Some 2014 CFB TV Nuggets

• California scheduled their weeknight home game for Levi's Stadium for 2014.  Outside of Black Friday and the opening weekend, FOX Sports 1 did not show any other Friday night games. Seems like it would be earmarked for ESPN, but we shall see.
• I am a little surprised that Cal is making this big of a deal about studying feasibility of weeknight games.  In 2012, they hosted Washington on Friday, November 2nd.  This was after the renovations of Memorial Stadium.
  
• FOX and ESPN each get two priority picks every year.  Just so happens that Notre Dame will visit Arizona St. and USC in 2014.  It would not surprise me to see both networks each reserve one of the games, though we might not hear in advance which ones they get until the late spring or summer.  The USC game seems more likely to be taken by ESPN due to its history.
  
• With the exception of the opening week of the season & Black Friday, Oregon and Arizona are the two schools Pac-12 that have not hosted mid-season weeknight games.  Both have hosted either on the Thursday or Friday night of the opening week or on Black Friday.
  
• Miami and Louisville, who will face off in the Russell Athletic Bowl in less than two weeks, could open against each other over Labor Day weekend.  Louisville would be the home team and has played games on Sunday of Labor Day weekend.  Could end up being the Labor Day evening game.  Maybe it depends on Teddy Bridgewater's decision to enter the 2014 NFL Draft.  I don't know.  Bridgewater has been very coy about what he intends to do.

REVISED: The #ACC has discussed Miami opening at Louisville on Labor Day weekend next year, @flasportsbuzz has reported.
— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) December 11, 2013 

• Have been told that the number of American games on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will increase slightly as they start their new contract with ESPN.  I believe the new minimum is now 28 games, up from last year's minimum of 24.  I do not know if it will go up once Navy's home games become part of the conference's TV package as only Navy's conference road games will be available.  I have been told that Navy's home games will remain on CBS Sports Network until the end of their TV contract after the 2018 season.
• Navy's home appearances on CBS Sports Network will be separate from the sublicensed games that ESPN will make available to CBS Sports Network, so in 2015, you could see around 20 games from the conference on CBS Sports Network when adding together the sublicensed games plus Navy's home games.
• Navy's home games include the "home" game vs. Notre Dame that usually appears on CBS.
• Games on ESPNEWS will go towards making sure that a large majority (80-90%) of games are televised on national networks when added together with the other four ESPN networks already mentioned plus CBS Sports Network
• I am not sure if CBS Sports Network is actively working on an authenticated digital streaming option.  Right now, I would not get my hopes up.
  
• CBS Sports Network will again get top priority among regular season games from the Mountain West, excluding Boise St. home games which are reserved for ESPN.  I don't think that it is guaranteed that Boise St.'s conference road games must appear on CBSSN.  I could see CBSSN setting aside these games as their eight:
• Nebraska at Fresno St.
• Navy at Air Force
• Washington at Hawai'i
• Arizona St. at New Mexico
• San Diego St. at Fresno St.
• Boise St. at Air Force
• Boise St. at Wyoming
• Boise St. at Nevada
  
• With CBSSN retaining 22 Mountain West games, around 10-12 Army & Navy football games, a couple Patriot League games, 13-15 American games and a Division II package for Thursday nights, Conference USA is getting kinda squeezed out.  Maybe C-USA will allow for a few Friday night games on CBSSN to relieve some of the Saturday pressure.  CBSSN could also do a few more 12pm starts for the American & C-USA when Army or Navy are not on the network, plus more late evening starts for the Mountain West.
  
• In regards to C-USA, FOX gets to reserve ten games off the top for their television package.  C-USA's advantage when it comes to non-conference games was that it was in proximity to ACC, SEC and Big 12 schools who would regularly travel to those schools for road games, but with realignment, some of the schools that drew decent non-conference opponents have moved on or are moving on this year.  I could see FOX taking some combination of Texas Tech-UTEP, Arizona-UTSA, BYU-Middle Tennesee and FIU's home games vs. Pitt and Louisville, but after that they will need some guidance from the conference office and schools to guide them for the next five selections plus the bottom ten selections.

Is FOX really a player for the main Big Ten rights?

I posted something re: rights agreements & realignment being relatively stable this offseason -- but some of  YOU couldn't be patient (say the last part in the tone of Lewis Black without yelling).  Naturally what you brought up is the Big Ten rights deals, which run for another three athletic years.  Clearly, some of you couldn't leave this well enough alone, at least for 18 months.

Yes, it will get the fourteen schools (Fourteen? Maybe it will be 22 by that point!) and the conference will have more cash to work with.  And a few of you mentioned that FOX is your front runner.  But everyone has work to do & ESPN might have already been clearing some of the decks to stay in place, at least when it comes to football.

ESPN has already dumped off NASCAR after 2014, which takes up valuable programming blocks on Saturdays.  FOX has also dumped off many of their summer & fall NASCAR commitments too though, which will no longer have to cut in to show qualifying for Sprint Cup or the Nationwide Series.  They will still have the trucks on a few Saturdays, plus whatever other motorsport commitments they've elected to carry live on weekends.

In terms of college football, the only commitment that will increase slightly is that ESPN can increase the number of Big 12 games they can carry starting in 2016 from nineteen up to 23.  Four games that could be shoehorned in anywhere on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU, especially when you consider that ESPNEWS will be a place to show games on Saturdays from the American and Mountain West.

FOX also has the UFC through 2018, which right now has proven to be the one piece of programming that attracts a consistent audience on FOX Sports 1.  So there will be Saturday nights where they'll have to cut away from college sports.  FOX also has new MLB commitments starting with 2014 where FOX Sports 1 will carry MLB on many Saturdays.

There is also the matter of how were have been working with fifteen week regular seasons in college football in 2013 & 2014.  I believe it is better to look at a base of fourteen week regular seasons, and really thirteen weeks when it comes to a conference that plays a championship game because the last week isn't a week that gets accounted for.

To me, if FOX were going to go in for all the Big Ten rights, a few things need to occur:

• A determination needs to be made by FOX as to how many games per week they are willing to show on their broadcast network.  With SEC and American syndication ending this year, I counted around ten FOX affiliates that carried ACC Network games plus maybe a few that carried MAC football in the Midwest.  Alledgely their affiliates wanted a newscast before the primetime game, which is where FOX only had two afternoon-primetime doubleheaders.  Clear that up, do the math and figure out how many games you could show from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 on a national level.
• A decision needs to be made where MLB division series and league championships will air.  The broadcast network will have the World Series, but the other playoff obligations can air on either FOX or FOX Sports 1.  Yes, most of those games will take place on weeknights, but they'll likely take up real estate on Saturdays too.
• I really don't believe that FOX would sublicense these rights back to ESPN.  Would seem foolish to buy rights for something this expensive and keep a competitor around, if you believe FOX would be trying to poach these rights to harm ESPN.  You might look at how FOX and ESPN seem to share rights to the Big 12 and Pac-12, but both I believe were under different circumstances.  The Big 12 was trying to keep itself afloat and the Pac-12 wanted to be on ESPN and FOX if at all possible instead of going to NBC.
• FOX Sports 2 will absolutely be a key.  Not as some overflow channel, which we found when Texas Tech-Oklahoma moved to FOX News that it wasn't even a consideration, though it became one later in the evening when TCU-Texas moved there in conjunction with airing it on FSN.  The last part is the important part though.  FOX couldn't move that game over to FS2 without providing the FSN option because FS2 is in far fewer homes than FS1.  FOX has to find a way to move some Saturday content, including the odd Big 12 or C-USA game, over there just to create some room and make it content that requires pay TV companies to carry it.  They must get in more homes and for pay TV providers, it probably has to be at a lower rate.
• Haven't even touched men's basketball either.  If I were FOX, I'd have to make sure that both the Big Ten and Big East were prepared to move games over to FS2, primarily in non-conference play but possibly during conference play too, though the Big East has the luxury of games being sublicensed to CBS Sports Network.  In the case of the Big East, more of their games there and make sure the Big 12 is cool with more of their women's basketball being sent there.
• FOX Sports Go is also a key.  BTN2Go, right now, is more robust as a product than FOX Sports Go is, not to mention that BTN2Go has the relationships already in place with pay TV companies.  The product has to be what FOX must shoot for with FOX Sports Go.
• No, let's not even bother with FSN as an option.  Comcast SportsNets cover several Big Ten areas, now and future (Chicago, DC, NYC, Philly) and if they aren't carrying FSN programming now, why press your luck?  Remember that FOX already has good terms with Comcast when it comes to FS1 and, allegedly, FS2.  Why rock that boat again?

The conference needs to figure out how many of its existing quirks will remain in place.  Night games in November allegedly will be relaxed in future years, but how will those games be determined?  Will a game be set aside, then 12 days before hand the rightsholder(s) can decide to place the game on a particular outlet?  Will homecoming kickoff times continue to be set far in advance or be placed into the 12 day selection process?  Will midseason Thursday night games be an option at some point (I don't think so, but its worth asking)?

One item I do believe that will occur: the conference championship game will not be its own contract.  I believe it will go with whomever gets what is today a 41 game package.  Only other thing that would make some sense is that ESPN and BTN share it, where FOX or FOX Sports 1 is allowed to air it in the years BTN has it, similar to the rotation of the Pac-12 championship game.  Maybe one network would have the Pac-12, the other has the Big Ten, and that flipflops every year.

