Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Notes on 10/8 Six Day & 10/15 CFB TV Selections

Full schedule for Week Six
Full schedule for Week Seven

* Looking at the reasoning for placing BYU at Michigan St. instead of Indiana at Ohio St. on ABC on 10/8, and the reasons I can see for the assignments are:

  1. BYU at Michigan St. could remain close and draw on a lot of fans external to the Midwest
  2. Desire to deliver Indiana at Ohio St. on a single platform
    1. Indiana at Ohio St. *could* get out of hand and switching for reverse mirror games isn't easy or ideal since you're also dealing with multiple ESPN2 feeds.
* My gut feeling is if NC State beats Notre Dame, the game vs. Clemson could be full national on ABC.  Otherwise it could get reverse mirror treatment with either Kansas St. at Oklahoma or Minnesota at Maryland.  I have Iowa at Purdue down the list.

* At 3:30pm, I think we'll see another reverse mirror scenario depending on results of 10/8.  I think one of the ACC games will get full national treatment on ESPN or ESPN2, with the other on ABC with Nebraska at Indiana.

* As mentioned in the guesses for 10/15, there was flexibility to move the Pac-12 Networks windows since no Pac-12 game is being shown in a exclusive network window.  The early afternoon Pacific Time / mid-afternoon Eastern Time window is not an exclusive broadcast network window.


* No, as far as I know, there is no rule regarding consecutive appearances by a team on CBS.  Tennessee will appear four straight times after being selected by CBS for the Alabama game.  What does matter is the maximum number of appearances, which is five (conference championship game excluded).  Six appearances is allowed under certain exceptions.  Tennessee is the only school close to the max at this time.

* Stanford has yet to appear on Pac-12 Networks with their first five Pac-12 controlled games airing on ESPN or FOX platforms.  With eleven of their twelve games belonging to the Pac-12's television contract (all except road game at Notre Dame), two of their final six games games must air on Pac-12 Networks since the Pac-12 allows for a total of nine conference controlled games to air on the two primary partners' TV packages.  The season finale vs. Rice seems like safe bet to be one of those games.

* Michigan has not yet been scheduled for a intraconference game on BTN and is the only Big Ten school that has yet to have one air on the network.  One of their remaining games needs to air there.  Illinois or Indiana may be the opponent for a BTN game as the Iowa game will air on ABC or ESPN, Ohio St. looks like a safe bet for ABC and the Michigan St. game should be in demand for ESPN too.

* Counting the conference championship game, which is scheduled to air on ABC or ESPN, twenty American controlled games have been scheduled to air on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.  It is my understanding that 28 games must air on those four networks over the course of the season.  One more American Athletic Conference game must appear on ABC at some point this season. 

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