Sunday, October 19, 2014

CFB TV Guesses for 11/1 (Week Ten)

EDITED as of 1:35pm ET on 10/19.  See changes in italicized bold.

Schedule for Week Ten
Available TV Windows

* Arguments could be made for six day holds with a lot of conferences, especially with Pac-12 & Big 12.  Pac-12 because Stanford-Oregon doesn't look nearly as good as it did in the preseason & Utah-Arizona St. & Arizona-UCLA are comparable games.  Big 12 because you have two comparable games (TCU-WVU & OKSt-Kansas St.) plus ranked Oklahoma (they'll be in the 20s I assume) and Baylor.
* ABC has a tripleheader.  EDIT: Not anymore.  Just a doubleheader
* CBS does not have a SEC selection as they selected Georgia vs. Florida before the season started. In some ways, it acts as a way for ESPN to get the better selection for the week.  I would think that if CBS had the ability to choose a game here, they'd probably take Auburn-Ole Miss, a game between two top five schools.
* FOX's game returns to a primetime slot.
* FOX Sports 1 has changed their schedule slightly if their website is to be believed (FOX still has the FAU-Marshall game next week at 7pm while its been at 3:30pm for several weeks).  Listings currently have 3pm & 7pm for the first two windows, but FOXSports.com now lists those games at 4pm & 7:30pm with a 3:30pm pregame show.  EDIT: The reason FS1 does not have an earlier game than 3pm or 4pm is due to NASCAR coverage from Texas.
* ESPN again has its dopey three hour window at 6pm, presumably to air a SEC game, following by a 9pm game, which doesn't necessarily have to be another SEC game.  Again.  Dopey.
* Pac-12 currently has listed windows at 1pm (10am PT / 11am MT) and 4:30pm, which could be due to ESPN wanting to fulfill their requirement to air one Pac-12 game in primetime on ABC, but the current setup doesn't seem to allow for that with Illinois at Ohio St. at 8pm ET.  FOX could select a Pac-12 game though.
* USC has only been on the Pac-12 Networks once, 10/18 vs. Colorado.  With eleven of their twelve games part of the Pac-12's TV deal, I think this is the other week that both ESPN & FOX pass on them so they can have access to any game the rest of the way from the Trojans, especially since the Utah game could have an impact on the Pac-12 South.
* Wisconsin at Rutgers (12pm), Indiana at Michigan (3:30pm) and Illinois at Ohio St. (8pm) are locked into their start times.  The first two as homecoming games, the last one because it was set for primetime.
* Old Dominion let it slip a few weeks back that their road game vs. Vanderbilt would be at 7:30pm on FSN, but when looking at advance listings for several SEC-based FOX RSNs, they do not list a 7:30pm game.
* With ECU ranked, one way to get that game off of ESPNEWS would be to place it on ABC at 12pm with TCU-WVU.  Big 12 games do not require a reverse mirror.

EDIT: So I looked after I made these picks and noticed that ESPN's MediaZone no longer lists a 12pm window for 11/1.  They've added one for 11/15 as of last week.  So I decided to take a mulligan.  I moved Maryland at Penn St. to BTN from ESPN2 and TCU at West Virginia to ESPN2 from the vacated ABC 12pm slot.

Friday
8pm ESPN2: Cincinnati at Tulane
8pm ESPNU: Tulsa at Memphis

Saturday
12pm ESPN: Arkansas at Mississippi St.
12pm ESPN2: TCU at West Virginia
12pm ESPNU: Duke at Pittsburgh
12pm ESPNEWS: East Carolina at Temple
12pm FSN: Texas at Texas Tech
12pm SEC: Old Dominion at Vanderbilt
12pm BTN: Maryland at Penn St.
12pm BTN: Wisconsin at Rutgers
12pm CBSSN: UCF at Connecticut
12:30pm ACC Net: North Carolina at Miami (FL)
1pm Pac-12: Washington at Colorado
3pm ACC RSNs: NC State at Syracuse
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Purdue at Nebraska
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Utah at Arizona St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Boston College at Virginia Tech
3:30pm FSN: Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech
3:30pm BTN: Indiana at Michigan
3:30pm BTN: Northwestern at Iowa
4pm FS1: Kansas at Baylor
4pm SEC: UL-Monroe at Texas A&M
4pm ESPNEWS: Houston at USF
4:30pm Pac-12: USC at Washington St.
6pm ESPN: Auburn at Ole Miss
7pm ESPN2: Kentucky at Missouri
7pm ESPNU: Virginia at Georgia Tech
7:30pm FOX: Stanford at Oregon
7:30pm FS1: Oklahoma St. at Kansas St.
7:30pm SEC: Tennessee at South Carolina
8pm ABC: Illinois at Ohio St.
9pm ESPN: Oklahoma at Iowa St.
10:30pm ESPN2: Arizona at UCLA
10:30pm ESPNU: Wyoming at Fresno St.
11pm FS1: California at Oregon St.

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