Here's one item to watch though, and its closer in timeframe compared to the conference's full rights agreements:  FOX has to negotiate with several pay TV companies in New Jersey, New York City and the Mid-Atlantic to make sure that BTN is carried on the right tier in those markets so that any Rutgers and Maryland games on the network are seen by as many households as possible in those areas.  Remember that this happened when Nebraska joined the conference.  If there are any missteps by FOX or any acrimony that arises between the schools and FOX, could it show up when all rights are available for the taking?

If the rights hit the open market, and I think they will unless ESPN makes a massive offer in exclusive negotiations to keep them, will FOX make a play for at least a portion of ESPN's rights package?  Absolutely, but like I said, I don't think they can take on the current 41 game package with how their existing resources are set up.  They need work, but they have time and the Big Ten will be paying attention.  Right now the Big Ten has it pretty good with ESPN though.  Via the reverse mirror option, the conference is guaranteed to get their games shown nationally.  I think ESPN has the established spaces and products in place to work with, especially with the extra time they'll earn from losing their NASCAR commitments.  Loyalty does go a long way.  Live Big Ten football first appeared on ESPN in 1989 if I did my research correctly and Bristol pulled out all the stops last time the rights were out there.  I seem to recall reading that ESPN employees were encouraged to wear "ESPN is Big Ten Country" when Big Ten officials were on site.

We shall see though.  We're nearly two years ahead of ourselves and a lot of things can change between now and then.

Ten Years Gone...

That's a Led Zeppelin song off Physical Graffiti.  It is how long I've been compiling TV listings for college football and basketball as of the end of the 2013-14 athletic year.  The first year (2004) was at the now-defunct DBSForums.com, the last nine on my own website.

I never set out to do this for ten years.  I can't say I want to do this for ten more years either.  I had hoped to do it for no more than five and move on.  I started doing this was because a friend and I had recently bought DirecTV systems and wanted to know how many college football games we could get access to on a given Saturday compared to our cable systems.  I had moved from Western NY to Northeast Ohio and for the first time had full time access to FOX Sports Net (our WNY affiliate, the late Empire Sports Network, was only part time and eventually cancelled its affiliation on the way to being dissolved).  I posted the listings on a few other boards on the net and after the '04 season decided to get a centralized home for it.   It began to take off from there to the point where it received visibility in the Los Angeles Times and this past summer, Athlon noted it as one of the 100 college football accounts to follow this past offseason.

The college basketball side came along for the ride and has usually been the bigger beast to track because you're dealing with roughly 50% more schools compared to football and compared to football, though I kinda enjoy it a little bit more.  Maybe because things are more entrenched in place and not really flexible.  If basketball had 12 day picks for all tip times, this site and blog wouldn't exist.  Thankfully its only a handful.

At the same time, my own career needed a place to grow.  As a computer programmer, my work in COBOL & mainframe programming was OK, but as someone at the time just turning 30, I needed a sandbox to work on web development, work that I wanted to transition into.  At that point, the site needed a proper home because the free home I had been using didn't have the proper "back end" to do the programming I wanted.  The guts of the site behind the scenes is the main reason today why the site still stands.  It has been rewritten three times, each time due to advances in technology as I've gained more knowledge and different assignments at work.

Not to bore you but simple HTML tables -> Windows Forms -> Windows Forms w/database storage (dynamically generated HTML) -> .Net MVC, jQuery and some tweaks this past summer to make it more responsive for mobile devices.  While the site probably looks extremely plain to you, there is plenty flying around backstage to make sure each page gets served up properly and, hopefully, in a reasonable amount of time to you the end user.

This blog has allowed me to occasionally write about TV rights items and bring things to the forefront that you the viewer might not be aware of.  I'd like to do more of it if I could, but I admit that the blog is often more reactionary than it is news breaking, if it has ever truly broken any news.  If I were to keep track of a batting average of the analysis and the 12 day pick guesses, its probably less than 20% right, but at times I do enjoy sticking my neck out and running through these scenarios as long as I think I have a solid foundation to base the analysis on.  You've contributed to that as well, correcting me when I've glossed over or forgotten something.

And here we are today.  Its been an interesting ten years.  I've been blessed with a solid group of followers on Twitter since that account was started and it has grown mostly through word of mouth and when I've visited many message boards, you've been good to me with allowing me to give you my opinion, along with me taking your points of view and reflecting on them.  You've also been very good about correcting me when I've been wrong, which is a lot.  I've worked jointly with other sites at times and they've been very good to me and by extension, to you the site visitor as well.  Many media members, conference and school officials, television staffers and executives have been very generous to me, and again by extension, you the visitor as well.  Without their honesty and generosity when it came to answering a question or getting an item clarified, this site and blog wouldn't be what it has been.

Over the past ten years we've seen

• Internet streaming of television become more prevalent.  We now demand a network, or its content, be available via digital means vs. exclusively on television.
• Internet exclusive games rose exponentially
• The ways to consume content changed from just televisions & laptops to include handheld devices such as mobile phone & tablets.  
• Conferences starting their own television networks to generate more revenue
• Broadcast networks convert or buy channels to have a cable sports division
• CSTV -> CBS College Sports -> CBS Sports Network
• OLN -> Versus -> NBC Sports Network
• SPEED -> FOX Sports 1 (though FOX did have FSN)
• All four major broadcast English speaking broadcast networks regularly televise college football on Saturdays
• Concepts such as the reverse mirror, sublicensing and what amounts to sharing rights (ie. Big 12 & Pac-12 where FOX & ABC seem to be co-rights holders instead of a clear #1 or #2)
• Less and less games every year go without video, either on TV or webcasts
• Nearly all major bowl games move from broadcast television to pay television
• High definition became the norm, the standard, the requirement
• Syndication packages come and go, to the point that only one on that was around in '04 will remain in '14 (ACC Network/Raycom) and that's only because of sublicensing
• Contracts that were made, well, to be broken, renegotiated and require a bit of compromise to get games on the air.
• A college football playoff for the bowl subdivision.
• The NCAA tournament went from being mostly regional the first weekend and the Sweet Sixteen to a four channel affair where every game is national

Not everything has been roses.  I admit that I've had more burnout moments over the past few years and for that I am sorry if you've been on the wrong side of those.

Television became a reason for conferences to expanded and schools to move on, sometimes unnecessarily in the name of the almighty dollar at the expense of rivalries that have yet to restart and may never be played again.  I'm not naive to the notion that there is a lot of money flying around and the athletes who we cheer for don't necessarily reap all of the rewards of that cash, but that is another story that is going to be debated about for years to come.  I'm also not naive to the fact that the school I mostly root for (Syracuse) was one of those who moved on to another conference for the cash.

This weekend I'll be mostly unavailable.  The bowl schedule will updated when I can before Sunday, then finalized late on Sunday night.  I have better things to do.  Hope you understand.  Anyways, thanks for stopping by and reading.  

A look back at 2013 CFB TV by conference

ACC

• 14 regular season games on ABC.  Last year the conference had nine games on ABC.
• Four of the 14 were in primetime, up one from 2012.
• 33 games on ESPN (12), ESPN2 (3) and ESPNU (18)
• Two additional games were shown on ESPNEWS
• Nearly all FOX Sports Net affiliates became the de facto home of the ACC's RSN package.  RSNs in Ohio, the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest saw the games on a somewhat regular basis for the first time, along with the addition of YES, MSG Networks and ROOT Sports Pittsburgh who became affiliates as part of being in the conference's new extended footprint.
• Every intraconference game was carried on television.  Previous years would have 1-2 of these games air on ESPN3 exclusively.

American

• 24 games were carried on ABC (2), ESPN (11), ESPN2 (6) and ESPNU (5)
• An additional seven games were aired on ESPNEWS
• Two games aired on ABC, down from six in 2012 for the Big East
• The conference's syndication package, which goes back through the history of the Big East as a football conference, ended with the 11/23 game.  The package was started by Creative Sports Marketing, which was then purchased by ESPN.
• Eight intraconference games aired on ESPN3 in 2013, up from 1 in 2012.  Note that changes in membership size and schools don't necessarily provide an apples-to-apples comparison
• 2014 will see a subset of games sublicensed from ESPN to CBS Sports Network.  One game was sublicensed to them in 2013 which allowed ESPN to have CBS Sports Network's 22nd game selection from the Mountain West.

Big 12

• Sixteen games on over-the-air network television in 2013.  Down from 21 in 2012.  
• FOX: 10 in 2013, up one from 2012 (all national).
• ABC: 6 in 2013 with three of those as full national, either completely on ABC or via reverse mirror.  2012 had 12 games with seven full national on ABC or reverse mirror.
• Thirty one national cable games in 2013, up from 14 in 2012.
• FOX Sports 1 carried 22 of the thirty national cable games.  In 2012, F/X carried nine.
• ESPN Networks carried nine games.  In 2012 they carried five.
• ESPNU carried Big 12 football games (three) for the 1st time. 
• Remember that any Longhorn Network games after the "3rd tier" game count towards the ESPN contract.  By my count, that is 17 games.
• Should the Mississippi St.-Oklahoma St. and LSU-TCU games count as well?  Great question that I haven't been able to get clarified.  I have flip-flopped as to whether these games should count.  Right now I don't think they should.
• ABC/ESPN is supposed to carry at least 13-15 games to a national audience. I counted 12 games.  Again, if either of the two neutral site games count, ABC/ESPN hit their target.
• FOX Sports Net syndication carried seven games that were not considered "3rd tier" Big 12 games.  This decreased from eighteen in 2012.  In short, FOX Sports 1 picked up roughly eleven games from FSN.
• Of the 3rd tier games, FOX Sports Net distributed four of them to regions outside of the Big 12 footprint.
• FOX College Sports did not carry any Big 12 football exclusively in 2013.  The suite of networks carried four games last year, two of which would have been considered "3rd tier" games.
• Thursday night games increased from one in '12 to four in '13.  Expect the latter to be the standard in upcoming years, particularly now that FOX is willing to show Thursday night games on FOX Sports 1.

