CFB TV Confirmations for Week Seven - 10/11/14

The schedule so far
My guesses for Week Seven

Six day hold for five SEC games

12pm ABC: Oklahoma vs. Texas
12pm ESPN: Florida St. at Syracuse
12pm ESPN2: Illinois at Wisconsin
12pm FS1: West Virginia at Texas Tech
12pm ESPNU: Indiana at Iowa
12pm ESPNEWS: Tulsa at Temple
12pm FSN: Middle Tennessee at Marshall
12pm SEC: UL-Monroe at Kentucky
12pm BTN: Northwestern at Minnesota
12pm ACC RSNs: Cincinnati at Miami (FL)
12:30pm ACC Net: Duke at Georgia Tech
1pm ESPN3: Buffalo at Eastern Michigan
2pm ESPN3: Arkansas St. at Georgia St.
2pm ESPN3: Miami (OH) at Akron
2pm ESPN3: Bowling Green at Ohio
3pm ESPN3: New Mexico St. at Troy
3pm ESPN3: Western Michigan at Ball St.
3:30pm FOX: Oregon at UCLA
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Michigan St. at Purdue
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2/ESPNU: Louisville at Clemson
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2/ESPNU: TCU at Baylor
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Boston College at NC State
3:30pm ESPN3: Liberty at Appalachian St.
4pm FS1: Oklahoma St. at Kansas
4pm SEC: Chattanooga at Tennessee
5pm ESPN3: Central Michigan at Northern Illinois
6pm Pac-12: Washington at California
6pm ESPN3: Idaho at Georgia Southern
7pm ESPN2: Penn St. at Michigan
7pm ESPNU: East Carolina at USF
7pm CBSSN: Houston at Memphis
7:30pm SEC/FSN: Charleston Southern at Vanderbilt
8pm ESPNEWS: Connecticut at Tulane
10:15pm ESPNU: Air Force at Utah St.
10:30pm ESPN2: USC at Arizona

CFB TV Guesses for 10/11

Current schedule for Week Seven

* CBS has two SEC games on 10/11.  One at 12pm and one at 3:30pm.  When this happens, CBS does not have the top two choices, but they choose first and fourth.  In between, ESPN gets to choose.  I am not sure if ESPN can/will/is allowed to use either of those two picks in between to place games on SEC Network.
* It is realistic for a SEC six day pick for the Auburn-Mississippi St. & Ole Miss-Texas A&M games in my opinion.  Said that last week too though.  I would think one for the Pac-12 would be possible, but one was used for 10/4.
* FOX only has a 3:30pm window.  Game 1 of the NLCS in the evening.  I am moderately curious as to whether FOX would attempt the same ratings grab that they did last year by pushing a better matchup to FS1, in last year's case it was Oregon-Washington.
* I think FOX has the top choice of the Pac-12, based on ESPN likely choosing Texas vs. OU for ABC at 12pm as the top Big 12 choice & Washington St.-Stanford being set aside by ESPN for a Friday night game.  Kinda curious too if FOX would put Baylor at TCU on FS1 instead at 12pm instead of West Virginia at Texas Tech.  There is no exclusivity in Big 12 telecast windows, so FOX could air whatever game they want opposite ABC or ESPN's game.
* FS1 also only has windows at 12pm & 3:30pm ET due to a simulcast of NLCS Game 1 from a metrics-based perspective.
* Per the MSG & YES websites, there will be a 12pm-3:30pm ACC RSN doubleheader, plus a SEC game at 7:30pm per Bob Rathbun and other FOX RSNs.
* ABC does not have a primetime window due to NASCAR.  Games at 12pm & 3:30pm
* Penn St. at Michigan is set for a 7pm start.  Same with Indiana at Iowa at 12pm.  Network decision is the only item being decided here.
* Pac-12 Networks only has one scheduled window at 4pm ET.
* Some TV listings do not have a 2nd TV window on BTN on 10/11.  BTN.com lists a four hour TBA window at 4:30pm.  We shall see.  To make things work here, I only used one game on BTN at 12pm.

12pm ABC: Texas vs. Oklahoma
12pm CBS: Georgia at Missouri
12pm ESPN: Illinois at Wisconsin
12pm ESPN2: Duke at Georgia Tech
12pm FS1: West Virginia at Texas Tech
12pm ESPNU: Indiana at Iowa
12pm ESPNEWS: Tulsa at Temple
12pm FSN: Middle Tennessee at Marshall
12pm SEC: UL-Monroe at Kentucky
12pm BTN: Northwestern at Minnesota
12pm ACC RSNs: Boston College at NC State
12:30pm ACC Net: Louisville at Clemson
3:30pm CBS: Auburn at Mississippi St.
3:30pm FOX: Oregon at UCLA
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Michigan St. at Purdue
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Florida St. at Syracuse
3:30pm FOX Sports 1: TCU at Baylor
3:30pm ESPNU: East Carolina at USF
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Cincinnati at Miami (FL)
4pm SEC: Charleston Southern at Vanderbilt
4pm Pac-12: USC at Arizona
6pm ESPN: Ole Miss at Texas A&M
7pm ESPN2: Penn St. at Michigan
7pm ESPNU: Oklahoma St. at Kansas
7pm CBSSN: Connecticut at Tulane
7:30pm SEC: LSU at Florida
7:30pm SEC/FSN: Chattanooga at Tennessee
8pm ESPNEWS: Houston at Memphis
9pm ESPN: Alabama at Arkansas
10:30pm ESPN2: Washington at California
10:30pm ESPNU: Air Force at Utah St.

