Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Way Too Early CFB TV Guesses for Week Three For 2017

Same as the posts for weeks zero & one and week two.  If a game isn't listed, assume its on a streaming service.

Thursday
My inclination is this is one week where an American Athletic Conference game could be moved the Thursday night game.  If I had a choice, it would be Virginia Tech at East Carolina.  The Hokies host Delaware the previous Saturday while ECU visits West Virginia.  Georgia Tech at UCF would be my backup, though I don't know if UCF would be willing to face an option team on a short week after conference opponent Memphis.  UCLA also travels to Memphis this week, but I don't believe UCLA would agree to a cross country road trip on a short week.

Dark horses: Kentucky at South Carolina & Purdue at Missouri.  Both South Carolina & Missouri have hosted Thursday night SEC games before.  Purdue is playing the Friday before, so while it is a short week, it's only one day short on preparation.

7:30pm ESPN: Virginia Tech at East Carolina

Friday
Four Mountain West schools are currently not scheduled for this Saturday with the following potential matchups based on scheduled opponents:

New Mexico at Boise St.
Hawai'i at UNLV
UNLV at New Mexico

I could see the New Mexico at Boise St. game being selected as a doubleheader with Illinois at USF with Illinois at USF starting at 7pm, but without the Mountain West schedule, I can't guarantee any of these potential matchups would be played this week.  Choosing a Boise St. game here also knocks out one of their three required ESPN or ESPN2 appearances as part of the Mountain West TV contract.

7pm ESPN: Illinois at USF
10:15pm ESPN: New Mexico at Boise St.

Saturday
For this week, I'm assuming FOX has top Big Ten and Pac-12 choices & ESPN has best Big 12 game. FOX has committed to a MLB window at 1pm ET and I'm assuming a game at 4pm ET as well followed by a UFC Fight Night card on FS1, which would lead to only one game on FS1 that day.

Your eyes are not deceiving you.  All three ABC slots are occupied by ACC games.

For the two Mountain West home games vs. Pac-12 schools, CBS Sports Network does get to cherry pick a handful of games each season over ESPN.  My suspicion is that they'll look to take both Oregon at Wyoming & Stanford at San Diego St.

12pm ABC: Notre Dame at Boston College
12pm ESPN: Army at Ohio St.
12pm ESPN2: Georgia St. at Penn St.
12pm FS1: Tulane at Oklahoma
12pm ESPNU: UCLA at Memphis
12pm ESPNEWS: Iowa St. at Akron
12pm FSN: SMU at TCU
12pm SEC: Purdue at Missouri
12pm SEC: Samford at Georgia
12pm CBSSN: Kansas at Ohio
12pm BTN: FIU at Indiana
12pm BTN: Morgan St. at Rutgers
12:30pm ACC Network: Connecticut at Virginia
2pm Pac-12: San Jose St. at Utah
2pm ROOT Sports Pittsburgh: Delaware St. at West Virginia
3pm ACC RSNs: Central Michigan at Syracuse
3:30pm ABC: Miami (FL) at Florida St.
3:30pm CBS: Tennessee at Florida
3:30pm ESPN:  Oklahoma St. at Pittsburgh
3:30pm ESPN2: Arizona St. at Texas Tech
3:30pm ESPNU: Baylor at Duke
3:30pm CBSSN: Oregon at Wyoming
3:30pm BTN: Bowling Green at Northwestern
3:30pm BTN: Northern Illinois at Nebraska
3:30pm ASN: Cincinnati at Miami (OH)
4pm ESPNEWS: Rice at Houston
4pm SEC: Mercer at Auburn
4pm SEC: UL-Lafayette at Texas A&M
4:30pm FOX: Air Force at Michigan
5pm Pac-12: Oregon St. at Washington St.
7pm ESPN: LSU at Mississippi St.
7pm ESPN2: Colorado St. at Alabama
7pm ESPNU: Kansas St. at Vanderbilt
7pm CBSSN: Georgia Tech at UCF
7pm ASN: North Carolina at Old Dominion
7:30pm SEC: Kentucky at South Carolina
7:30pm BTN: North Texas at Iowa
7:30pm BTN: Middle Tennessee at Minnesota
8pm ABC: Clemson at Louisville
8pm FOX: Texas at USC
8pm Pac-12: Northern Colorado at Colorado
8pm beIN Sports: Arizona at UTEP
10:15pm ESPN2: Wisconsin at BYU
10:30pm ESPN: Ole Miss at California
10:30pm CBSSN: Stanford at San Diego St.
11pm Pac-12: Fresno St. at Washington

5 comments:

  1. The Pittsburgh Pirates have a game at 4:10 pm that day that hasn't been picked up yet for a national network so it could well air via Root Sports Pittsburgh. I'm not sure where the Delaware State/West Virginia game would go in the event of a conflict.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The WVU game would probably be at 12pm or 7:30pm to work around the Pirates game.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No national TV for LA Tech @ WKU?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just realized my opening line was missing "if it isn't listed, assume a streaming service". LaTech-WKU could end up with a streaming service. I used three of ESPN's expected five C-USA selections in week one (Stanford-Rice, Kentucky-Southern Miss, Vandy-MT). CBSSN is a possibility if there's a date change to Thursday or Friday or a MAC game on Thursday or Friday instead.

    ReplyDelete