Big Ten

• 41 games selected by ESPN Networks 
• Yes, I did count Syracuse at Penn St.  As I understand it, the Big Ten was granted the TV rights for this game.
• 20 on ABC with ESPN reverse mirroring (+1 from 2012)
• 21 on ESPN Networks
• 9 on ESPN, matching 2012
• 9 on ESPN2, down one from 2012
• 3 on ESPNU, also matching 2012

C-USA

• With the addition of FOX Sports 1 to split the 20 selections that FOX had between the new sports network and FSN, C-USA had 12 games on the national network with eight on FSN.  In 2012, F/X carried one C-USA game with the remaining games left for FSN syndication
• FOX College Sports carried ten C-USA games, up from eight in 2012
• There was some minor alterations during the season as to which C-USA games would air on FSN vs. FCS.
• CBS Sports Network's coverage of the conference decreased from 15 games in 2012 to 12 games in 2013.
• Thursday night games increased in 2013.  FOX Sports 1 showed seven C-USA games on Thursday nights in 2013.  In 2012, CBS Sports Network showed a pair as did FSN.

MAC

• Coverage on ESPNU and ESPN2 was relatively equal from 2012 to 2013.  One more game on ESPN2 compared to 2012
• Three games were carried on ESPNEWS early in the season
• All conference games not carried on television were carried on ESPN3
• The new Time Warner Cable package, which I did rail against, was indeed available to in-market through the MAC-branded ESPN3 player on the MAC's website.

MWC

• The new television split between ESPN and CBS Sports Network resulted in many more Mountain West games being shown on national television outlets
• Nine games were shown on ESPN/ESPN2
• Eleven games were shown on ESPNU/ESPNEWS (note: Rutgers-Fresno St. was sublicensed from CBS Sports Network)
• 21 games were carried by CBS Sports Network
• ESPN3 streamed five games
• Three of the five were from the package of 22 games that ESPN pre-selected.  Two of the games were unclaimed by the television and streaming partners, allowing the schools to choose where they wanted those games to be shown
• ROOT Sports televised eleven games
• All ROOT Sports games were available out-of-market via the Mountain West website
• Eight games were exclusively streamed through the Mountain West website
• Five of those eight were produced by Campus Insiders.  Three were produced by the schools.
• An apples-to-apples comparison to previous years is really not possible.  
• One barometer is that, on average, Mountain West games were shown nationally around 17-20 times per season with a mix of Versus/NBCSN, CBS Sports Network, ABC, ESPN and CBS.  
• In 2012, 15 games were shown on networks that are in at least 75 million plus households.  In 2013, that number jumped to 20 in homes with nearly 74.5 million
• ESPNU, as of August, wasn't quite in 75 million homes.
• Typically CBSSN showed less than ten Mountain West games per year. In 2013, that number, as noted above jumped to 21.

Pac-12

• Both ESPN and FOX hold the rights to 22 games. This excludes the conference championship game, which swaps between the two entities
• FOX is supposed to air eight regular season games (four in east coast primetime) on their broadcast network but only aired seven. They did select five Pac-12 games to air in primetime.  ABC is only required to air two regular season games (one in primetime) and will end up airing six with two in primetime.
• Overall, the number of broadcast network games for the Pac-12 decreased slightly from 16 to 13
• Will FOX get in trouble?  Probably not.  To be honest, the Pac-12 brought ESPN and FOX together for this rights deal.  I don't think ESPN would be able to take on FOX's 22 games themselves and want to pay FOX's share of the rights fee.  I also don't think CBS or NBC have the interest going forward.  Too many legal entanglements that aren't worth fighting.
• The number of games on pay television from ESPN and FOX increased from 28 to 32
• FOX Sports 1 aired 15, up from 10 on F/X
• ESPN's properties televised 16, down two from 2012
• If we look at the games by time range for the games on Saturdays
• Five broadcast network games (four on ABC, one on FOX) and five national pay TV games (all on FOX Sports 1) started between 12pm-1pm local time to the game (early afternoon).  Seven broadcast network games (two on ABC, five on FOX) and nine pay television (all on F/X) started between 11:30am-1pm local time in 2012
• Local time was used to account for Mountain time and when Arizona is on standard time
• Seven broadcast network games (five on FOX, two on ABC) and two pay television games (one each on ESPN and FOX Sports 1) started between 4pm-5pm local time in 2013.  Eight broadcast network games (six on FOX, two on ABC) started between 3:30pm-5pm local time in 2012.
• Late evening games increased to account for the decrease in early afternoon games.  F/X did not televise any late evening Saturday games in 2012 while ESPN carried 12 that started at 7pm or later local time.  In 2013, ESPN aired 11 of these same games while FOX Sports 1 five of these games
• Similar to the Big 12, FOX will now be a player for Thursday night games.  ESPN aired all four from the conference in 2012, excluding the Thursday before Labor Day.  In 2013, ESPN carried two and FOX Sports 1 carried two.  FS1 also televised one on the Thursday before Labor Day and the Pac-12 Network showed an Arizona St. Thursday night game post-Labor Day.

SEC

• The main difference, that I'm aware of, between 2012 and 2013 is that CBS once again had the top choice for all Saturdays.  In 2012, ESPN had two Saturdays where they were able to leapfrog CBS due to CBS airing LSU-Alabama as a second primetime game in 2011.
• ESPN Networks carried 44 games over ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU in 2013, two more than 2012
• ESPN carried 21 games and ESPN2 aired eleven games
• ESPNU carried eleven games in '13, down two from the prior year. 
• The 7pm ESPNU slot was traditionally a slot for an SEC, but did not air any SEC games for a seven week stretch from 10/12-11/23
• ESPN and ESPNU selected six games to air at 12pm ET as part of the in-season selection process (Saturday games starting with 9/21/13).  Eight were at 12pm on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU in 2012
• Of the six games in '13, four were on Saturdays where CBS did not have their exclusive primetime window which locks ESPN out of carrying any SEC games after mid-afternoon.  In '12 this number was five.
• CSS's sublicensed package of SEC games ends with the 2013 season.  These games will air on the SEC Network in 2014
• FOX's RSN package ends after the 2014 season. 

Sun Belt

• A slight decrease in coverage with two games on ESPN2 (down one from 2012) and four on ESPNU (down one from 2012)
• Late membership changes by FAU and Middle Tennessee as schedules were being drawn up could have affected the number of games chosen.
• Two additional games were placed on ESPNEWS
• A possible carryover from Texas St.'s time in the WAC was that the Longhorn Network carried three Texas St. football games.  The WAC allowed Longhorn Network to be considered a conference television platform into 2012.  
• Much like the MAC, all games that were not picked up for some form of television broadcast ended up as ESPN3 exclusives.

MWC TV Bonus Payout synopsis

When Boise St. withdrew its decision to leave the Mountain West, part of the term sheet agreed to was that the conference's TV revenues in football would have a new component based on games on widely viewed networks.  If a school appeared on a widely viewed network as part of the MW's television package, the competing schools would get a cut of revenue off the top.

The term sheet in question states that games on weeknights on significantly viewed networks (the term sheet defines those networks) would net the participating schools each $300K.  Any game that is on a Saturday earns an additional $200K ($500K total).  The bonuses are cumulative.

The MW TV revenue yearly average from both CBS Sports Network and ESPN were to be around $20 million.  Right now, I'm not taking into account whether the MW conference championship game is included in the bonus payments.  Here's what each school earned off the top before TV revenues are divided out.

Boise St. = $1.6 million (2 weeknight, 2 Saturday)
Fresno St. = $1.3 million (1 weeknight, 2 Saturday)
Wyoming = $1 million (2 Saturday)
San Diego St. = $800K (1 weeknight, 1 Saturday)
San Jose St. = $600K (2 weeknight)
New Mexico = $500K (1 Saturday)
Air Force = $300K (1 weeknight)
Nevada = $300K (1 weeknight)
Utah St. = $300K (1 weeknight)

Hawai'i is allegedly not part of the bonus system and instead gets to keep TV revenue from its PPV package.  Colorado St. and UNLV did not appear on any of the significantly viewed networks.  The remaining $13.3 million should be divided equally amongst the eleven schools.

CFB TV confirmations for Week 14

Not doing one of these for the 12/7 stuff.   Just follow twitter account and schedule site.

• Six day pick in place for some Big Ten games 
• Minnesota-Michigan St. - ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 at 12pm or 3:30pm
• Purdue at Indiana - BTN at either 12pm or 3:30pm
• Penn St. at Wisconsin - ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/BTN at 3:30pm
• ACC has two games on hold for ESPN2 (12pm or 3:30pm) & ESPNU (3:30pm)
• Virginia Tech-Virginia
• Duke-North Carolina
• Baylor-TCU will be either at 3:30pm (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2) or 8pm (ABC)
• UCLA-USC is a six day pick right now too. Same time slots as Baylor-TCU.

Week 14
My Guesses

12pm ABC & WatchABC: Ohio St. at Michigan

12pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Florida St. at Florida

12pm FOX Sports 1 & FOX Sports GO: Kansas St. at Kansas
12pm ESPNU: Rutgers at Connecticut

12pm SEC TV & ESPN3: Wake Forest at Vanderbilt

12:30pm ACC Network & ESPN3: Maryland at NC State

2pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: Utah at Colorado

2pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Air Force at Colorado St.

