A few thoughts on why I slotted a few games
* ESPN can select ahead of CBS a couple times in 2012 due to CBS being allowed by ESPN to televise Alabama-LSU in prime time last year. The Alabama-Arkansas game in my opinion one of the two times ESPN should pull ahead of CBS.
* UNC-Louisville was guaranteed ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 when it was signed. When Georgia pulled out of their series with UofL to take on Boise St. in the Chick-Fil-A Class last year, Louisville was left scrambling. UNC was provided as a matchup by ESPN and they guaranteed both ends of the series would be televised on those outlets.
* Too many games to work with for the SEC this week. If Georgia didn't have Georgia Southern on the schedule later in the year, FAU-Georgia might be Georgia's PPV game. Instead, Comcast picks up an extra SEC window. Because of that, Presbyterian-Vanderbilt will end up as a PPV or local telecast. I don't remember Vandy doing PPVs but did have a few telecasts in Nashville (game vs. Middle Tennessee in '05 on WUXP).
* Since the Big 12 allows for institutional games, I see the James Madison-West Virginia game from Landover, MD being televised back to the Mountaineer State. Maybe regionally via MASN.
* Four MAC teams do not have a game yet this day, which tells me that those teams will be paired in conference games in some fashion and one will be part of their regional package.
* I see CBS Sports Network with a tripleheader. I don't see UNLV doing a 12:30pm local start. TAMU-SMU is on FSN at 3:30pm ET and both FSN and CBSSN tried to stay away from competing C-USA games in the same telecast window, so I see ECU-USM at 7pm ET. Also don't see CBSSN having a break between when the Army game starts and the ECU-USM game, so I don't have the tripleheader starting until 3:30pm ET.
Thursday
TCU at Kansas, 8pm ESPN
Friday
North Carolina at Louisville, 8pm ESPN
Saturday
Utah St. at Wisconsin, 12pm ESPN
Boston College at Northwestern, 12pm ESPN2
Navy at Penn St., 12pm ESPNU
UL-Lafayette at Oklahoma St., 12pm FSN
Massachusetts at Michigan, 12pm BTN
Ball St. at Indiana, 12pm BTN
MAC Regional Telecast, 12pm ESPN Plus
Delaware St. at Cincinnati, 12pm FOX Sports Ohio
Virginia at Georgia Tech, 12:30pm ACCNet
UAB at South Carolina, 12:30pm SECNet
FAU at Georgia, 1pm SEC/CSS
Portland St. at Washington, 3pm Pac-12 Network
Houston at UCLA, 3pm Pac-12 Network
Florida at Tennessee, 3:30pm CBS
California at Ohio St., 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh, 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
BYU at Utah, 3:30pm FX
Texas A&M at SMU, 3:30pm FSN
Wake Forest at Florida St., 3:30pm ESPNU
Northern Illinois at Army, 3:30pm CBS Sports Network
Eastern Michigan at Purdue, 3:30pm BTN
Charleston Southern at Illinois, 3:30pm BTN
Northern Iowa at Iowa, 3:30pm BTN
Connecticut at Maryland, 3:30pm ACC/FSN Regional
James Madison vs. West Virginia, 3:30pm Mountaineer Sports
Stony Brook at Syracuse, 3:30pm Big East Local
Washington St. at UNLV, 4pm NBC Sports Network
Miami (OH) at Boise St., 5:30pm The mtn.
Arkansas St. at Nebraska, 7pm BTN
Western Michigan at Minnesota, 7pm BTN
Texas at Ole Miss, 7pm ESPN2
Idaho at LSU, 7pm SEC/FSN Regional
Western Kentucky at Kentucky, 7:30pm SEC/CSS
Presbyterian at Vandy, 7:30pm PPV/Local/Webcast
Arizona St. at Missouri, 7pm ESPNU
East Carolina at Southern Miss, 7pm CBS Sports Network
North Texas at Kansas St., 7pm FOX College
Alabama at Arkansas, 7:45pm ESPN
Notre Dame at Michigan St., 8pm ABC
USC at Stanford, 8pm FOX
Texas Tech at New Mexico, 9pm The mtn.
South Carolina St. at Arizona, 10pm Pac-12 Network
Tennessee Tech at Oregon, 10pm Pac-12 Network
Colorado at Fresno St., 10:30pm CBS Sports Network
ESPN3 Exclusives:
Mississippi St. at Troy
Furman at Clemson
NC Central at Duke
Bethune-Cookman at Miami (FL)
South Alabama at NC State
Kent St. at Rutgers
Don't expect FX to get BYU at Utah. Dave Brown (Vice President of ESPN Programming) said ESPN has the rights to 10 of BYU's games in 2012 on True Blue, and that number would be impossible without BYU at Utah being included on it. Furthermore the BYU/ Utah game has been seen on the ESPN Family of Networks every year ESPN could carry it (the ESPN+ games would have been on ESPNU had ESPNU been created back then) since 1996. Expect Houston at UCLA to be on FX (fulfills CUSA and Pac-12 contracts) while ESPN2 shows BYU at Utah in the 3:30 slot since ABC/ ESPN will have the simulcasts that day. The games ESPN doesn't have the rights to would be at Notre Dame (NBC) and at Boise State (NBC Sports Net, Mtn). Technically ESPN does have home rights to all 6 BYU home games as well as at Georgia Tech (ACC goes first with ESPN) and at New Mexico State and at San Jose State (WAC TV rights go with ESPN first), but they give back the rights to at least one of those games to BYUtv for live broadcasts.
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