Friday, January 30, 2015

Quick notes on the 2015 ACC football schedule

A few notes related to the weeknight schedule for the ACC, specifically the games under its control.

* Just three Thursday night games seems a tad low for the conference while the five Friday games are abnormally high, but when you put them together, it is right around where the ACC has been in previous seasons.  Curious to know if the regular season being one week shorter is part of the issue.

* As noted on the schedule, the Miami (FL) at Cincinnati game could move to Thursday, October 1st.  ESPN does not have a Thursday night game currently scheduled on that day, nor are there any unclaimed Thursday night games scheduled for that day yet from the Big 12 or Pac-12.

* The odd start time of 11:30am ET for the USF at Florida St. game may be due to the US Open women's singles championship match on 9/12.  ESPN may be working with the USTA to finalize the schedule, but if CBS televises a SEC game on 9/12, mid-afternoon might be a good time to show something else & pick back up with SEC games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU in the evening.  SEC Network is still an option in mid-afternoon too.

* Two of the midseason weeknight games have some possibilities when it comes to either doubleheaders or indications on the network for another game airing that evening.
  • Friday 9/25 - Boise St. at Virginia & Stanford at Oregon St.
  • Thursday 10/29 - North Carolina at Pittsburgh, West Virginia at TCU and Oregon at Arizona St.
For both of the ACC games, it depends on when they kickoff because it can allow ESPN to do a doubleheader with the Pac-12 game.  If the start time is after 7pm, I would say that it is less likely for ESPN to do a doubleheader, though they they could show each game on a different network (ie. one on ESPN, one on ESPN2 or ESPNU).

For the three games on 10/29, I believe it is more likely that FOX Sports 1 is taking West Virginia at TCU.

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