2:30pm FSN: North Texas at Tulsa

3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com: Alabama at Auburn

3:30pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2: Georgia at Georgia Tech

3:30pm BTN & BTN2GO: Northwestern at Illinois

3:30pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Boston College at Syracuse

4pm FOX Sports 1 & FOX Sports GO: Iowa St. at West Virginia

7pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Clemson at South Carolina

7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Tennessee at Kentucky

7:45pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Texas A&M at Missouri

9:30pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: Arizona at Arizona St.

10:15pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: New Mexico at Boise St.

10:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: San Diego St. at UNLV

CFB TV Guesses for 11/30

Week 14 Schedule

• Black Friday selections, except for any MAC games on ESPN3, were taken care of last night & early this morning.
• There is no scheduled 12pm American syndication game.  The 11/23 game was the last scheduled game of the American/Big East football syndication network, going back to the days of Creative Sports.
• I expect a six day pick to be used on the games that could affect the outcome of the ACC Coastal.
• An ACC Network split is possible
• FOX selected the Notre Dame-Stanford game before the season started & elected to play it on their broadcast network.  It, along with the Civil War and Apple Cup on Black Friday, represents their 22nd Pac-12 selection on the season, which means they won't have one available for the 12 day selection process.
• Last year, FOX and ABC air Pac-12 games concurrently in the evening, though the FOX game had a staggered start of 6:30pm ET (UCLA-Stanford) while ABC's game started at 8pm (Notre Dame-USC).  They could do that again, but I think the possibility of an undefeated Baylor is tough to pass up, even if TCU isn't a marquee opponent.  If they do elect to do staggered starts, swap the UCLA-USC and Baylor-TCU games on the TV windows.
• The Pac-12 Network windows are at 2pm ET and 9:30pm ET, respectively, which leads one to believe they are earmarked to games involving Mountain/Arizona time zone schools.  I think they would also try to keep the Territorial Cup and Crosstown Rivalry games in separate TV windows.
• The FSN timeslot is somewhat unusual, but they are airing a Big East basketball game at 12pm ET (Lipscomb-Georgetown).

Saturday 11/30

12pm ABC: Ohio St. at Michigan

12pm ESPN: Clemson at South Carolina

12pm ESPN2: Duke at North Carolina

12pm FOX Sports 1: Kansas St. at Kansas

12pm ESPNEWS: Rutgers at Connecticut

12pm ESPNU: Wake Forest at Vanderbilt

12pm BTN: Purdue at Indiana

12pm SEC TV: Tennessee at Kentucky

12:30pm ACC Network: Virginia Tech at Virginia

2pm Pac-12: Utah at Colorado

2pm FSN: North Texas at Tulsa

3:30pm CBS: Alabama at Auburn

3:30pm ABC: Minnesota at Michigan St.

3:30pm ESPN: UCLA at USC

3:30pm ESPN2: Penn St. at Wisconsin

3:30pm ESPNU: Boston College at Syracuse

3:30pm BTN: Northwestern at Illinois

3:30pm ACC RSNs: Maryland at NC State

4pm FOX Sports 1: Iowa St. at West Virginia

7pm ESPN: Texas A&M at Missouri

7pm ESPN2: Georgia at Georgia Tech

7pm ESPNU: Florida St. at Florida

8pm ABC: Baylor at TCU

9:30pm Pac-12: Arizona at Arizona St.

10:15pm ESPN2: New Mexico at Boise St.

10:30pm ESPNU: San Diego St. at UNLV

ESPN3

Temple at Memphis

Air Force at Colorado St.

11/23 CFB Six Day Guesses

There's enough games to make a set of guesses for games not quite set for 11/23.

• The Pac-12 was a tougher decision.  The Pac-12 Network picks before FOX Sports 1, so it really depends on the result of Stanford-USC.  A Stanford loss means that the Oregon-Arizona game has  meaning in the Pac-12 North.  A Stanford win, I think, clinches the Big Game for ESPN as it would be the last appearance for Stanford on ESPN until the Pac-12 title game.  So I'm assuming a Stanford win.
• The Pac-12 Network slot is a 7:30pm local time start, so 9:30pm ET if the game is in Boulder or Tuscon & 10:30pm ET if the game is in Palo Alto or Pasadena.
• I'm assuming a Miami win over Duke.
• With UCLA's win last night, I've made the assumption that Arizona St.-UCLA will put the winner in control of their own destiny in the Pac-12 South and the most important Pac-12 game.
• I did not use a reverse mirror at 3:30pm.  I think the Pac-12 game will be a full national cable game.  While two Big Ten games have been reverse mirrored before and in a very limited fashion, it really doesn't make much sense to do it again.

12pm ESPN: Michigan St. at Northwestern
12pm ESPN2: Virginia at Miami (FL)
12pn ESPNU: Duke at Wake Forest
12pm ESPNEWS: Cincinnati at Houston
12pm American: Memphis at Louisville
12pm BTN: Nebraska at Penn St.
3:30pm ABC: Indiana at Ohio St.
3:30pm ESPN: California at Stanford
3:30pm ESPN2: Wisconsin at Minnesota
3:30pm BTN Michigan at Iowa
4pm FOX Sports 1: USC at Colorado
7pm FOX: Arizona St. at UCLA
7pm ESPN2: Vanderbilt at Tennessee
7pm ESPNU: Kentucky at Georgia
9:30pm Pac-12 Network: Oregon at Arizona

CFB TV Confirmations for 11/23

11/23 Schedule
11/23 Guesses

EDIT (11/13): Big 12 selections came out on 11/12.

Six day picks where times have not been set
All Big Ten except Illinois-Purdue: 12pm ESPN or BTN, 3:30pm ABC, ESPN or BTN
Oregon at Arizona
California at Stanford
Arizona St. at UCLA
USC at Colorado

Open TV windows
12pm ESPN: Big Ten
12pm BTN (tentative): Big Ten
3:30pm ABC, ESPN or ESPN2: (Big 12, Big Ten or Pac-12)
3:30pm BTN: Big Ten
4pm FOX Sports 1: Pac-12
7pm FOX: Pac-12
9:30pm or 10:30pm Pac-12 Network: Pac-12 (depends on home team location)

12pm ESPN2/ESPNEWS/ESPNU: Virginia at Miami (FL)
12pm ESPN2/ESPNEWS/ESPNU: Duke at Wake Forest
12pm ESPN2/ESPNEWS/ESPNU/American: Memphis at Louisville
12pm ESPN2/ESPNEWS/ESPNU/American: Cincinnati at Houston
12pm FOX Sports 1: Oklahoma at Kansas St.
12pm BTN & BTN2Go: Illinois at Purdue
12pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Old Dominion at North Carolina
12pm SEC TV & ESPN3: Mississippi St. at Arkansas
12pm ESPN3 Exclusive: The Citadel at Clemson
12pm NBC RSNs: Maine at New Hampshire
12:30pm ACC Network (split) & ESPN3: Pittsburgh at Syracuse
12:30pm ACC Network (split) & ESPN3: East Carolina at NC State
1pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Massachusetts at Central Michigan
1pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Bowling Green at Eastern Michigan
1:30pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Alabama A&M at Georgia Tech
3pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Georgia St. at Arkansas St.
3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com: Texas A&M at LSU
3:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Idaho at Florida St.
3:30pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: Utah at Washington St.
3:30pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Boston College at Maryland
4pm ESPNEWS: New Mexico at Fresno St.
7pm ESPN2/ESPNU & WatchESPN: Kentucky at Georgia
7pm ESPN2/ESPNU & WatchESPN: Vanderbilt at Tennessee
7pm Longhorn Network: Western Kentucky at Texas St.
7pm ESPN3 Exclusive: SMU at USF
7pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Connecticut at Temple
7:45pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Missouri at Ole Miss
8pm ABC: Baylor at Oklahoma St.
8pm FOX Sports 1: Kansas at Iowa St.
10:30pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Washington at Oregon St.

CFB TV Guesses for 11/23

11/23 Schedule

* FOX broadcast network is only listing one CFB game for 11/23 at this time.  I guess they pick a Pac-12 game but I have no idea anymore.  FOX's contract says they have to do eight games on their broadcast network.  Maybe they compromised for this season, maybe its an average of eight but I think the word "average" would have been stated.  I'd reach out to the Pac-12, but I don't think I'm going to get a good answer.  I really don't know.
* By selecting two Pac-12 games for 11/23, FOX would be out of 12 day selections for the Pac-12.  They would have ND-Stanford on 11/30, which they selected before the season started.  ESPN, by selecting two games, has one available for 11/30.
* The ACC has a doubleheader in their RSN package
* FSN does not have any scheduled Big 12 or C-USA windows.
* NASCAR duties for ESPN have ended for the year, so an extra window at 3:30pm ET has opened up.
* With LSU-Alabama not a close game, at least by the final score, I think CBS finally gives Missouri a look.  I am aware that some affiliate has the A&M-LSU game in the guide data. Missouri is leading the SEC East after all and I believe a win clinches it for them.  I don't think CBS has a six day hold left to wait and see.
* Baylor-Oklahoma St. looks like a good choice for the ABC primetime game, but there are a few good choices in the Pac-12 and we could see both this game and a few Pac-12 choices (Oregon-Arizona, Arizona St.-UCLA, Washington-Oregon St. and Cal-Stanford) get placed into six day holds.
* Pac-12 Network says they have game telecasts at 3pm ET and 10:30pm ET.  That might not hold up, but they'll have two games.
* To accommodate USC-Colorado as a night game, I moved the ESPN2 window to 10pm.
* I could see a six day pick being used on the Duke-Wake Forest and Virginia-Miami (FL) games.  Winner of Miami-Duke on 11/16 gets the better TV slot.
* Opened up the 12pm ESPNEWS slot for the American
* Decided to give Fresno St. the 7pm ET slot on ESPN2.  The Bulldogs are off on 11/16 so there's no danger of a loss between now and next Sunday.

