What the bowl picture looks like starting in '14-'15

Thought it would be ideal to look at how the bowl picture is filling out for the upcoming 6-8 years.  I think I've captured everything that's been announced & expected to be announced.  I'm sure I missed something.  Comment away and I'll fix/update.

Bowl	Conference(s) #1	Conference(s) #2	Notes
Orange	ACC (Champion or best non playoff team)	Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame	Notre Dame can appear a maximum of two times. SEC & Big Ten must appear each at least three times over a 12 year period
Rose	Big Ten (Champion or best non playoff team)	Pac-12 (Champion or best non playoff team)
Sugar	Big 12 (Champion or best non playoff team)	SEC (Champion or best non playoff team)
Chick-Fil-A/Peach	At-Large/Top Go5 Champ	At-Large/Top Go5 Champ	Chick-Fil-A/Peach will receive ACC Champ if Orange is in playoff & ACC Champ is not
Fiesta	At-Large/Top Go5 Champ	At-Large/Top Go5 Champ
Cotton	At-Large/Top Go5 Champ	At-Large/Top Go5 Champ
Las Vegas	MWC #1	Pac-12	Not required to take MWC champion.  Will be open one year when MW fills Armed Forces Bowl slot
Poinsettia	MWC #2	See pairings	Navy (2014), Army (2015), BYU (2016 & 2018) and the MAC (2017 & 2019) are the MW opponents.  The MAC is a backup in all years where they are not the primary tie-in.  The American is also a backup conference.
New Mexico	MWC #3-4	C-USA
Armed Forces	Army (2014)/Big Ten / Big 12 #7	American/MWC	Matchups will be Big Ten vs. Mountain West (odd numbered years) & Big 12 vs. American (even numbered years except 2014).  Army vs. American in 2014.  C-USA will be a backup conference.
Hawai'i	MWC #3-4	C-USA/American	C-USA (even numbered years) & American (odd numbered years) will play here three times over six years . Hawai'i, if bowl eligible, will be slotted here.  Will be open one year when MW fills Armed Forces Bowl slot. C-USA will back up the MWC & American.
Famous Idaho Potato	MWC #5	MAC
New Orleans	See matchups	See matchups	C-USA will play in the game at three times over the next six years. 2014-2017 - Mix of Sun Belt, MW & C-USA 2018 - American vs. Sun Belt 2019 - American vs. Conference USA
GoDaddy	MAC	Sun Belt
Beef O'Brady's	ACC/C-USA	American	ACC will be in the game in even numbered seasons.  C-USA in odd numbered seasons & the ACC will back up C-USA.
New Detroit Game	Big Ten	ACC #7-10	Expected to be certified next year.
Pinstripe	Big Ten	ACC #3-6
Military	American	ACC #7-10
Kraft Fights Hunger	Big Ten	Pac-12	Pac-12 selection after Holiday
Belk	ACC #3-6	SEC #3-8
Texas	Big 12 #4	SEC #3-8	Rumored to be SEC
Russell Athletic	ACC #2	Big 12 #3	Would be ACC #3 when Capital One Bowl takes ACC team.  Big 12 after Alamo Bowl.
Buffalo Wild Wings	Big 12 #6	Pac-12	MWC is the conditional choice if either the Big 12 or Pac-12 cannot fill in this bowl game
Music City	Big Ten or ACC #3-6	SEC #3-8
Heart Of Dallas	Big Ten / Big 12 #7	C-USA	Big Ten & Big 12 will rotate appearances in this game & Armed Forces.
Alamo	Big 12 #2	Pac-12	Top selection outside of playoff and/or Sugar (Big 12) or Rose (Pac-12)
Holiday	Big Ten	Pac-12	Pac-12 selection after Alamo
AdvoCare V100	ACC #7-10	SEC #10	C-USA will provide a backup selection if either the ACC or SEC cannot fill their slot. The American is also a backup conference.
Sun	ACC #3-6	Pac-12	Pac-12 selection after Kraft Fights Hunger
Liberty	Big 12 #5	SEC #3-8	The American is a backup conference
Gator	Big Ten or ACC #3-6	SEC #3-8
Capital One	Big Ten/ACC	SEC #2	ACC replaces Big Ten when Big Ten appears as ACC opponent in Orange Bowl.
Outback	Big Ten	SEC #3-8
Birmingham	SEC #9	American	ACC is the 1st backup conference, if it has a team available after the Beef O'Brady's Bowl
Christmas	??	??	Not yet certified. Pac-12, MWC and BYU are rumored to be tied in.
Camellia	MAC	Sun Belt	Not yet certified. ESPN owned bowl game.
Boca Raton	See matchups	See matchups	Not yet certified. ESPN owned bowl game. 2014 - MAC vs. C-USA 2015 - MAC vs. American 2016 - C-USA vs. American (???) 2017 - C-USA vs. American (???) 2018 - MAC vs. C-USA 2019 - MAC vs. American
Bahamas	See matchups	See matchups	Not yet certified. 2014 & 2016 - MAC vs. American 2015 - MAC vs. C-USA 2017 - MAC vs. Sun Belt 2018 - C-USA vs. American 2019 - C-USA vs. Sun Belt
Miami Beach	American (2014-2019)	See matchups	Not yet certified. 2014 & 2015 - American vs. C-USA 2016 & 2018 - American vs. MAC 2017 & 2019 - American vs. C-USA or ???

