Postscript on 9/22 CFB Television Selections

List of selections

* Brett McMurphy noted that LSU-Auburn was selected by ESPN ahead of CBS choosing Missouri-South Carolina.  ESPN can choose ahead of CBS twice this year as a condition of CBS taking LSU-Alabama as a night game last year.

Side note: Per some research using the excellent lists compiled by Classic Sports Media over at The506, this is the 1st appearance by Missouri on CBS since 1982, when they visited Manhattan, KS on October 9th and tied KState at 7.

EDIT (9/15): The FIND function in some browsers sucks.  Same page has Missouri at Oklahoma later in '82 on CBS.  That is the last time Missouri played on CBS until 9/22.

* A few folks were surprised at the selection of Temple-Penn St. for an ABC selection, and I was mildly surprised.  But it was the only game available to ABC that involved a game between teams from AQ conferences.  Temple has lost 36 straight times to the Nittany Lions, but they've closed the gap over the past two meetings (22-13 in '10 at State College, 14-10 in '11 in Philly).  Yes, I know several of those games were vacated.  But the gap may be closing and tilting towards the Owls.

* I was surprised that Oregon St.-UCLA ended up as the other side of the split telecast with Temple-Penn St.  The Pac-12 contract announcement said there would be just two games on ABC, but much like the FOX side of the house, I suspect that the conference won't be upset if another game or two along the way gets split nationally.

* My guess is that Utah-Arizona St. also forced the hand of Pac-12 television partners.  Both Arizona schools prefer nighttime kickoffs in September due to the hot weather, so it eliminated that game from being selected by F/X at 4pm ET.  The ABC window also moved down the Pac-12 Network's telecast of California-USC to 6pm ET.  As I understand it, the broadcast network telecasts for the Pac-12 still have some level of exclusivity when it is possible.

* Miami (FL) at Georgia Tech falling to the ACC regional cable package stunned me.  Not knowing the ACC selection order, I believe this package falls towards the final selection of the week.  I don't know if it can jump ahead of any other package, but both East Carolina-North Carolina and Army-Wake Forest were selected ahead of it.  Miami's struggles might have been the tipping point.

* We did see some of the new rules of the Big 12 contracts in place, specifically the ability for FOX and ESPN to show games concurrently.  Maryland-West Virginia (F/X) and Virginia-TCU (ESPN or ESPN2) are the beneficiaries.