12pm ESPN: Indiana at Ohio St.
12pm ESPN2: Georgia at Kentucky
12pm FOX Sports 1: Kansas at Iowa St.
12pm ESPNEWS: Cincinnati at Houston
12pm ESPNU: Michigan St. at Northwestern
12pm BTN: Michigan at Iowa
12pm ACC RSNs: Duke at Wake Forest
12pm American: Memphis at Louisville
12pm SEC TV: Mississippi St. at Arkansas
12:30pm ACC Network: Boston College at Maryland
3pm Pac-12: Utah at Washington St.
3:30pm CBS: Missouri at Ole Miss
3:30pm ABC/ESPN: Minnesota at Wisconsin
3:30pm ABC/ESPN: Oregon at Arizona
3:30pm ESPN2: Virginia at Miami (FL)
3:30pm ESPNU: Pittsburgh at Syracuse
3:30pm BTN: Nebraska at Penn St.
3:30pm BTN: Illinois at Purdue
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Idaho at Florida St.
4pm FOX Sports 1: Kansas St. at Oklahoma
7pm FOX: Arizona St. at UCLA
7pm ESPN2: New Mexico at Fresno St.
7pm ESPNU: Vanderbilt at Tennessee
7:45pm ESPN: LSU at Texas A&M
8pm ABC: Baylor at Oklahoma St.
8pm FOX Sports 1: California at Stanford
10pm ESPN2: USC at Colorado
10:30pm Pac-12: Washington at Oregon St.

ESPN3 Exclusives
Alabama A&M at Georgia Tech
East Carolina at NC State
Old Dominion at North Carolina
The Citadel at Clemson
SMU at USF
Connecticut at Temple
Massachusetts at Central Michigan
Bowling Green at Eastern Michigan
Western Kentucky at Texas St.
Georgia St. at Arkansas St.

A quick guide on the college basketball schedules

Wanted to briefly bring up a few items on the college basketball schedules

* I'm not as detailed re: streaming coverage compared to the football side of the house.  If a game is on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPNEWS, its on WatchESPN too.  If a game is on ESPN Full Court, it will be available on ESPN3 though there might be some blackout restrictions due to in-market television coverage.  Games that will be on ESPN3 but not part of ESPN Full Court will have the ESPN3 designation.

* Full Court's season listings have not yet come out yet. I'm relying on ESPN's schedule page to be updated, plus my DirecTV guide. Hopefully I can add games farther out into the season in the near future.

* Speaking of ESPN3, it is really the only streaming option I list.  Not because of preference, but it is a catch all of sorts for me.  These schedules would be a lot longer, and a lot more time consuming for me, if I listed every game's streaming option.  I can get through it for college football because its one game per week and Division I is a lot smaller in football.  With that said, the Mountain West, WCC, Horizon League, NEC, Big West, Patriot League and others have free streaming for many of their non televised games.

* RSN blackouts - they happen.  DirecTV and Dish Network have a mind of their own sometimes.

* CBS generally doesn't publish coverage maps for their regional coverage of games.  I will usually rely on 506Sports.com and the maps created there.  If you want to know where a NFL game in the US, that's the place.

* Games where I have an RSN listing - I try to have those as updated as I can.  I try to have a preliminary list of RSNs out there for a game about a month in advance and then cross-check again about a week before the game.

* I have what I've been able to compile from schools, conferences, television networks, etc. but I know things are missing and appreciate anything that I can update or correct.  Please also respect that this schedules site is not my full time job and I may not be able to respond to everything that comes across my Twitter account or the email address for the site.

Thanks and enjoy the season.

CFB TV Six Day Guesses for 11/16.

• Oklahoma St. at Texas, to me, is still the top Big 12 game since Texas Tech has lost two conference games.  It goes to FOX in primetime, assuming neither OK St. nor Texas stumbles on Saturday.
• As much as I think Baylor should be shown on broadcast TV, I think Baylor-Texas Tech will end up on FOX Sports 1 with the Utah-Oregon game on FOX to help them fulfill their Pac-12 contractual obligations.  The stumbles of the Red Raiders are the contributing factor.
• I do not know if FOX will again have a doubleheader on the broadcast network on 11/23.  If they do, plans could change as they'll have another opportunity to fulfill Pac-12 obligations.  We might find out tomorrow as many TV services start to populate their listings for 11/23.
• Assuming an Auburn win, I believe they'll fill the CBS slot.  After that, an Alabama win should put them in the primetime ESPN slot.  If they lose to LSU, it probably depends on the results of Mississippi St.-Texas A&M and Florida-Vanderbilt and whether that makes Florida-South Carolina any more attractive to TV.
• I really don't see Florida St. losing.  Even if they do, it wouldn't move me to push that game to ESPNU and elevate Miami-Duke.  The winner of Miami-Duke will have a great deal of influence on the ACC Coastal race. 

12pm ESPN: Ohio St. at Illinois

12pm ESPN2: Indiana at Wisconsin

12pm FOX Sports 1: Iowa St. at Oklahoma

3:30pm CBS: Auburn at Georgia

3:30pm FOX: Utah at Oregon

3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 Reverse Mirror: Syracuse at Florida St.
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 Reverse Mirror: Michigan St. at Nebraska
3:30pm ESPNU: Miami (FL) at Duke

4pm FOX Sports 1: Baylor vs. Texas Tech

7pm ESPN2: Florida at South Carolina

7:30pm FOX: Oklahoma St. at Texas

7:45pm ESPN: Alabama at Mississippi St.

8pm ABC: Stanford at USC

Changes for 2013-14 Men's Basketball on Television

Let's get right to it. Season starts on Friday

* The ACC now is the occupant of the 7pm ET slot on ESPN's Big Monday.

* Look for the ACC First Round & American First Round (Wednesday) to air on ESPNU, ACC Second Round (Thursday) to be elevated to ESPN with the American Quarterfinals on ESPNU.  Friday is a little tricky.  The ACC evening quarterfinals or the American semis could air on ESPN or ESPN2.  The ACC afternoon quarters will be on ESPN2.

* Here's a look at Championship Week so far, along with its official start point.

* ESPNEWS will air 27 men's basketball games.  Nearly all of them will be from the American Athletic Conference with one coming from the Big 12.

* Speaking of the American, they did well with managing to get their entire conference schedule televised on channels available nationally.  ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, CBS and CBS Sports Network will carry every intraconference game.  The games on CBS Sports Network are part of a sublicensing deal that will run the entire length of the conference's deal with ESPN and includes football starting in 2014.

* FOX Sports 1 will become the home to the Big East, carrying the vast majority of the conference's games.  The network will also carry Pac-12 (22) and Conference USA (10) games that FOX has rights to.  The network will also carry a few neutral site games from the Barclays Center and become the home to the Big East tournament and portions of the Pac-12 tournament (even numbered years for the Pac-12).

* FSN, on a national level, will not carry any Pac-12 games.  They have replaced some of that content with around 18-20 Big East games.  In addition, they appear to have elevated about twenty Big 12 games, mostly non-conference games, to air across as many of their RSNs as possible.

* FOX Sports 2, previously known as Fuel TV, will carry close to twenty men's baskeball games.  Nearly all are Big East non-conference games, plus a pair of games (arguably the best games) from the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival.

* The Big East, much like the American, also had games sublicensed to CBS Sports Network.  The deal starts out relatively small and includes games on CBS broadcast network.  The number of games will increase starting with the 2014-15 season.  No idea if the deal's size increase to account for possible future expansion.  The sublicensing deal does not run the full length of FOX's deal with the Big East, so FOX could elect to keep these games in the future.

* With the sublicense deals with the Big East and American, CBS Sports Network has vaulted up the charts in my opinion to become a solid 2nd place among national cable networks for men's college basketball.  In addition to those two conferences, the network will air games from the Atlantic 10, Conference USA,  Mountain West, OVC, NEC and Patriot League, plus a handful of exempt events like the Great Alaska Shootout and the Paradise Jam.

* In conjunction with CBS Sports Network increasing its profile and carrying more Mountain West basketball games, NBCSN is dropping back a little.  They will continue to carry games from the CAA, Ivy League and Atlantic 10, but will no longer carry Mountain West sports, much like they did not carry any football games from the conference.

* Besides the new contracts for the American & Big East kicking in, the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West also have changes to their contracts that start up with this season.

* In addition to the Mountain West's expanded online presence, the West Coast Conference will also be more widely available via an increase in exposure through their partnership with Campus Insiders.

* The 2013-14 season is the final year of SEC basketball on CSS via sublicense from ESPN.  These games will revert back to the conference in 2014-15 to air on the SEC Network.

* Time Warner Sports Channel will handle the regional package for the Mid-American Conference after a three year deal with SportsTime Ohio.

Remaining TV window minimums/maximums to pay attention to..

An updated look at TV windows and appearance minimums/maximums.  Looked at these coming into November, so here's a refresh based on today's selections.  The SEC's selections, while not yet out, shouldn't make a difference.

American

• 21 conference controlled games have aired or will air on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.  The commitment is a minimum of 24, which should be easy to hit over the next four weeks.

Big 12

• All FOX commitments have been met.  Will have at least six games on broadcast network and six national games on FOX Sports 1.
• ABC/ESPN have used 14 Big 12 selections (4 ABC, 8 ESPN Networks, 2 Longhorn Network) and have five left to use over three weeks.  Nine of the selections have been full national.  Big 12 says that at least 13 must be full national.