ESPN College Gameday (Basketball Edition) Going to Flexible Schedules?

* It appears that most of ESPN's College Gameday basketball schedule, especially the final two weeks, will be flexible selections.  Looks like it starts on 1/17.  All times Eastern and all of the Gameday games are on ESPN.

• 1/17: West Virginia at Texas OR Kansas at Iowa St. at 9pm
• The other game will be shown on ESPN/ESPN2 at 6pm 
• 1/24: Michigan St. at Nebraska OR Wisconsin at Michigan at 7pm
• The other game will air at 4pm on ESPN/ESPN2 at 4pm
• Start time is earlier, presumably, due to X Games
• 1/31: North Carolina at Louisville OR Duke at Virginia at 7pm
• The other game will air at 4pm on ESPN/ESPN2 at 4pm
• Start time is earlier due to an NBA game at 9pm
• 2/7: Kentucky at Florida at 9pm
• 2/14: Connecticut at SMU at 9pm
• 2/21: UCLA at Arizona at 9pm

The games they appear to be leaning towards on 2/28 & 3/7 are both ACC games.  For 2/28, Syracuse at Duke was the only game the ACC release said was specifically going to air on ESPN.  On 3/7, Duke at North Carolina will air at 6pm or in the Gameday slot, but there was not another game that was specifically set aside to take its place.  But most of the schedule for ESPN/ESPN2 on 2/28 & 3/7 are not set in any way.

* C-USA released their FOX & CBS Sports Network MBK schedules and a few items are new.

• CBS broadcast network is truly no longer sublicensing the conference's tournament championship game from FOX.  FOX Sports 1 will carry the game instead.  CBS Sports Network, which has the rights to carry all other portions of the conference tournament, will continue to carry the semifinals.
• Why is there a gap between the C-USA final at 1:30pm and the Big East final at 8pm. NASCAR's Xfinity Series schedule says the race on 3/14 from Las Vegas will air on the broadcast network, so the only thing that could interfere is if FS1 is carrying Happy Hour practice.  Maybe FS1 will be carrying a spring training game that day.  Just not sure.
• FOX Sports 1 is only carrying three regular games and only one of those is an intraconference game (UTEP at Louisiana Tech on 2/26).  FSN will carry seven regular season games instead.
• My guess, and this is only a guess, is that FOX has guaranteed the conference a certain level of coverage for their games and that level of coverage cannot yet be met by the number of homes subscribing to FOX Sports 2.  So while there are pockets of the country not serviced by RSNs carrying FSN programming, the number of homes that do receive FSN programming still outnumber those receiving FS2.
• Of the non-conference games available, Washington St. at UTEP was not chosen.  My assumption is that neither FOX nor CBS could provide it a tip time before 10:30pm ET / 8pm MT, so they passed on it.  

* FOX put out a release for its entire college basketball schedule.  A few items on it, or missing from it, of note:

• It did not have the Iowa St. vs. South Carolina game from Barclays Center.  I'm reasonably confident this one is airing on CBS Sports Network now that the C-USA schedule for that network has been announced
• FS1 will carry one of the games from the Orange Bowl Classic (Florida vs. Wake Forest) on 12/20.  Florida St. vs. USF game will air on FSN.
• Florida vs. Wake Forest will be simulcast on either FOX Sports Florida or Sun Sports
• A game between Long Beach St. and St. John's, scheduled for 12/22 at 7:30pm, has gone missing.  I did send a note to their PR department last week noting that the game couldn't air on FS1 based on other games already set for the network, nor could it air on FS2 based on its tip time with a game on FS2 at 9pm ET.  I suspect they are working with the school to finalize a new tip time and network.
• Last year, around twenty Big 12 games, including one intraconference game, aired on FSN over multiple regions, including those outside of the Big 12 footprint.  I assume this will happen again, especially since three games were set aside for FSN to air during conference play.  I believe these will be added to the schedule at a later date.

A few notes from 10/4 CFB TV selections

* The 3:30pm ET games on ABC are not reverse mirrored.  Why is that?  The ACC & Big 12 rights agreements allow for regional ABC telecasts without corresponding pay TV coverage in areas where the games are not being shown on ABC.

So for Baylor at Texas & Wake Forest at Florida St., you will need either ESPN3 or ESPN GamePlan to watch the game not shown in your area.

