Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Last month of 12 day picks for CFB

One month left. Keep an eye on the following.

ACC

  • No real appearance or guaranteed game guidelines
  • Goal is to get every team on Raycom. Only Miami (FL) has yet to appear on Raycom this year.
  • One six day option left

Big Ten

  • Penn St., Iowa and Michigan have not yet appeared in a conference game on Big Ten Network
  • Conference should have 16 ABC appearances, assuming a doubleheader on 11/27.
  • 15 gamess so far on ESPN/ESPN2. To my knowledge ESPNU games not part of count. Maximum of 25 games. Expect conference to have several ESPN/ESPN2 slots at 12pm at end of season.
  • Appears all three six day options are available for conference

Big East

  • 16 games so far on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2. One more appearance to be scheduled (11/20 ??) to hit minimum
  • ABC minimum appears to have been met at three games.
  • Four ESPNU games so far, one more to hit minimum. Should exceed this number.
  • Appearances sole six day option was exhausted

Big 12

  • May fall short of 19 games on ABC. Five time slots to go. Expect ABC doubleheaders two of three weeks (11/6, 11/13, 11/20)
  • Texas has appeared five times as part of the ABC portion of the contract. This includes the A&M game, which for some reason is considered part of the ABC deal and not a sublicensed window from FSN. Oklahoma & Nebraska also have four appearances based on past and future telecast windows. A Big 12 team can appear no more than six times in the ABC schedule.
  • FSN slots assured at 24. Other special presentations put number closer to 28 games
  • Unclear as to number of six day options left. 9/25 (UCLA-Tex) and 10/23 ABC games were chosen for the network, but times were not decided until six days in advance. Could be as little as one, as many as three.

C-USA

  • One flex slot available on 11/20. Houston at Southern Miss seems likely if USM near top of C-USA East and Houston close to C-USA West

Pac-10

  • ABC slots will be no greater than nine games
  • FSN will show at least one more game than originally sloted by adding 10/23 ASU-Cal game. Could add others if that work w/ESPN.
  • Slots by network: FSN 12, ESPN/ESPN2 12 (including TCU/Oregon St. in Dallas), ABC 9, Versus 7
  • ESPN's count could increase at the expense of ABC's.
  • Pac-10, I believe, does have an appearance limit for teams on ABC. Not sure if it trickles to ESPN, my guess is that it does. I believe limit is five or six (could be six, see next list)
  • Top appearances, past and future, per team on ABC/ESPN: USC (5 ABC/1 ESPN), Arizona (1 ABC/4 ESPN), Washington (1 ABC/4 ESPN), Oregon (2 ABC/2 ESPN), Stanford (2 ABC/2 ESPN)
  • If six is magic number, USC-UCLA will be a Versus/FSN game. Only three flexible ABC/ESPN windows remain (11/6 ABC 3:30pm & ESPN 10:15pm, 12/4 ABC 3:30pm).
  • All six-day options remain available. Unsure as to the number.

SEC

  • Rumor that SEC games could air in 12pm slots on ESPN/ESPN2, though it doesn't seem likely when trying to reach Big Ten appearance goal
  • FSN regional slate done as of 10/30
  • CSS with two more slots on 11/20 and 11/27
  • 11/13 seems likely for a split SEC Network window at 12pm
  • CBS has five windows remaining
  • No more than five appearances per team, with the exception of six for a team (plus one if they make SEC title game) for life of SEC-CBS contract. Florida's exception was used in 2009.
  • Top appearances: Alabama & Florida with 4 scheduled, Auburn 3.
  • Two six day options have been used. Does not appear any more can be used by CBS.

WAC

  • 11/6 and 11/27 are likely for remaining ESPNU WAC slots at 10:30pm

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I enjoy watching Pac-10 football on ABC. I noticed that you mentioned that the number of ABC slots will be no greater than nine games. Do the nine games refer to the entire season or do they refer to the football season from here on out? If 9 is the quota for the entire season, does this mean no more or very little Pac-10 football will be shown on ABC the remainder of the season? That would be a bummer, since there are still many competitive games in the Pac-10 to be played this season, such as Arizona-Stanford, and I, nor other Pac-10 fans, would be able to watch games like this on ABC, as in years past.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Hi William. Before the season started, the Pac-10 and ABC agreed to televise less games on ABC and more games on ESPN. The idea was that they could get games on a national platform and use the lead-in of SEC games. The announcement came out with six guaranteed ABC window, four ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 swing windows, and ten ESPN/ESPN2 windows.

So far, one ABC window at 3:30pm was traded for a 10:15pm ESPN window (this week's in fact, Washington-Arizona was ESPN's choice). By doing that, it allowed FSN to pick up an extra game. So we are down to, at most, nine ABC windows, with three of those windows as ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 swing windows.

I wouldn't worry about games going dark though. Have a feeling that a game like Arizona-Stanford will end up on ABC or ESPN on 11/6.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Here's the existing Pac-10 contracted TV appearances.

http://www.mattsarzsports.com/2010/Pac-10.aspx

Unknown said...

Matt,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and concerns. Having read through previous blogs and the aforementioned website, especially the website with Pac-10 contracted TV appearances, helped me understand the new TV issues affecting the Pac-10 football scheduling this year.

With that said, I am glad I'll be able to see more Pac-10 games on ABC this year. I had the opportunity to check the master college football schedule for November 6th. I noticed that the ACC and Big 12 games for that day look fairly weak from a TV interest standpoint (the best game in the ACC being North Carolina-Florida State and Big 12 being Texas-Kansas State). The reason I bring this up is if ABC wants the best prime time matchup for that day, they should probably pick Arizona-Stanford game rather than choose a game from the ACC or Big 12. Last year, ABC moved the Oregon/Arizona game on November 21 from a 3:30 Eastern to 8:00 Eastern. With the above information in mind, is there a possibility ABC may apply the same conditions to the Arizona/Stanford games on November 6th?

Unknown said...

Matt,

This week makes the 2nd time in 3 weeks that ABC has had 3 regional games at 3:30. Each time the Big 10 game has been on the reverse mirror (which I know is part of their contract), but the ACC game has been reverse mirrored as well, even though each time the Big 12 game had a ranked opponent (Arkansas vs Texas A&M in Week 6, Nebraska vs Oklahoma St this week). I'm an ACC guy in Pittsburgh, but I'd rather see the higher ranked teams. Does the ACC have anything in their ESPN contract that is also getting them a reverse mirror as opposed to the Big 12? Thanks!

Tom

Matt Sarzyniak said...

@William - I suppose anything is possible, but remember that FSN already has a window scheduled at 10:30pm and Versus will have a 7pm game that day. I think its likely to have a Big 12 game at 8pm and possibly an ACC game with it, leaving a three way regionalization between the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 at 3:30pm.

@Tom - I don't think the ACC has anything set in their contract re: reverse mirror. Before the Big 12 and Pac-10 were allowed to be part of the reverse mirror, the ACC and Big East were the primary reverse mirror conferences because those two conferences had their over-the-air and cable contracts with ABC/ESPN. The Pac-10 and Big 12, being tied to FSN, initially didn't allow for ABC to reverse mirror a game. In the case of the Pac-10 and Big 12, FSN may be allowing a limited number of reverse mirrors.