Big Ten

• ABC/ESPN have used 35 of a maximum 41 selections (17 ABC, 18 ESPN Networks) with two weeks left.
• All BTN appearance requirements have been met. Every team has appeared at least twice with one of them as part of a conference game.

Pac-12

• All conference teams will be free to be selected by any TV package.  None will exceed a maximum of appearing nine times combined on FOX or ABC/ESPN platform.
• FOX has selected 20 of their maximum 22 games, leaving two games to pick over the final two weeks
• FOX has at least five games for their broadcast network and must air three more.  At least one of those three must be in primetime
• Only one of FOX's remaining three games can air on cable, not including Notre Dame at Stanford which is waiting for its network to be determined.  If their selection on 11/16 airs on FOX Sports 1, the remaining three selections that FOX has are supposed to air on their broadcast network.
• Since FOX has Notre Dame-Stanford on 11/30, that may be their only selection for the week and they might take two games next week.
• ABC/ESPN has selected 19 of their 22 games.  Three selections remaining.
• At least one of the four remaining games must be an ABC east coast primetime telecast, which will be filled by the 11/16 six day pick.

MWC

• Boise St. must appear on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 at least three times per season.  This requirement will be fulfilled by the Wyoming game on 11/16.

SEC

• LSU & Georgia have been selected four times in the CBS package and cannot exceed six selections and neither one will exceed based on remaining available games.

CFB TV Confirmations for 11/16

Will fill in as announced.  As we get closer to the end of the year, particularly with a few weeknight games that could affect conference standings, we might see more six day holds.

The schedule so far
My Guesses

Six day picks
Ohio St. at Illinois (12pm ESPN/ESPN2 or 3:30pm ABC w/ESPN2 reverse mirror)
Michigan St. at Nebraska (12pm ESPN/ESPN2 or 3:30pm ABC w/ESPN2 reverse mirror)
Stanford at USC (3:30pm FOX, 4pm FOX Sports 1 or 8pm ABC)
Utah at Oregon (3:30pm FOX, 4pm FOX Sports 1 or 8pm ABC)
Baylor vs. Texas Tech (12pm FS1, 3:30pm FOX, 4pm FS1 or 7:30pm FOX)
Iowa St. at Oklahoma (12pm FS1, 3:30pm FOX, 4pm FS1 or 7:30pm FOX)
Oklahoma St. at Texas (12pm FS1, 3:30pm FOX, 4pm FS1 or 7:30pm FOX)
Alabama at Mississippi St. (7pm ESPN2 or 7:45pm ESPN)
Georgia at Auburn (3:30pm CBS, 7pm ESPN2 or 7:45pm ESPN)
Florida at South Carolina (3:30pm CBS, 7pm ESPN2 or 7:45pm ESPN)

12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Indiana at Wisconsin

12pm ESPNEWS & WatchESPN: Cincinnati at Rutgers

12pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: 

12pm BTN & BTN2Go: Purdue at Penn St.
12pm FSN: West Virginia at Kansas

12pm American & ESPN3: UCF at Temple

12pm SEC TV & ESPN3: 

12:30pm ACC Network (split) & ESPN3: North Carolina at Pittsburgh

12:30pm ACC Network (split) & ESPN3: Maryland at Virginia Tech

12:30pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: NC State at Boston College
1pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Akron at Massachusetts

2pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: Washington St. at Arizona
2pm ESPN3 Exclusive: UL-Lafayette at Georgia St.
3pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Connecticut at SMU

3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com: 

3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 or ESPNU: Syracuse at Florida St.

3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 or ESPNU: Miami (FL) at Duke

3:30pm FSN: TCU at Kansas St.

3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go: Michigan at Northwestern

5:30pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: California at Colorado

7pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: 

7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Houston at Louisville
7pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Memphis at USF

7:45pm ESPN & WatchESPN: 

9:30pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: Oregon St. at Arizona St.

10:15pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Wyoming at Boise St.

10:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: San Jose St. at Nevada

11/16 CFB TV Guesses

The schedule so far

* I figured that Stanford-USC would look appealing to ABC in the primetime slot as Baylor-Texas Tech has lost some of its luster with two straight losses.
* With that said, I get the feeling that this would be a good week to hold a six day pick on the Pac-12 and Big 12 to see how the results of Oklahoma-Baylor and Stanford-Oregon come out to get the best game.  Oklahoma St.-Texas is sitting out there as well and could mean more to the conference title race in the event of a Baylor loss.
* FOX added a 3:30pm CFB window and moved the primetime window to 7:30pm.
* Conversely, FOX has dumped their 10pm FS1 window.  Found that out this morning when looking through TV listings.
* I thought about putting Alabama-Mississippi St. on CBS, but I wanted to go with what I felt would be the more competitive game.
* No more SEC games on FSN this year.  They've run through all of their telecast windows.
* There are two FSN national windows scheduled.  Both are set to be Big 12 games.
* Pac-12 Network lists their game windows at 2pm, 5:30pm and 9:30pm ET, respectively.
* Wyoming-Boise St. was set for ESPN2 to fulfill a requirement that Boise St. must appear on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 at least three times during a season.  Part of the MW term sheet that was agreed upon when the MW contract with ESPN was signed.

12pm ESPN: Indiana at Wisconsin

12pm ESPN2: Ohio St. at Illinois

12pm FOX Sports 1: West Virginia at Kansas 

12pm ESPNEWS: Houston at Louisville

12pm ESPNU: Miami (FL) at Duke

12pm BTN: Purdue at Penn St.
12pm FSN: Iowa St. at Oklahoma

12pm American: Cincinnati at Rutgers

12pm SEC TV: Kentucky at Vanderbilt

12:30pm ACC Network: NC State at Boston College

12:30pm ACC RSNs: North Carolina at Pittsburgh

2pm Pac-12: California at Colorado

3:30pm FOX: Oregon St. at Arizona St.

3:30pm CBS: Georgia at Auburn

3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Syracuse at Florida St.

3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Michigan St. at Nebraska

3:30pm ESPNU: Maryland at Virginia Tech
3:30pm FSN: TCU at Kansas St.

3:30pm BTN: Michigan at Northwestern

4pm FOX Sports 1: Baylor vs. Texas Tech

5pm Pac-12: Utah at Oregon

7pm ESPN2: Florida at South Carolina

7pm ESPNU: Troy at Ole Miss

7:30pm FOX: Oklahoma St. at Texas

7:45pm ESPN: Alabama at Mississippi St.

8pm ABC: Stanford at USC
9:30pm Pac-12: Washington St. at Arizona

10:15pm ESPN2:  Wyoming at Boise St.

10:15pm ESPNU:  San Jose St. at Nevada

TBA ESPN3

Connecticut at SMU
Memphis at USF
UCF at Temple
Akron at Massachusetts

CFB TV Confirmations for 11/9

Scheduled games as of this morning
My Guesses (revised version)

Florida St.-Wake Forest, Notre Dame-Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech-Miami (FL) are on six day hold. I *think* the options are 12pm ABC (possibly no reverse mirror), 8pm ABC, evening ESPN.  I believe the 12pm ESPN & ESPNU windows are for the SEC.

Six day network pick in SEC for ESPNU and FOX RSNs.  Either Missouri-Kentucky or Vanderbilt at Florida.  12pm ET kickoff time either way.

12pm ABC & WatchABC: Kansas St. at Texas Tech
12pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Auburn at Tennessee
12pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Penn St. at Minnesota
12pm FSN: TCU at Iowa St.

12pm BTN & BTN2GO: Iowa at Purdue
12pm SEC TV & ESPN3: Arkansas at Ole Miss
12pm American & ESPN3: SMU at Cincinnati
12:30pm ACC Network & ESPN3: Virginia at North Carolina
1pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Western Michigan at Eastern Michigan
3pm FOX: USC at California
3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com: Mississippi St. at Texas A&M
3:30pm ABC or ESPN: BYU at Wisconsin
3:30pm ABC or ESPN: Nebraska at Michigan
3:30pm BTN & BTN2GO: Illinois at Indiana
3:30pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Syracuse at Maryland
4pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: Arizona St. at Utah
4pm FOX Sports 1 & FOX Sports GO: Kansas at Oklahoma St.
4pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: NC State at Duke
4:30pm ESPN3 Exclusive: UT Martin at Memphis
7pm FOX: Texas at West Virginia
7pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Houston at UCF
7pm ESPN3 Exclusive: Arkansas St. at UL-Monroe
8pm CBS & CBSSports.com: LSU at Alabama
8pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Utah St. at UNLV
8pm Pac-12 & Pac-12.com: Colorado at Washington
10pm ESPN & WatchESPN: UCLA at Arizona
10:15pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Fresno St. at Wyoming

Revised 11/9 CFB TV Guesses

Sorry.  Had to alter for several reasons.
* I forgot to account for a NASCAR race, so there isn't a standalone ESPN or ESPN2 window at 3:30pm in addition to an ABC plus reverse mirror window.
* During the week, ESPN added an late evening ESPN2 window and moved up the kick times of both of the late evening windows to 10:15pm ET
* ESPN also changed the start times of their midday (4pm ET) and primetime ESPNU (8pm) windows
* FOX Sports 1 will only have two game windows instead of three.  Their original release had an 8pm window, but that has disappeared due to a UFC commitment.