* I don't know who gets to choose the remaining Pac-12 game for 10/4.  Let's say that the game not "chosen" falls to the other network.  My assumption is FOX gets to choose for three reasons:

• FOX is broadcast TV vs. ESPN is pay TV
• ESPN chose Arizona at Oregon and moved it to Thursday 10/2.  One could make the argument ESPN already chose ahead of everyone else.
• FOX's window is exclusive between the hours of 7:30pm-10:30pm ET, assuming 3.5 hours for Oregon St. at Colorado starting at 4pm ET on Pac-12 Networks

And as others have noted, this week's UCLA at Arizona St. game on Thursday night will go a long way towards determining whose game airs where.

* It is rare for both ABC and FOX to air simultaneous Big 12 games.  But it does happen on occasion before 10/4/14:

• 10/20/12 - Kansas St. at West Virginia (7pm, FOX) & Baylor at Texas (8pm, ABC)
• 11/3/12 - TCU at West Virginia (3pm, FOX) & Texas at Texas Tech (3:30pm, ABC)
• 9/13/14 - UCLA vs. Texas (8pm, FOX) & Tennessee at Oklahoma (8pm, FOX)

* Since FOX started airing games in 2012, there have been a few occurrences where all four major broadcast networks have aired games at the same time.  On 10/4/14, I believe we will see the 1st instance of all four networks with telecast windows starting at the same time with four game windows at 3:30pm ET:

• ABC: Wake Forest-Florida St./Baylor-Texas
• CBS: Alabama-Ole Miss
• FOX: Oklahoma-TCU
• NBC: Stanford-Notre Dame

Of the (now) four occasions, ABC's game was not reverse mirrored to ESPN or ESPN2 on two of the occasions: 10/20/12 & 10/4/14.  On 11/3/12, Texas at Texas Tech was reverse mirrored on ESPN2.  And with 9/13/14, Tennessee at Oklahoma was aired nationally on ABC.

* The slightly odd start time of North Texas at Indiana (2:30pm ET) makes sense, especially when put in context of the staggered starts of the 9/27 games on BTN with two 12pm ET games and Maryland at Indiana at 1:30pm ET.

The goal, I believe, is to have an hour of studio time between the early games and the evening games.  The staggered starts allow for approximately an hour of studio time from the end of the Indiana game on 9/27 before Cincinnati at Ohio St. and roughly the same amount of time before Michigan at Rutgers on 10/4.

* The Sun Belt will have select broadcasts branded as "The Sun Belt Network on ESPN3".  I'm not listing them as such, just going with the ESPN3 listing.  You can find that information if you need it in their weekly notes on their website.

CFB TV Confirmations for 10/4

I'm adding back in all available TV windows per the networks' schedules, because I have no idea what they are doing.

Will update as announcements are made.

Six day announcement on SMU-East Carolina & Memphis-Cincinnati.  Either 12pm on ESPNU/ESPNEWS or 7pm on CBSSN.

Waiting for confirmation from Pac-12 re: Utah-UCLA & Arizona St.-USC.  If its a six day pick, would either be FOX at 7:30pm or ESPN at 10:30pm.

Schedule for week six
My guesses

12pm ABC: Ohio St. at Maryland
12pm ESPN: Texas A&M at Mississippi St.
12pm ESPN2: Purdue at Illinois
12pm FS1: Iowa St. at Oklahoma St.
12pm FSN: Marshall at Old Dominion
12pm SEC: Florida at Tennessee
12pm ACC Net: Virginia Tech at North Carolina
2pm ESPN3: Eastern Michigan at Akron
2:30pm BTN: North Texas at Indiana
2:30pm ESPN3: Massachusetts at Miami (OH)
3:30pm CBS: Alabama at Ole Miss
3:30pm FOX: Oklahoma at TCU
3:30pm ABC: Baylor at Texas
3:30pm ABC: Wake Forest at Florida St.
3:30pm ESPN2: Wisconsin at Northwestern
3:30pm ESPNU: NC State at Clemson
3:30pm BCSN: Buffalo at Bowling Green
3:30pm ESPN3: Ohio at Central Michigan
4pm FSN: Kansas at West Virginia
4pm SEC: Vanderbilt at Georgia
4pm Pac-12: Oregon St. at Colorado
4pm ESPN3: UT Martin at Jacksonville St.
5pm ESPN3: Kent St. at Northern Illinois
6pm ESPN3: South Alabama at Appalachian St.
7pm ESPN: LSU at Auburn
7pm ESPNU: Texas Tech at Kansas St.
7pm ESPN3: UL-Monroe at Arkansas St.
7pm ESPN3: Idaho at Texas St.
7pm ESPN3: Georgia St. at UL-Lafayette
7pm ESPN3: Toledo at Western Michigan
7:30pm ESPN2: Miami (FL) at Georgia Tech
7:30pm SEC: South Carolina at Kentucky
7:30pm ACC RSNs: Pittsburgh at Virginia
8pm ABC: Nebraska at Michigan St.
8pm ESPNEWS: UNLV at San Jose St.
10:30pm Pac-12: California at Washington St.

