St. on ESPN2 helps immediately fill a minimum requirement for ESPN to carry at least three Boise St. games on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.  If so desired, ESPN could show the remaining BSU games that they have rights to on ESPN3, ESPNU or ESPNEWS.

* For the eighteen Saturday games that CBS Sports Network is carrying, half (nine) of them are in the 10:30pm ET slot.  This is up from four in that slot on CBSSN in 2013.  CBSSN has to accommodate a package of American conference games, in addition to their package of C-USA games and home games from Army and Navy.  For the Saturday "primetime" slot, there are seven games on CBSSN, up from five in '13.  The decrease is in the Saturday mid-afternoon slot where there are two MW games in 2014, compared to seven games in 2013.  Some of those mid-afternoon games could be considered moving to the Friday night slots that the conference is picking up on CBSSN.

* Of the remaining games not yet set for TV, Hawai'i has a statewide PPV package that needs to be carved out of their remaining games.  That should include the following games:
  • 9/13 vs. Northern Iowa 
  • 10/11 vs. Wyoming
  • 10/25 vs. Nevada
  • 11/1 vs. Utah St.
  • 11/15 at San Jose St.
  • 11/22 vs. UNLV
  • 11/29 at Fresno St.
Hawai'i is allowed to maintain its own regional television deal for football games because they receive no money from the Mountain West's TV deals.  They keep the PPV revenue instead, which is fairly lucrative to the school as long as there are seven games available to show.

The road game at Colorado should not be part of the package as it could air on an ESPN network, FOX or FOX Sports 1 or the Pac-12 Networks.  There is an outside chance the game at Rice could be on PPV if it is on a TV platform that is not readily available on the islands. Based off of last year, I don't think any of these would be part of the ROOT Sports regional package, especially the two road games.  The conference controlled PPV games should be available again via the conference's Campus Insiders' portal.

* The ROOT Sports regional TV package last year seemed to involve schools who were located in the ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain footprint.  If last year is a gauge for that, the package could involve these games:
  • 8/30: UTEP at New Mexico, Nicholls St. at Air Force and/or Montana at Wyoming (Colorado Rockies conflict at 8pm ET)
  • 9/6: Idaho St. at Utah St. (Colorado Rockies conflict at 8pm ET)
  • 9/13: UC Davis at Colorado St. (Colorado Rockies conflict at 7pm ET)
  • 9/20: FAU at Wyoming (Colorado Rockies conflict at 4pm ET)
  • 10/4: Tulsa at Colorado St. 
  • 10/18: New Mexico at Air Force
  • 10/25: Wyoming at Colorado St.
  • 11/1: New Mexico at UNLV
  • 11/8: Air Force at UNLV & Idaho at San Diego St.
  • 11/15: Nevada at Air Force
  • 11/22: New Mexico at Colorado St.
  • 11/29: Wyoming at New Mexico
ROOT also carries Big Sky football and started a relationship with New Mexico St. late in 2013.  I did not list the Fresno St. at UNLV game on 10/11.  I think that game could end up being part of the Campus Insiders exclusive package along with a few of the games vs. non-conference opponents.

4 comments:

Hagen Bentley said...

Can Hawaii air on ROOT Sports against like Wyoming or Utah St. like they did last year with Colorado St. at Hawaii?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I don't think the Colorado St. game at Hawai'i aired on ROOT last year. I don't have it listed as such, but I certainly could have missed it. The game in 2012 aired as a simulcast on ROOT when the conference was under different TV guidelines due to the collapse of the mtn.

I believe local stations could end up picking up the game, but I don't think they want the game on regional sports networks that you could pay extra for on DirecTV, Dish, AT&T, etc. because fans in Hawai'i could end up seeing the game without paying for the PPV package. A blackout of the channel could always be enforced but sometimes they aren't applied correctly.

Hagen Bentley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Sarzyniak said...

Hawai'i PPV are shown for free off the islands via the Campus Insiders site, along with all of the ROOT Sports games outside of the Mountain West area.