* CBS is exclusive at both 3:30pm and 8pm, so all of ESPN's SEC commitments are in the early afternoon.
* I still see a decent chance that a six day pick is used on the SEC, either by CBS or ESPN.  LSU-Alabama seems to be a lock.
* BTN has game windows at both 12pm and 3:30pm.  With the Big Ten's stance against night games, I assumed this carried into the possibility of playing in the 4pm ESPNU slot and did not slot them there.
* Pac-12 Network schedules say their windows are at 3pm & 10:30pm ET.  I think they'll move the later one up by a half hour.
* I really tried hard to get Houston-UCF onto ABC and I couldn't find a good way to do it.  4pm ESPNU I thought was better than burying it at the same time as LSU-Alabama.
* Also tried to get the Fresno St.-Wyoming game to be slotted for a start time earlier in the day and didn't see a good way to do it without starting the game at 10am MT.  Has that been done with Mountain West teams?  Yeah.
* I'm not totally sold on Utah St.-UNLV on ESPN2.  It was the last window I filled in.
* Not sold on Notre Dame-Pitt solo at 12pm either, but I really can't picture ND on ESPNU.  At least not until ESPN goes & schedules them for the 8pm ESPNU window.
* Virginia Tech-Miami seems like the best available game for ABC at 8pm though.  Requirement for Big Ten to be full national, plus no night games in November, fouls things up to when trying to move games around.

12pm ABC: Notre Dame at Pittsburgh
12pm ESPN: BYU at Wisconsin
12pm ESPN2: Missouri at Kentucky
12pm FOX Sports 1: TCU at Iowa St.
12pm ESPNEWS: Fresno St. at Wyoming
12pm ESPNU: Mississippi St. at Texas A&M
12pm BTN: Penn St. at Minnesota
12pm BTN: Illinois at Indiana
12pm SEC/FSN Regional: Arkansas at Ole Miss
12pm SEC TV: Vanderbilt at Florida
12pm American: SMU at Cincinnati
12:30pm ACC Network: NC State at Duke
3pm Pac-12: Arizona St. at Utah
3:30pm CBS: Auburn at Tennessee
3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror: Nebraska at Michigan
3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror: Kansas St. at Texas Tech
3:30pm BTN: Iowa at Purdue
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Virginia at North Carolina
4pm FOX Sports 1: Kansas at Oklahoma St.
4pm ESPNU: Houston at UCF
7pm FOX: UCLA at Arizona
7pm ESPN: Florida St. at Wake Forest
7pm ESPN2: Texas at West Virginia
8pm CBS: LSU at Alabama
8pm ABC: Virginia Tech at Miami (FL)
8pm ESPNU: Syracuse at Maryland
10pm Pac-12: Colorado at Washington
10:15pm ESPN: USC at California
10:15pm ESPN2: Utah St. at UNLV

CFB TV Guesses for 11/9

Quick postscript on 10/26 re:  FOX's decision to put TCU-Texas on FOX Sports 2 & FSN - Works for me if it covers everyone.  Makes sense in this context: Texas Tech-Oklahoma was on FOX, so to keep as much of that audience as possible, go with the most carried cable channel available (FOX News).  FS1 is in less homes than either F/X or FNC, so I guess they could have stepped down to FXX to replace or do the hybrid coverage that they did.  Yes I know FS2 isn't offered everywhere in HD.  Hey, FOX Sports Ohio HD is still part time on DirecTV and the Cleveland feed (660-1) did not get Oklahoma St.-Iowa St. in HD yesterday.

On to the 11/9 picks.

* For those of you who complain to me that Saturday looks empty every week, this week you have a reason to complain.  They took every that was decent, minus LSU-Alabama, and threw it on Thursday night (Oklahoma-Baylor & Oregon-Stanford).
* For what is currently available to ABC, now that Big Ten games can't air in the evening, Virginia Tech-Miami (FL) looks like the best available game and that's with the Hokies loss.  Slight chance Notre Dame-Pitt slips in there, but Pitt managed to lose to Navy.
* We're now on standard time, so the Arizona schools now fall in line with the Mountain Time Zone.
* CBS doubleheader with a primetime game.  This means they'll select the top two SEC games this week
* FOX RSNs will have an SEC game at 12pm ET instead of the evening because of CBS's exclusive window
* FSN selected Tulsa-East Carolina with a start time of 3:45pm
* It is possible that CBS will use a six day hold on the 3:30pm window.  LSU-Alabama seems like a no-brainner.  They may desire to showcase Missouri-Kentucky or the Auburn-Tennessee game.
* Maybe, just maybe, FOX will pick a Pac-12 game to air in primetime.  They don't have much flexibility left.  And with very little flexibility left, I have a Big 12 tripleheader on FOX Sports 1.
* Pac-12 Network schedules have games at 3pm & 10:30pm ET, respectively.
* I think there's a chance, a small chance, that they could pass on doing a reverse mirror at 3:30pm ET.  Just place one game each on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2

12pm ABC: BYU at Wisconsin
12pm ESPN: Penn St. at Minnesota
12pm ESPN2: Missouri at Kentucky
12pm FOX Sports 1: TCU at Iowa St.
12pm ESPNU: Vanderbilt at Florida
12pm BTN: Illinois at Indiana
12pm SEC/FSN Regional: Mississippi St. at Texas A&M
12pm SEC TV: Arkansas at Ole Miss
12pm American: SMU at Cincinnati
12:30pm ACC Network: Syracuse at Maryland
3pm Pac-12: Arizona St. at Utah
3:30pm CBS: Auburn at Tennessee
3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror: Houston at UCF
3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror: Nebraska at Michigan
3:30pm ESPN/ESPN2: Notre Dame at Pittsburgh
3:30pm ESPNU: NC State at Duke
3:30pm BTN: Iowa at Purdue
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Virginia at North Carolina
4pm FOX Sports 1: Kansas at Oklahoma St.
7pm FOX: UCLA at Arizona
7pm ESPN: Florida St. at Wake Forest
7pm ESPN2: Kansas St. at Texas Tech
7pm ESPNU: Fresno St. at Wyoming
8pm CBS: LSU at Alabama
8pm ABC: Virginia Tech at Miami (FL)
8pm FOX Sports 1: Texas at West Virginia
10:30pm ESPN: Colorado at Washington
10:30pm ESPNU: Utah St. at UNLV
10:30pm Pac-12: USC at California

Handling of the Texas Tech-Oklahoma & World Series Game 3 overlap

EDIT: If you've seen my twitter at all on 10/26, you can bypass most of this.

Looking at it from the outside, FOX hit a programmer's nightmare tonight.  A weather delay in the Texas Tech-Oklahoma game delayed kickoff by 75 minutes (start time approximately 4:45pm ET) and pushed the game to air on FOX News Channel as FOX scheduled their World Series pregame show to start promptly at 7:30pm ET.  Let's take a look at a few items

1) Did FOX leave themselves enough time between events?  I would say they left themselves with enough time between events under normal circumstances.  Most college football games are budgeted to fit in three hour & thirty minute windows with some exceptions.  FOX gave themselves four hours to play with, budgeting the last 30 minutes for a postgame show that I assume could have been cut short and run right into the World Series pregame in the event of overtime.

Weather delays happen.  In fact, one happened between these two teams in Norman on 10/22/2011, delaying kickoff for 90 minutes.  Without having any great statistics on hand, I've seen more weather delays early in the season during the late summer over all of college football.

Maybe FOX, in the interest of not having to shift a game away from their broadcast network, would consider starting the game earlier in the future.  Whether there are issues with that when it comes to syndicated football telecasts would have to be considered by the markets affected.

2) Why was FOX News Channel chosen over FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2 or F/X?  I don't have an answer from FOX on that.  Here's what I can see:

• FOX Sports 1 was booked solid with college football.  Texas-TCU was just coming on the air as FOX moved the game over.  I don't think it would have been an option to move Texas-TCU around to another network.  Someone made the valid point that its better to see the end of a game than the beginning and I'm going not to argue that point.  But it coincides with the next item
  
• FOX News Channel has the most subscribing homes of any FOX cable property.  As of August, the channel was in slightly more homes than F/X by roughly 30,000.  A negligible number.  But it is about 12 million more homes than FOX Sports 1.  In my opinion, moving the game to FS1 and TCU-Texas to another channel on short notice would have created even more confusion.  Better to confuse two fan bases than four I guess.  EDIT: Texas-TCU also went into a weather delay in the 2nd quarter, likely pushing the start of Cal-Washington to another network I assume. 
• I thought F/X was a the best option, until a user over at the forums of 506Sports.com informed me that there was a Sleepy Hollow marathon today that ended at 6pm ET for the east coast feed.  F/X is timeshifted for the Mountain and Pacific time zones though and this would have occurred in the middle of the marathon (F/X was airing an X-Men movie starting at 6pm ET).  While all of the Sleepy Hollow episodes to date are available at FOX.com, my guess is that these are the first time these episodes have been repeated on television.  Just a guess, so if I'm wrong about the Sleepy Hollow episodes, forgive me as I'm not a follower of the show, but from what I'm seeing over at TVByTheNumbers.com, it sounds like it is a top 20 show in terms of ratings.  Either way, there was programming on both F/X feeds that FOX decided was not worth pre-empting for 45 minutes.
  
• FOX Sports 2 isn't a viable option right now.  While it was airing the replay of a UFC event, it just isn't in enough subscribing homes, around 37 million.  Only 43% of the homes who get FOX Sports 1 also get FOX Sports 2, assuming every FS2 household gets FS1.  Carriage for the channel needs to ramp up to make it a true companion to FS1.
  