CFB TV Guesses for 10/4

* I really think you could see a six day hold on CBS's selection between LSU-Auburn, Texas A&M-Mississippi St. & Alabama-Ole Miss.  For purposes of this exercise, I'm giving Alabama-Ole Miss the nod for now.
* If you are of the opinion that ABC games should carry the best games every week, I'm not sure why there are three ABC windows.   Because of this, I cut the late evening ESPN window plus the 4pm ESPNEWS window.
* By cutting out the late evening ESPN window, you could make a move of the 7pm ET ESPN window to 8pm too.
* I also cut out the 4pm ESPNEWS window.  I'm not sure there is a worthwhile game from the MAC, Sun Belt or Mountain West to fill it, though UNLV-San Jose St. was selected to air on an ESPN platform.  I think that one airs on ESPN3.
* I believe ESPN will try to spread out the SEC games where they can. LSU-Auburn, at 12pm, deserves to stay out of the way of the other games in the evening.
* Because the Pac-12 Networks do not have an evening game, I believe that FOX will carry a Pac-12 game at 7:30pm ET and that they will have a Big 12 game at 3:30pm.
* Time is already set for Nebraska-Michigan St.  Just making a decision on the network.

Games already set for 10/4

12pm ABC: Ohio St. at Maryland
12pm ESPN: LSU at Auburn
12pm ESPN2: Wisconsin at Northwestern
12pm FS1: Texas Tech at Kansas St.
12pm ESPNU: Wake Forest at Florida St.
12pm ESPNEWS: SMU at East Carolina
12pm FSN: Marshall at Old Dominion
12pm BTN: North Texas at Indiana
12pm SEC: Vanderbilt at Georgia
12pm ACC Net: NC State at Clemson
3:30pm CBS: Alabama at Ole Miss
3:30pm FOX: Oklahoma at TCU
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Utah at UCLA
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Miami (FL) at Georgia Tech
3:30pm ESPNU: Pittsburgh at Virginia
3:30pm BTN: Purdue at Illinois
4pm FSN: Kansas at West Virginia
4pm SEC: South Carolina at Kentucky
4pm Pac-12: Oregon St. at Colorado
7pm ESPN: Texas A&M at Mississippi St.
7pm ESPNU: Iowa St. at Oklahoma St.
7pm CBSSN: Memphis at Cincinnati
7:30pm FOX: Arizona St. at USC
7:30pm SEC: Florida at Tennessee
7:30pm ACC RSNs: Virginia Tech at North Carolina
8pm ABC: Nebraska at Michigan St.
8pm ESPN2: Baylor at Texas
10:30pm Pac-12: California at Washington St.

ESPN3 Exclusives
Kent St. at Northern Illinois
Ohio at Central Michigan
Toledo at Western Michigan
Massachusetts at Miami (OH)
Buffalo at Bowling Green
Eastern Michigan at Akron
UNLV at San Jose St.
UL-Monroe at Arkansas St.
Georgia St. at UL-Lafayette
Idaho at Texas St.
South Alabama at Appalachian St.

This week's MBK TV schedule notes

* The Pac-12 released its men's basketball schedule on Monday evening.  ESPN's key windows for the conference are typically Wednesdays at 9pm ET on ESPN2 & occasional Thursdays and Sunday evenings on ESPNU as part of a doubleheader with the ACC.

Nineteen of FOX's 22 games will air on Thursdays (nine) & Sundays (ten).  The two games airing on Saturdays are in place to air on FOX broadcast network, where either Oregon at UCLA or St. John's at Xavier will air on FOX on 2/14 with the other on FS1 & the Territorial Cup game in Tempe on 2/7 will air as part of a doubleheader with Georgetown at Villanova.

The conference will probably be paired with women's basketball from the Big 12, Big East and some men's basketball from C-USA on those days.

* An interesting question was posed re: why FOX doesn't take more non-conference men's basketball games for their Pac-12 schedule.  They've taken just one game each of the last two year (Marquette at Arizona St. last year, Ole Miss at Oregon this year).   I believe the reason is two-fold:

1) FOX only has 22 Pac-12 controlled regular season men's basketball games to show over 17-18 regular season weeks and the conference season has more value to them.  The conference season typically plays out over nine weeks, so that is roughly 2-3 games per week they can show.  In other words, they really want to make the 22 selections count.

2) As the sole rightsholder to the Big East, minus what they have sublicensed to CBS, they have more than enough men's basketball content during non-conference play, even though those games are often of a lesser quality, so they don't have as much of a need for choosing Pac-12 content in that portion of the schedule.  Earlier this year I discussed whether having that much Big East content was a good thing.

* It does look CBS Sports Network has access to non-conference games from the American Athletic Conference to complete their sublicense agreement of up to 30 men's basketball games.  They chose four games that I've been able to confirm: UCSB at SMU (12/8), Oklahoma at Tulsa (12/13), UIC at SMU (12/17) & Seton Hall at USF (12/18).  This brings their total to 29 games.

