Sunday, October 26, 2014

Week Eleven CFB TV Guesses (11/4 - 11/8)

Games currently set for kickoff
Available TV Windows

* I believe that ESPN has to honor CBS exclusivity for both 3:30pm & 8pm for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, but not SEC Network.  ESPN has been regularly sticking in conference games during CBS's 3:30pm window, so the "least desirable" game opposite CBS's SEC game isn't happening and probably isn't going to happen here.  Florida at Vanderbilt will likely be competing with one of CBS's games.

* Two flex windows for the MAC.  Weeknight #MACtion is back.

* Almost felt like doing two or three versions of this schedule.  One where ESPN has the top Big 12 choice & FOX has top for the Pac-12, and vice versa.  Right now I'm assuming FOX preselected the Notre Dame at Arizona St. game before the season started.  My logic behind this is that ESPN and FOX would split the two available games in the Pac-12 with Notre Dame as the road team.  The other game, at USC on 11/29, is typically at 8pm ET.  FOX doesn't have a broadcast window on 11/29 in the evening, just a FS1 window.

  • If the Pac-12 Networks window at 8pm could be moved to 10pm or 10:30pm ET and Pac-12's top choice went to FOX, I think you would see Notre Dame at Arizona St. on FOX at 7:30pm and Baylor at Oklahoma on FS1 at 3:30pm.
  • If ESPN has the top Pac-12 choice, I think the game remains at 3:30pm ET and airs nationally on ABC.  I believe ESPN will only have one Pac-12 Saturday game this week, so I believe they would lose out on Oregon at Utah to do so and that game moves over to FOX to air.  Virginia at Florida St. could move to 7pm on ESPN and Iowa at Minnesota at 3:30pm on ESPN2.  If ESPN carries two Pac-12 games and keeps Oregon at Utah, Kansas St. at TCU could slide over to FOX with Virginia at FSU at 12pm on ESPN & Iowa at Minnesota on ESPN2 at 3:30pm.
The massive roadblock is that when the Pac-12 Networks airs a game in east coast primetime, a broadcast network cannot.  A cable net can, however, air a concurrent game.


* I believe that Ohio St. at Michigan St. will be full national on ABC.  Could consider a reverse mirror at 8pm, if they were to move the 7pm ESPN window back one hour.  If they could air the Oregon at Utah on ABC as a reverse mirror, it might count for their required Pac-12 primetime game, though I think you'll see one in a couple weeks, plus the possibility of Notre Dame at USC in primetime too.  I'm also unsure if that Pac-12 primetime game has to air exclusively on a broadcast network or can be split between broadcast and cable outlets depending on where you live.  Might have to be 100% on a broadcast network.

* The Big Ten Network only listed one window at 12pm so I think the Big Ten is going to have a 3:30pm game on ESPNU.

* There are a couple Sun Belt games that could have teams with winning records matched against each other, but I believe they'll be ESPN3 exclusives and not on ESPNEWS.  Because I have Hawai'i at Colorado St. at 7pm on ESPNU, I removed both the 4pm ESPNEWS & 10:30pm ESPNU telecast windows.

Tuesday 11/4 at 8pm ET
Bowling Green at Akron, ESPN2
Toledo at Kent St., ESPNU

Wednesday 11/5 at 8pm ET
Northern Illinois at Ball St., ESPN2
Buffalo at Ohio, ESPNU

Saturday
12pm ESPN: Kansas St. at TCU
12pm ESPN2: Georgia at Kentucky
12pm FS1: West Virginia at Texas
12pm ESPNU: Wisconsin at Purdue
12pm ESPNEWS: Tulane at Houston
12pm FSN: Iowa St. at Kansas
12pm CBSSN: SMU at Tulsa
12pm BTN: Penn St. at Indiana
12pm SEC: Presbyterian at Ole Miss
12:30pm ACC Network: Duke at Syracuse
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Georgia Tech at NC State
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Iowa at Minnesota
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Virginia at Florida St.
3:30pm CBS: Texas A&M at Auburn
3:30pm FS1: Notre Dame at Arizona St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Michigan at Northwestern
3:30pm FSN: UTSA at Rice
4pm SEC: UT Martin at Mississippi St.
4pm Pac-12: Colorado at Arizona
7pm ESPN: Oregon at Utah
7pm ESPN2: Louisville at Boston College
7pm FS1: UCLA at Washington
7pm ESPNU: Hawai'i at Colorado St.
7:30pm FOX: Baylor at Oklahoma
7:30pm SEC: Florida at Vanderbilt
8pm CBS: Alabama at LSU
8pm Pac-12: Washington St. at Oregon St.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

What does the big 12/Pac 12 sched look like if nd-asu goes to abc/espn2 @330

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Did you read the 2nd bulletpoint? I think its pretty clear there.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Sorry, the rest of the games would not necessarily change except for what I mentioned in the one scenario re: Kansas St.-TCU moving to FOX. Wouldn't really change much else. Wasn't going to go through things game by game at that point.