Possible ROOT Sports MWC football schedule

Here's the Mountain West conference games that haven't been selected for national TV.

The games that are crossed out meet one of the two following criteria

1) Neither home or away team resides in an "in-market" area for ROOT Sports.  I could see Time Warner SportsNet in California producing games that ROOT could pick up, but the listing says that ROOT will produce at least 10 games.  The schools that are considered in-market for ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain, based on their broadcast territory are Air Force, Colorado St., New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah St..

2) The kickoff time the home team has announced conflicts with existing Big Sky football games or Colorado Rockies games

All times ET

8/29: Sacramento St. at San Jose St. (TBA)
8/31: Colgate at Air Force (3pm)
8/31: UTSA at New Mexico (8pm)
8/31: Eastern Illinois at San Diego St. (7pm)
9/7: Cal Poly at Fresno St. (10pm)
9/7: UC Davis at Nevada (TBA)
9/7: Idaho at Wyoming (4pm)
9/14: Weber St. at Utah St. (8pm)
9/14: Cal Poly at Colorado St. (TBA)
9/14: Central Michigan at UNLV (10pm)
9/14: Northern Colorado at Wyoming (4pm)
9/21: Hawai'i at Nevada (8pm)
9/21: Western Illinois at UNLV (9pm)
9/28: Fresno St. at Hawai'i (12am Sunday)
9/28: UNLV at New Mexico (8pm) 
10/5: San Jose St. at Hawai'i (12am Sunday)
10/5: New Mexico St. at New Mexico (7pm) - Portland St.-Montana at 3:30pm
10/12: New Mexico at Wyoming (3:30pm) - No Big Sky game
10/12: Hawai'i at UNLV (8pm)
10/19: UNLV at Fresno St. (10pm)
10/19: Colorado St. at Wyoming (2pm) - Montana St.-Weber St. at 5:30pm.
10/19: Utah St. at New Mexico (9pm) - Montana St.-Weber St. at 5:30pm.
10/26: Wyoming at San Jose St. (7pm) - EWU-Montana at 3:30pm ET
10/26: Colorado St. at Hawai'i (12am Sunday) - Could be an Oceanic PPV simulcast
11/2: New Mexico at San Diego St. (8pm) - Montana St.-Northern Colorado at 2pm ET
11/2: San Jose St. at UNLV (4pm)
11/9: Fresno St. at Wyoming (3pm) 
11/16: Colorado St. at New Mexico (7pm) - Fits as a doubleheader with EWU-Cal Poly at 3:30pm
11/23: Hawai'i at Wyoming (2pm)
11/30: Wyoming at Utah St. (2pm) - Big Sky schedule is done
11/30: Army at Hawai'i (11pm)

So, if the existing kick times hold, this group of games could form the ROOT Sports RSN schedule of MW games.

8/31: Colgate at Air Force (3pm)
9/7: Idaho at Wyoming (4pm)
9/14: Cal Poly at Colorado St. (TBA, but can't be later than a 4pm kickoff)
9/14: Northern Colorado at Wyoming (4pm)
10/5: New Mexico St. at New Mexico (7pm)
10/12: New Mexico at Wyoming (3:30pm)
10/19: Colorado St. at Wyoming (2pm)
10/19: Utah St. at New Mexico (9pm)
10/26: Wyoming at San Jose St. (7pm)
10/26: Colorado St. at Hawai'i (12am Sunday) - Could be an Oceanic PPV simulcast
11/2: New Mexico at San Diego St. (8pm)
11/16: Colorado St. at New Mexico (7pm)
11/30: Wyoming at Utah St. (2pm)

Thoughts?  Did I miss something?