* I looked over the schedule of games for ESPNU throughout the year, specifically 2015 because that is where you typically see your back-to-back(-to-back...) schedules of games and any opening left is where several conferences like the will look to fill out the schedules.  Any Monday opening is likely to be filled by the MEAC or SWAC.  Fridays are apparently open for the Metro Atlantic, America East, Big South & MAC (maybe Thursdays for the MAC too).  The OVC for Thursdays too(?).  Saturday for the MVC(?).

So what is left exactly?

Not that much.  Here's a small list.

Monday: 1/5 7pm, 1/26 All day, 2/2 All day, 2/16 7pm, 2/23 All day
Wednesday: 2/11 9pm
Thursday: 1/8 7pm, 1/15 9pm, 1/22 7pm, 2/5 7pm & 9pm, 2/26 7pm
Friday: 1/9 7pm, 1/16 All day, 1/23 9pm, 1/29 9pm, 1/30 8pm & 10pm, 2/6 All day, 2/13 6pm & 10pm, 2/20 All day, 2/27 6pm & 8pm
Saturday: 1/11 11am, 2/21 ~7pm

* The Big Ten released their basketball schedules in two pieces this week.  The tournament semifinals on CBS will move up 30 minutes, starting at 1pm ET.  My thought is that this is related to CBS no longer sublicensing the C-USA championship game from FOX.  If they were to continue carrying the game with a 11am ET start, that would be 10am locally in Birmingham and just a 14.5 hour turnaround from the finish of the last semifinal game the day before.

FOX Sports 1 has the Big East final scheduled for an 8pm tip on March 15th.  I could see the C-USA final preceding it with a 5pm or 5:30pm ET tip, allowing for some overlap/pre & post game time.

* I'm a bit curious to see who picks up Iowa St.-South Carolina from the Barclays Center on 1/3/15.  The Barclays Center website lists the game as a 6pm tipoff.  FOX Sports 1 doesn't have the ability to take it unless they move the start of Creighton-Georgetown from 4:30pm to 4pm.  On the other hand, CBSSN has an opening at 6pm ET on 1/3/15.  Provided that C-USA does not have their TV schedule modified for TV that weekend, the game may have found a home.

I don't expect the game to air on ESPN.  They have many games set with unknown tip times for that day, presumably due to the uncertainty when ESPN would air their NFL wild card game.

Speaking of C-USA, their TV selections should be out over the next couple weeks.  Last year a TV schedule showed up on October 8th.

CFB TV Selections for 9/27

This post will be updated as schools/conferences reveal their kickoff times for 9/27.

My guesses
Games already set for 9/27

Six day hold: Duke at Miami (FL), Florida St. at NC State, North Carolina at Clemson.  Time slots, based on Big Ten limiting themselves on night games, would appear to be the following

ACC: 3:30pm ABC/ESPN2, 7pm ESPN2 & 7pm ESPNU

9/27
12pm ESPN: Tennessee at Georgia
12pm ESPN2/ESPNU: USF at Wisconsin
12pm ESPN2/ESPNU: Wyoming at Michigan St.
12pm ESPNEWS: Tulane at Rutgers
12pm FSN: UTEP at Kansas St.
12pm CBSSN: TCU at SMU
12pm SECNet: Vanderbilt at Kentucky
12pm BTN: Northwestern at Penn St.
12pm BTN: Iowa at Purdue
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Colorado St. at Boston College
12:30pm ACCNet: Western Michigan at Virginia Tech
1:30pm BTN: Maryland at Indiana
1:30pm ESPN3: Akron at Pittsburgh
2pm ESPN3: Eastern Illinois at Ohio
3pm ESPN3: Bowling Green at Massachusetts
3:30pm CBS: Arkansas vs. Texas A&M
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Minnesota at Michigan
3:30pm ESPNU: Wake Forest at Louisville
3:30pm ESPN3: Kent St. at Virginia
3:30pm ESPN3: Miami (OH) at Buffalo
4pm FOX: Stanford at Washington
4pm FS1: Texas at Kansas
4pm ESPNEWS: Temple at Connecticut
4pm Pac-12: Colorado at California
4pm SECNet: Louisiana Tech at Auburn
7pm ESPN: Missouri at South Carolina
7pm BCSN: Central Michigan at Toledo
7pm ESPN3: Troy at UL-Monroe
7:30pm SECNet: New Mexico St. at LSU
7:30pm SEC/FSN: Memphis at Ole Miss
8pm ABC: Notre Dame vs. Syracuse
8pm FOX: Baylor at Iowa St.
8pm ESPNEWS: Tulsa at Texas St.
8pm Pac-12: Washington St. at Utah
8pm ESPN3: UNLV at San Diego St.
10:30pm ESPN: Oregon St. at USC

Additional Updates to FOX CFB Schedule & More MBK Items

* FOX came out with more alterations to their college football schedule.  I'll detail them by date:

• 9/27 - Schedule says only a 4pm ET game on FS1.  Was previously two games at 12pm & 4pm.  FOX now has a doubleheader at 4pm & 8pm instead of just a 7:30pm game.  I think the FS1 game is actually at 12pm with MLB to follow.
• 10/4 - Another FOX doubleheader.  This time at 3:30pm (new game window) & 7:30pm.  FS1 has a single game again at 12pm
• 10/18 - FS1 now has a tripleheader of 12pm, 4pm & 8pm.  The 8pm game was the addition.  FOX will not air a game that day.
• 11/15 - FOX now has another 3:30pm (new game) & 7:30pm doubleheader.  FSN now only has one game window at 2pm instead of a 12pm & 3:30pm doubleheader.  The 2pm game time is due to a Big East basketball game at 12pm.

