Tuesday, October 15, 2013

TV Appearances and their effect on November CFB TV Selections for 2013

Several TV contracts have different appearance minimums and maximums that they must attain or adhere to.  I've listed the ones that I am aware of and how they could affect selections over the final month of the season.

American
* Per their media guide, at least 24 conference controlled games must appear on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.  Nineteen games have been accounted for through the end of the season.
* I'm excluding the games that have appeared on ESPNEWS, unless both ESPN and the American have agreed that those can count towards the 24.  If they do, 22 games have been accounted for.
* Saturday primetime appearance has been met with the Michigan at Connecticut game.

Big 12
* Thought that a maximum of six appearances per team as part of the ABC/ESPN still exists, but I think it has been dropped.  Couldn't find it on a second reading of this press release.
* ABC/ESPN has given the conference eight "full national" exposures.  Seven on cable outlets, plus the Oklahoma-Texas full national game on ABC.  They must carry 13-15 games nationally.  Full national includes a national game on ABC or cable, or a game that is reverse mirrored on ABC and an ESPN cable network.
* Additionally, no more than 19 games can appear on ABC/ESPN platforms. They can choose up to nine more games As they have selected ten so far.
* FOX has provided the conference five broadcast games and 15 national cable games on FOX Sports 1.  There is also a broadcast window for the conference on 12/7, so its safe to say FOX will hit their minimums of six broadcast games and six national cable games.

Big Ten
* Of the maximum 41 conference controlled games on ABC/ESPN, ABC has televised 13 or 14 (depending on if you count Syracuse-Penn St.) and 13 games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.
* BTN requirements are that every school must appear twice on their network with at least one appearance as part of a conference game.  Minnesota and Ohio St. must appear at least once on BTN in November to satisfy appearance requirements.

C-USA
* C-USA was to have a minimum of ten games on FOX Sports 1.  That minimum was met before the season started and they will have at least twelve games on FOX Sports 1.

Pac-12
* FOX has selected four Pac-12 games for telecast and must air another four over the next five Saturdays.  Of the four that FOX has selected, three aired in primetime on the east coast and one more of the remaining four must air in primetime.  The primetime scenario seems easy to meet.  Whether FOX hits the eight game minimum is another story, though they have pre-selected Notre Dame at Stanford to air on either FOX or FOX Sports 1.  They might need it to fulfill their obligations.
* FOX Sports 1 has selected twelve games to air through the end of the year.  At most, they can air no more than two games to fulfill their maximum obligation of fourteen Pac-12 games.
* ABC has aired three Pac-12 games nationally, one above their minimum.  They have not yet fulfilled their obligation to air a primetime game.
* ABC/ESPN has selected 17 of their 22 Pac-12 games through the end of the year.  It is feasible they will skip a Saturday.  Maybe November 2nd as they have a Thursday night game on 10/31 and there are only two Pac-12 games available on Saturday.
* As a side note, FOX and ABC must stay out of each other's way, in a reasonable manner in the primetime window.  The remainder of FOX's windows in November are at 7pm ET, so there should be some east coast prime time Pac-12 games to finish out the year.
* Cal is the only school in danger of passing the maximum of nine conference-controlled appearances in the ABC and FOX packages.  They have had six games selected as part those two packages with four games not yet selected for telecast, so at least one game must air on Pac-12 Networks in November.  Stanford, Washington, Washington St. & Oregon have each appeared in those two packages a combined total of seven times each and have two games remaining to be selected by any network.  USC has appeared in the two packages five times and have four games left for TV to select.

* CBS retained an appearance maximum I believe where they can select a team no more than six times, excluding the SEC title game.  LSU and Georgia are each scheduled to appear on CBS four times through the end of the year.  Florida, Alabama and Tennessee have appeared three times each.  I believe a wildcard exists though that a team could appear a seventh time during the regular season at least once.

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