TV Bits and Pieces

* FOX Sports 1 is about six weeks away, and so is FOX Sports 2 for that matter, though I still remain skeptical for the moment regarding how much it will get used for live college sports.  There's likely content that is currently on Fuel that will remain on FOX Sports 2, along with some content from SPEED that isn't being cancelled (ie. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series).

FOX Sports 2 seems to be a logical place to have some extra early round UEFA Champions League matches, plus an outlet for the World Cup.  I'm drawing a blank on other items, especially since the planned FOX college football windows include games on FSN.

* The college basketball breakdown for FOX Sports 1 seems to look like this for the regular season:

• Big East: 100+ men's basketball games & an unknown number of women's basketball games
• Conference USA: ~10 men's games & ~5 women's games
• Pac-12: 22 men's games
• Big 12: Presumably some of their 31 women's basketball games will end up here

In the initial release announcing FOX Sports 1, Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday were the four days where college basketball would be scheduled.  Based on scheduling rotations

• Monday: Big East men
• Thursday: C-USA and/or Pac-12 (C-USA has switched to a Thursday/Saturday scheduling rotation)
• Saturday: All properties
• Sunday: All properties except C-USA men

In 2013-14, the entire Big East men's tournament will be FOX's various platforms along with three games from the Pac-12 tournament (one quarterfinal, one semifinal & the championship game).  FSN has carried the entire Big 12 women's tournament in previous years and a portion of it could air on FS1.

Could other conferences be coming?  Not sure.  The Big 12's press release from last year touting its TV contract reconfiguration said that up to twenty games could be sublicensed to another cable outlet, but based on currently scheduling rotations, the Big 12 does not fit into the mix.

FOX also holds the rights to the C-USA men's basketball championship game, but I'm told that was sublicensed to CBS for three years.  FOX would have access to it again in 2015.

* I've turned on the college basketball schedule area for 2013-14.  In late July, networks like ESPN should start releasing their College Gameday schedule, the schedules & pairings for the tournaments their networks air in November and possibly the games selected for the ESPN 24 hour marathon of hoops.  

Several years, I've found the Big 12 to be the first of the major conferences to release their conference & TV schedule.  I'll be curious to see how quickly the American's schedule comes out.  As the Big East, the conference was often last or 2nd last when it came to releasing their schedule because many of the schools rented out arenas where they were the No. 2-3 tenant behind an NHL, NBA or AHL team.  Only Memphis shares their arena with a pro sports team, so the conference may be able to go to a more consistent scheduling rotation.

* How does ESPN fill that Big East void?  Its may not as much of a void as you might think.  There were 59 regular season games involving the "Catholic 7" on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU, and just eight of those games involved two of the C7 facing each other.  An increase in games from the ACC will fill some of that void, along with games from the American involving incoming members from C-USA whose conference games were not on ESPN & the 25 games from the Mountain West, which has proved to be a very competitive conference during the regular season.

* Back to football: Why is Rutgers-Fresno St. on ESPNU if ESPN took their 22 MW selections? And why is Norfolk St.-Rutgers on CBS Sports Network when the American doesn't have a contract with the network?  Simple.  A deal was made.  CBS Sports Network (likely) took Rutgers-Fresno St. as part of their 22 selections.  Only 21 were announced when they announced their portion of the MW television schedule.  I don't know if CBS attempted to move the game to a Friday or Saturday to keep the game, but it really wasn't feasible to keep it on Thursday 8/29 with the USC-Hawai'i game airing on CBSSN in the late evening.

I'm told that if this "trade" did not happen, Rutgers-Fresno St. would have went without national television and the Norfolk St.-Rutgers game would have aired on ESPN3.

* I'll have a couple others posts written up soon re: the fortunes of NBC Sports Network in regards to FBS college football, plus a discussion about the move towards digital distribution of events, either exclusively for events or as a sole means of out-of-market distribution vs. traditional television channels.

* For the readers who celebrate the holiday, enjoy your July 4th and a belated Happy Canada Day to those from Canada.