I try to track everything on this Google Docs spreadsheet as best I can.  

* The Patriot League men's basketball schedule came out and one noticeable difference was the conference tournament semifinal games moving from Saturday to Sunday.  Not sure why the move was made as the conference tournament final remains on the following Wednesday.

* The Pac-12 men's basketball will come out Monday 10pm ET on 9/15 on Pac-12 Networks.  I get the point of disseminating the information on your conference-owned network, much like the SEC did with theirs.  My own preference would be a little earlier in the day for the news to be released.

By the way, the conference will be coming out with their 2015 football schedule on 9/16 at about the same time of day.  I'm curious to see whether any weeknight games will be set aside with the schedule being released with the current season not yet out of September.  The past few years have seen the schedule come out a few days after Rose Bowl or national championship game.

* I am moderately curious to see what ESPN is doing with their college basketball schedules on 1/17, 2/28 & 3/7.  Maybe we are waiting on the Big Ten & Pac-12 television schedules to be finalized.  Have had folks ask before why college basketball doesn't do more flexible tip times.  Maybe ESPN has been able to convince a lot of people to be able to try it out.

* A few ACC schools have released their remaining non-conference television schedules (ie. ACC RSNs & ESPN3 exclusives).  If those items have been set by FOX/Raycom & ESPN, I would expect the SEC Network and SEC games on FOX RSNs to have their schedules set as well.

* With the Big East schedule set on FOX Sports 1, I figured I'd take a look back at the possible C-USA non-conference games and if FS1 or CBS Sports Network would take them.

• Washington St. at UTEP (11/14) - FS1 has a NASCAR trucks race that evening.   If they take it, it would air after that.   If it airs on CBSSN, it would air at 11pm ET after the Veterans Classic doubleheader.
• Miami (FL) at Charlotte (11/25) - CBSSN has the Cancun Classic doubleheader and FS1 has a single game (Eastern Illinois at Creighton).  If this one is picked by FS1, it would put that game at 6pm ET if the Creighton game time isn't changed.
• South Carolina at Marshall (12/1) - Both CBSSN and FS1 are available at the moment.
• Penn St. at Marshall (12/6) - CBSSN has an American conference football window at 12pm, so if they take it, it would be a tip-off sometime between 4pm & 8pm.  For FS1, if it doesn't tip off at 11am before St. Joseph's-Villanova, it won't air there as they have a 3pm Big 12 game and there is a UFC card that evening where FS1 may end up carrying the prelim matches.
• Arizona at UTEP (12/19) - FS1 has a Big East doubleheader schedule, so this would be a 11pm ET tipoff if they take it.  CBSSN currently has the whole night free.
• Louisville at Western Kentucky (12/20) - FS1 has the Butler-Indiana at 2:30pm.  Not sure if they have the Notre Dame-Purdue game that is also part of the Crossroads Classic event, nor an I sure if FOX has rights to the Orange Bowl Classic event that has aired on FSN for several years & if it could have been moved up from FSN to FS1.  CBSSN right now only has one game schedule (UMass-Providence) at 1pm ET.
• Creighton at North Texas (12/21) - Both FS1 and CBSSN are open.

CFB TV Guesses for 9/27

Games already set aside for TV for Week 5

* Notre Dame vs. Syracuse is unique because of the changeover possibly required to get the stadium ready for the Jets game at 1pm.  The Steelers, Chargers and Cowboys are also playing games on fields a day after a college game, but ABC rarely passes on a Notre Dame road game when it has an available 8pm window to use.  Last time ND played on ABC when the game wasn't at 8pm was 2011 at Pitt...when they had an available 12pm window for the game,  No 12pm window to use.  SU isn't really the sexiest opponent for ND to play in primetime, but it might be their best available game.

The only other game I considered was Florida St.'s visit to NC State.  If FSU defeats Clemson (and since we're looking at it that way, maybe the ACC is a six day pick), FSU would be visiting Carter-Finley with both teams undefeated.  Again, if FSU beats Clemson, the Seminoles' last ACC lost: 17-16 at NC State in 2012.

