Sunday, September 30, 2018

CFB TV Guesses for 2018 Week Seven (10/13/18)

Here are the games already set for television and/or webcast.  Here are the known available telecast windows.

* FOX Sports' only windows are scheduled for FS1.  The broadcast network is scheduled to carry NASCAR, NLCS Game 2 and non-sports programming in the evening.
* Five of the seven Big Ten games are homecoming games and set for specific parts of the day.  Nebraska at Northwestern, Rutgers at Maryland at Iowa at Indiana are set for 12pm, with Iowa at Indiana selected to air on either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.  Michigan St. at Penn St. & Purdue at Illinois will start in mid-afternoon.
* ABC also has a 7:30pm ET start time for their primetime game, so look for a Big Ten game at that time.  Wisconsin at Michigan and Minnesota at Ohio St. are the options, in my opinion.  You could easily swap the two places where I have them.  I went with Ohio St. by looking ahead at the possibility that Michigan's home game vs. Penn St. could be at night on 11/3, even if that competes with Notre Dame at Northwestern for a primetime slot within the conference and Alabama at LSU on CBS.  That also should speak to why looking ahead that far can make your head spin because there's still plenty of games to be played.
* BTN only has 12pm & 3:30pm windows.  Their fall schedule has a volleyball match scheduled for 8pm.
* ESPN does not have a late evening telecast window.  They have a Top Rank boxing card scheduled.
* I gave ESPN the top Big Ten and Big 12 choices.  Top Saturday choice in the case of the Big 12 since TCU at Texas Tech is already on ESPN on Thursday night. 
* I tossed the top Saturday Pac-12 choice to FOX, but I have Pac-12 Networks choosing before ESPN2 as they can do periodically during the year.  It would not surprise me if Pac-12 Networks has the top choice as they have the option at least once a season.
* I didn't have a use for the two ESPNEWS windows listed at 12pm & 4pm ET.  When I looked at ESPN MediaZone this morning, only the 12pm window remained.

12pm ABC: Wisconsin at Michigan
12pm ESPN: Tennessee at Auburn
12pm ESPN2: Iowa at Indiana
12pm FS1: Rutgers at Maryland
12pm ESPNU: Louisville at Boston College
12pm SEC: Florida at Vanderbilt
12pm BTN: Nebraska at Northwestern
12pm CBSSN: Houston at East Carolina
12:20pm ACC Network: Virginia Tech at North Carolina
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Duke at Georgia Tech
3:30pm ABC: Baylor at Texas
3:30pm CBS: Georgia at LSU
3:30pm ESPN: Michigan St. at Penn St.
3:30pm ESPN2: UCF at Memphis
3:30pm FS1: Oklahoma St. at Kansas St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Hawai'i at BYU
3:30pm BTN: Purdue at Illinois
4pm SEC: Ole Miss at Arkansas
4pm Pac-12: Colorado at USC
7pm ESPN: Missouri at Alabama
7pm ESPN2: Miami (FL) at Virginia
7pm FS1: West Virginia at Iowa St.
7pm ESPNU: Wyoming at Fresno St.
7pm CBSSN: Ohio at Northern Illinois
7:30pm ABC: Minnesota at Ohio St.
7:30pm SEC: Texas A&M at South Carolina
10:30pm ESPN2: UCLA at California
10:30pm FS1: Washington at Oregon
10:30pm ESPNU: Army vs. San Jose St.

Streaming
Akron at Buffalo
Ball St. at Central Michigan
Toledo at Eastern Michigan
Kent St. at Miami (OH)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you gave ABC/ESPN the Big Ten's top pick, wouldn't FS1 pick 2nd? I can't see them not taking Wis/Mich, Minn/OSU or MSU/PSU. Also, I heard 2nd hand that FOX's Joel Klatt saying he might be working MSU/Michigan which is confirmed as a FOX/FS1 Game and Michigan's game versus Wisconsin.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Not necessarily. I've heard Joel's comment as well. ESPN could have top two choices. I don't know where Iowa-Indiana was in the order either, but there have been weeks where ESPN or FOX takes more than one game ahead of the other network.

William said...

Four games should be changed on your projected lineup:

Minnesota vs. Ohio State should be moved to 3:30 PM EST on ESPN. Michigan State vs. Penn State should be ABC's prime time game. Washington vs. Oregon should be ABC's 3:30 PM EST game as it should be a much more competitive game compared to Baylor vs. Texas. Both Washington and Oregon should be in the Top 20, if not Top 15 by next week, so it would make sense for ABC to do this game. Another possibility would be to have a split national at 7:30 PM on ABC between Washington-Oregon and Michigan State-Penn State.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

You went right past MSU-PSU being PSU's homecoming game & is an afternoon game, so it won't be a night game.

Also, while they have scrubbed a planned ABC 7:30pm window before, those are scheduled specifically for the Big Ten & not other conferences.

Anonymous said...

Well, it should be fun to see tomorrow morning. I still can't see one of Wis/Mich, Minn/OSU or MSU/PSU being on FS1.

AVNevis said...

UCLA vs Cal is a homecoming game. That’s the one situation where schools have some say. Unlikely it is at 7:30.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I actually attended that matchup as Cal's homecoming in 2012 with a 7pm local start, so it has happened.

Darrell McKown said...

How loud will the complaining be from the west coast if Washington-Oregon is a late game on FS1?

I hadn't heard the Joel Klatt comments, but I'm guessing that either OSU-Minnesota or Michigan-Wisconsin is in prime time on FS1 (running against the Big Ten game ESPN doesn't take for ABC). That would give FS1 something like Michigan-Wisconsin & Washington-Oregon in the late time slots, which is pretty good.

I also wonder if FOX might leave the network open for the prime time game, so in the event the NLCS Game 2 is an afternoon game, they could move the game over to the broadcast network. If Boston wins their ALDS series, you to believe the NLCS game will be in the afternoon. Seems like they did something like that before, I can't recall for certain.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

The NLCS game is in the afternoon because it's Game 2 where the ALCS is starting that night. FOX affiliates were supposedly told no CFB at all that day, with scripted programming that night (reruns of new series 9-1-1 are listed on my affiliate from 8-10pm ET)

Darrell McKown said...

Interesting, I assumed they were locked out for the day due to their baseball commitments. Seems strange that they would air reruns over using the NLCS game to lead into a good CFB game, assuming they have one or both of the first Pac-12 choice (Oregon-Washington) or second Big Ten choice.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Can't run the risk of extra innings or a long running game

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Last year they had a Premier Boxing Champions card after the ALCS game in afternoon, but I think they had ability to hold the main card to a certain time.

Anonymous said...

not just your affiliate all fox stations are scheduled to air re runs of 911 that night but always enjoy doing these to see what you get right

Anonymous said...

Any news on game time for Washington at Cal? Usually by now pac 12 times are set