Friday, May 20, 2011

Big Ten Primetime Schedule

The Big Ten released the rest of its primetime schedule last night.  Here's the entire primetime schedule

9/1 UNLV at Wisconsin (ESPN, 8pm)
9/2 Youngstown St. at Michigan St. (BTN, 7pm)
9/10 Virginia at Indiana (BTN, 7pm)
9/10 Notre Dame at Michigan (ESPN, 8pm)
9/17 Arizona St. at Illinois (BTN, 7pm)
9/24 North Dakota St. at Minnesota (BTN, 7pm)
10/1 Nebraska at Wisconsin (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, 8pm)
10/1 Notre Dame at Purdue (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, 8pm)
10/8 Michigan at Northwestern (BTN, 7pm)
10/8 Ohio St. at Nebraska (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, 8pm)*
10/15 Northwestern at Iowa (BTN, 7pm)
10/22 Penn St. at Northwestern (BTN, 7pm)*
10/22 Wisconsin at Michigan St. (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, 8pm)*
10/29 Wisconsin at Ohio St. (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, 8pm)*

*Homecoming

That doesn't include the conference championship game which is expected to air in primetime on FOX. 

One new wrinkle, assuming that the 10/8 and 10/22 games remain on ABC is that they would coexist with a Big Ten Network prime time telecast.  They did coexist once last year on 9/25 when Eastern Michigan at Ohio St. (ABC) and Temple at Penn St. (BTN) coexisted in the 3:30pm time slot.  There was some thought that last year's exception was due to five games in the 12pm slot on BTN and that satellite space was limited.
The BTN and ABC regularly coexist in the final week of schedule when the goal is to try to have two ABC games with Ohio St.-Michigan at noon, then BTN-ABC coexists at 3:30pm.  Last year there were ABC-BTN coexists at both 12pm and 3:30pm in the final week.

Up next for the Big Ten is to finalize their 1st three weeks of the season's kickoff times and TV designations. Homecoming kickoff times are also being finalized.  Four of those games were set as night games.  Here's the rest.

10/1 Northwestern at Illinois
10/15 Indiana at Wisconsin
10/15 Purdue at Penn St.
10/22 Nebraska at Minnesota
10/22 Indiana at Iowa
10/22 Illinois at Purdue
10/29 Northwestern at Indiana
10/29 Purdue at Michigan

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