So there's a slight chance that there could be a six day hold on the ACC for FSU-NC State, UNC-Clemson and Notre Dame vs. Syracuse.  Minnesota-Michigan probably gets lumped in here only for its network decision being held up.  I could see a possible ND-SU matchup at 3:30pm on ABC nationally with Minnesota-Michigan on ESPN2.  But if its another game on ABC at 3:30pm, they would split nationally with Minnesota-Michigan

* FOX has made some alterations to their schedule.  They have removed a 12pm FS1, replaced the 12pm window with a 4pm FOX window and shifted the 7:30pm window back to 8pm.  I'm not sure if that is 100% accurate though.  I think FOX's MLB windows as exclusive, even from a game on FS1, so the football game on FS1 might be at 12pm with MLB to follow.
* FOX RSNs will have a 7:30pm SEC game
* Pac-12 tentatively has 4pm & 8pm ET windows.  I think that keeps FOX or ABC from airing a Pac-12 game on their over-the-air networks in primetime, but it does not keep them from putting one on their other platforms at those times, including at 4pm on FOX or 3:30pm on ABC.
* Wyoming at Michigan St., Northwestern at Penn St. & Iowa at Purdue are homecoming games and had their kickoff times (all noon ET) set aside before the season started.
* BTN has a unique looking staggered schedule.  I think you may see a game or two start at 12pm, then one start at 2pm, leading into the 12pm games joining the 2pm game in progress on TV (watch from the start on BTN2Go if its not available to you).  This allows the 6pm and 9pm games on BTN to air nationally.

9/27
12pm ESPN: Northwestern at Penn St.
12pm ESPN2: USF at Wisconsin
12pm FS1: Texas at Kansas
12pm ESPNU: Iowa at Purdue
12pm ESPNEWS: TCU at SMU
12pm FSN: UTEP at Kansas St.
12pm CBSSN: Temple at Connecticut
12pm SECNet: Vanderbilt at Kentucky
12pm BTN: Wyoming at Michigan St.
12pm BTN: Maryland at Indiana
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Colorado St. at Boston College
12:30pm ACCNet: Duke at Miami (FL)
2pm BTN: Tulane at Rutgers
3:30pm CBS: Arkansas vs. Texas A&M
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Florida St. at NC State
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Minnesota at Michigan
3:30pm ESPNU: Wake Forest at Louisville
4pm FOX: Oregon St. at USC
4pm ESPNEWS: Texas St. at Tulsa
4pm Pac-12: Washington St. at Utah
4pm SECNet: Memphis at Ole Miss
7pm ESPN: Missouri at South Carolina
7pm ESPN2: North Carolina at Clemson
7pm ESPNU: Louisiana Tech at Auburn
7:30pm SECNet: Tennessee at Georgia
7:30pm SEC/FSN: New Mexico St. at LSU
8pm ABC: Notre Dame vs. Syracuse
8pm FOX: Baylor at Iowa St.
8pm ESPNEWS: UNLV at San Diego St.
8pm Pac-12: Colorado at California
10:30pm ESPN: Stanford at Washington

ESPN3 Exclusives
Kent St. at Virginia
Western Michigan at Virginia Tech
Akron at Pittsburgh
Eastern Illinois at Ohio
Miami (OH) at Buffalo
Central Michigan at Toledo
Bowling Green at Massachusetts
Troy at UL-Monroe

CFB Scheduling Alterations for MLB Postseason & Black Friday Scheduling

* MLB released their postseason schedule and it has some effects on FOX and FOX Sports 1's college football schedule

FOX made a change for their October 4th telecast windows, presumably for coverage of the MLB postseason.  They eliminated the 4pm ET window on FS1 and added a 3:30pm window on FOX broadcast.  The change keeps FOX with five available telecast windows (2 FOX, 1 FS1, 2 FSN) with Marshall-Old Dominion to be slotted.

Based on the Pac-12 Networks carrying games, tentatively, at 4pm & 10:30pm ET, I think you'll see a Pac-12 game at 7:30pm ET on FOX.  The 3:30pm FOX window could end up as a Big 12 game which would allow FOX to pick up three of the five available Big 12 games.

On 10/11, FOX will televise the Game One of the NLCS.  No time has been set for the game, so I'm unsure if FOX's college football window at 7:30pm is moving.  Because FS1 is not televising a MLB game that day, I'm also not sure if they would add a window in the evening.

(EDIT: FOX Sports 1 will show NLCS Game One from an advanced metrics point of view while FOX will show the game from a tranditional viewpoint.  More here).

10/16, a Thursday evening, presents a unique challenge.  FOX selected the Utah at Oregon St. game to air on FS1 at 10pm ET.  That would also be the same day as NLCS Game Five.  MLB could air a little earlier in the day to avoid running into the college football game.  The MLB game could also shift to FOX possibly.

Last conflict date is 10/18.  FOX was scheduled to air a NASCAR truck series race at 3:30pm that day and I'm told that some affiliates have been made aware that the race is moving to 1pm.  From there, I think a potential NLCS Game Six will air in the afternoon.  ALCS Game Seven is scheduled for the same day and I think a Game Seven would get preference towards a primetime TV slot.  Following MLB on FOX would then be CFB.

* There also may be a shift in FS1's CFB TV windows for 11/8.  A UFC Fight Night from Brazil has been scheduled for that night.

* Black Friday is a unique day for ESPN to schedule around with ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU all carrying college basketball throughout the day, mostly from events that ESPN owns and operates.  The ACC, American, Big Ten & MAC are all looking to be slotted into games on this day.