• Digital subchannels of FOX affiliates weren't really an option on short notice either for a myriad of reasons.  
• In smaller markets, the FOX affiliate might be the digital subchannel.  Conversely, another "Big Four" network affiliate could be the subchannel of the FOX affiliate.
• I don't believe local stations are required to multicast
• As I understand it, digital subchannels that are not "Big Four" affiliates are not required to be carried by pay TV providers.  So if they stuck the game on a -2 DT subchannel that carried MeTV or ThisTV, it isn't guaranteed to be available via pay TV providers
• Yes, you could get out a set of rabbit ears.  I tried it for the fun of it.  Where I live is 34 miles northeast of the WJW transmitter in Parma.  I had a weak signal w/rabbit ears & UHF loop.  Per AntennaWeb.org, my best bet would have been a large, directional antenna.  Not an option on short notice.

3) Why not push the World Series to another network?  That isn't an option, apparently not even the pregame show.  Remember a few weeks ago where the Pac-12 was trying to get UCLA-Stanford out of a possible FS1 late evening on the east coast slot?  FOX had ALCS commitments that it couldn't move (at least not this year) and the World Series is a non-starter.  FOX pays good money and much of it is earmarked towards the playoff baseball it carries, which does decent ratings.  The World Series is the only portion of the playoffs that FOX's broadcast network must air in their new deal.  It is valued, much more than a single college football game.

4) I think the first notice on Twitter that I saw of the game moving to FOX News Channel was shortly after kickoff.   I didn't see anything from the FOX accounts I monitor until around 75 minutes before the cutover (6:15pm ET).  I honestly don't remember the first mention of the game moving over and whether it was mentioned during halftime.   I did find it funny that a couple FOX PR folks and talent were tweeting to turn over to FNC after the game had moved.  Might have wanted to do that before hand.  With that said, Twitter is not the "be all, end all" place for this to be announced.

5) Two nit picks

• FOX really should have just cut over at the end of the 3rd quarter.  There was no sense starting the 4th quarter on FOX and trying to cut between Texas Tech offensive plays, especially because of their quick pace of play.  Why risk missing a play as people are changing the channel?  They had a natural break and should have used it if it was possible.  I'm also not sure how much time and communication would have been needed to cut over at the end of the quarter vs. at a specific time.
  
• FOX really needs to figure out a digital strategy.  FOX Sports Go is still in the soft launch phase on Apple devices only.  The number of pay TV providers that have access to FOX Sports Go is relatively small.  If they had a decent digital strategy, maybe they have more flexibility with the World Series pregame show and the ability to move football game to FOX Sports 1 and push TCU-Texas online for a short amount of time.  Or maybe that leads to even more confusion as I noted earlier.

CFB TV Confirmations for 11/2

Schedule for Week Ten
My Guesses

Six day hold on kickoff times for Tennessee at Missouri and Auburn at Arkansas

12pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2: Virginia Tech at Boston College
12pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2: Wisconsin at Iowa
12pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2: Illinois at Penn St.
12pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Army at Air Force
12pm BTN & BTN2Go: Ohio St. at Purdue
12pm SEC TV & ESPN3: Mississippi St. at South Carolina
12:30pm ACC Network & ESPN3: North Carolina at NC State
12:30pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Wake Forest at Syracuse
3:30pm ABC: Michigan at Michigan St.
3:30pm ABC w/ESPN Reverse Mirror or ESPN: Clemson at Virginia
3:30pm FOX Sports 1 & FOX Sports GO: Iowa St. at Kansas St.
3:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: West Virginia at TCU
3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go: Minnesota at Indiana
3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go: Northwestern at Nebraska
3:30pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Arizona at California
7pm FOX: Oklahoma St. at Texas Tech
7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech
7:30pm FOX Sports 1 & FOX Sports GO: Colorado at UCLA
7:30pm SEC/CSS & ESPN3: Alabama St. at Kentucky
8pm ABC & WatchABC: Miami (FL) at Florida St.
9pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: UTEP at Texas A&M
10:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Nevada at Fresno St.

CFB TV Guesses for 11/2

Schedule for Week Ten

* ABC has three telecast windows.  Noon, 3:30pm and 8pm.
* With the SEC having an unusual day, if you will, I could see a 12 day pick for their games from ESPN.  * * Florida St.'s convincing win made Miami (FL) at Florida St. to be the best available game to ABC that was eligible for a primetime slot, at least in my mind.  Oklahoma St. at Texas Tech is second of the available games to ABC for prime time, which is why is earned a national slot at 12pm.
* You could make a good case for just three games on ABC and all full national (Michigan-Michigan St., Miami-FSU & Oklahoma St.-Texas Tech).  Just place Virginia Tech-Boston College full national on ESPN.  No reverse mirror.
* Indiana at Minnesota is a homecoming game for the Gophers and must kick off at 3:30pm ET.
* Georgia vs. Florida was pre-selected before the season by CBS.  Both schools prefer that it not be a nighttime kickoff and CBS guaranteed it a 3:30pm kickoff.
* The American has only one game on 11/2 (Temple at Rutgers) and was already set to air in their syndication package
* The noon ESPNEWS slot, if you can call it that (its still feels more like a trend), has a MEAC game, so it isn't available.
* Middle Tennessee at UAB was set for a FSN telecast at 1pm ET several weeks ago.
* Kansas at Texas was set aside as a Longhorn Network/Jayhawk Network telecast.  LHN is the national provider for the game, except in select markets in Kansas and the Kansas City metro area.
* ESPN snagged two Pac-12 games for Thursday & Friday night.  Coupled with the lack of a late evening window (ie 10pm/10:30pm ET), I'm assuming they aren't taking a Pac-12 game for any of their platforms.
* Colorado at UCLA isn't a "quality" Pac-12 contest compared to others the previous few weeks, but if you are "behind" on taking Pac-12 games, can showcase a ranked (for the moment) team in UCLA to the nation, and know that ABC isn't going to show a Pac-12 game in primetime, you take it.  That's why I think FOX uses this week to burn off one Pac-12 selection to give them some flexibility with the Big 12 if they need it later.
* The Pac-12 Network advance schedule has one game at 12pm PT / 3pm ET.  California must have one of its last four games air on Pac-12 Networks.  Might as well get it out of the way now.
* Choosing Ohio St.-Purdue fulfills BTN's requirement for Ohio St. to be shown on the network twice and at least once during conference play.

12pm ABC: Oklahoma St. at Texas Tech
12pm ESPN: Wisconsin at Iowa
12pm ESPN2: Nebraska at Northwestern
12pm FOX Sports 1: Iowa St. at Kansas St.
12pm ESPNU: Illinois at Penn St.
12pm BTN: Ohio St. at Purdue
12pm SEC TV: UTEP at Texas A&M
12:30pm ACC Network: North Carolina at NC State
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Wake Forest at Syracuse
3pm Pac-12 Network: Arizona at California
3:30pm ABC with ESPN Reverse Mirror: Michigan at Michigan St.
3:30pm ABC with ESPN Reverse Mirror: Virginia Tech at Boston College
3:30pm ESPNU: Army at Air Force
3:30pm BTN: Indiana at Michigan St.
6pm ESPN2: Clemson at Virginia
7pm FOX: Colorado at UCLA
7pm ESPNU: Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech
7:30pm SEC/CSS: Mississippi St. at South Carolina
7:45pm ESPN: Tennessee at Missouri
8pm ABC: Miami (FL) at Florida St.
8pm FOX Sports 1: West Virginia at TCU
9:15pm ESPN2: Auburn at Arkansas
10:30pm ESPNU: Nevada at Fresno St.

TBA PPV/Local: Alabama St. at Kentucky

Bowl eligibility picture for 2013-14

WashingtonI used to have this on the Bowls page of the main site, but after changing it over this summer, I got rid of it.  Here's the bowl eligibility status for 2013-14.  Will update this every week.

Note that Penn St. is ineligible due to NCAA sanctions.  UTSA is reclassifying and is only bowl eligible if they meet existing eligibility guidelines and there are not enough eligible teams to fill bowl games.  There are more than 70 eligible teams, so I believe UTSA will not be invited to a bowl.

2013-14 Bowl Game Schedule

Conference	Eligible	Working Towards Eligibility	Not Eligible
American	Cincinnati Houston Louisville Rutgers UCF		Connecticut Memphis SMU Temple USF
ACC	Boston College Clemson Duke Florida St. Georgia Tech Maryland Miami (FL) North Carolina Pittsburgh Syracuse Virginia Tech		NC State Virginia Wake Forest
Big 12	Baylor Kansas St. Oklahoma Oklahoma St. Texas Texas Tech		Iowa St. Kansas TCU West Virginia
Big Ten	Iowa Michigan Michigan St. Minnesota Nebraska Ohio St. Wisconsin		Illinois Indiana Northwestern Penn St. Purdue
C-USA	East Carolina FAU Marshall Middle Tennessee North Texas Rice Tulane		FIU Louisiana Tech Southern Miss Tulsa UAB UTEP UTSA
Independents	BYU Navy Notre Dame		Army Idaho New Mexico St.
MAC	Ball St. Bowling Green Buffalo Central Michigan Northern Illinois Ohio Toledo		Akron Eastern Michigan Kent St. Massachusetts Miami (OH) Western Michigan
Mountain West	Boise St. Colorado St. Fresno St. San Diego St. San Jose St. UNLV Utah St.		Air Force Hawai'i Nevada New Mexico Wyoming
Pac-12	Arizona Arizona St. Oregon Oregon St. Stanford USC UCLA Washington Washington St.		California Colorado Utah
SEC	Alabama Auburn Georgia LSU Mississippi St. Missouri Ole Miss South Carolina Texas A&M Vanderbilt		Arkansas Florida Kentucky Tennessee
Sun Belt	Arkansas St. South Alabama Texas St. Troy UL-Lafayette UL-Monroe Western Kentucky		Georgia St.

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.

SEC

* 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.