What is known (all times Eastern):

• ABC has an open 12pm slot
• ESPN has an open 8pm slot
• ESPN2 has an open 12pm slot
• ESPNU appears to have slots open at 11am & around 8:30pm or 9pm ET.

The 11am slot has belonged to the MAC in previous seasons (usually the MAC games not shown were webcasted), leaving Nebraska-Iowa, Virginia-Virginia Tech & three American games for three slots on ESPN.

CBS Sports Network helps to alleviate the pressure as they'll take one of the American games.  If there is a late evening slot on ESPNU, and that assumes there won't be another college basketball game to fill in, I would expect either the ECU-Tulsa or Houston-SMU game to fill the late slot.  The MAC games available are all in the eastern time zone.

A look at the Big East MBK TV schedule & neutral site events on FOX Networks

* The schedule of games on FOX broadcast network really fascinates me.  Here's a few things I noticed

• The gap in the schedule from late December to late January, at least the one that currently exists, appears to be by design as it stays out of the way of the NFL playoffs.  Particularly the two Saturdays that would have games though most of FOX's game windows would be complete before a 4:30pm NFL playoff game would start.
• The Duke-St. John's game is the sole Sunday game on the schedule for now, but it also happens to be the open week between the NFL's conference championship games and the Super Bowl
• The network carrying the St. John's-Xavier game on Valentine's Day may be dependent on when FOX and NASCAR run the Sprint Unlimited race.  FOX is scheduled to carry the race this year and has aired in the evening in previous years.

The Big East will have at least ten controlled games on either CBS or FOX, which is more than the ACC, SEC, American or Big 12.  I'm curious to see whether FOX will elevate any Pac-12 games.  They left open December 13th where a Michigan-Arizona game is available.  CBS would not be able to carry it, but ESPN may have the bandwidth to do so.

* As part of the late season shuffle due to NASCAR conflicts, FOX Sports 2 will carry a pair of conference games.  FOX Sports 1 will only carry one game on 2/21 & 2/28.  They can carry two on 3/7 due to scheduling those games early in the afternoon with the Xfinity Series out west in Las Vegas.

* FOX Sports 2 will again carry some Big East non-conference games.  Eleven of the eighteen games currently scheduled for FS2 will occur in an nine day period between November 14-22.

* FOX's release highlighted their Tuesday Big East doubleheaders once conference play started, with the exception of February 17th (a single game) and skipping January 20th.  The conference will play just four games on Mondays.

* CBS & CBS Sports Network, which had the ability to select up to 30 games, selected just 19 of the conference's controlled games.  FSN will also have a regionally distributed conference game most Saturdays, and one Sunday, starting November 29th, skipping December 27-28 and February 27-28.

* The last point is more of a note about FOX, but they will have several neutral site events at the moment.  More could be on the way, like the Iowa St.-South Carolina game from Brooklyn on January 3rd.  Here they are:

• Las Vegas Invitational (Memphis, Baylor, Indiana St., Illinois) on 11/27 & 11/28
• BB&T Classic (Charlotte vs. George Washington, Towson vs. Georgetown) on 12/7
• Yes, the Georgetown game could be considered a home game
• The St. John's-Fordham game as part of the MSG Holiday Festival will be shown on FSN.  No word if the Rutgers-Iona game will be shown on TV as well, but last year the La Salle-Stony Brook game was carried.
• Butler vs. Indiana from the Crossroads Classic on 12/20.  No idea if the Purdue-Notre Dame game will also end up on FS1.
• Providence vs. Miami (FL) as part of the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational on 12/22.  No idea if FOX will pick up the Fordham-Manhattan game on the front half of the doubleheader.
• The championship round of the Las Vegas Classic on 12/23 (Boise St., Houston, Texas Tech, Loyola (Chicago)).
• Tulane vs. St. John's as part of the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival on 12/28.  No word if the LIU Brooklyn-Hofstra game will be shown on TV.

Thoughts on 9/20 CFB TV selections & a couple MBK items

* I really didn't see any out of the ordinary items on the 9/20 TV selections.

• FOX did move their late evening window up by 30 minutes to keep some buffer for the 7pm ET MLB window.  
• In the end I wasn't really surprised to see the Virginia-BYU game in mid-afternoon.  The Cougars are playing well.
• I understand there was a few things out there re: Oklahoma-WVU being a mid-afternoon game, but once the Pac-12 Networks listed three telecast windows and Auburn-Kansas St. being picked up by ESPN, it kinda pushed OU-WVU to FOX.

* If Virginia-BYU airs on ESPN, it fulfills a requirement for at least three BYU controlled games to air on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.  If it airs on ESPNU, it hits the requirement for at least one controlled game to air on that network.  The network that this game airs on will have some bearing as to where either the Nevada or UNLV games will air.

* FAU at Marshall was moved from FOX College Sports to FOX Sports 1 on 10/25.  FS1 has a NASCAR truck race preceding the game & UFC PPV prelims are expected to follow it with a second CFB game in the late evening.  This window was not on FS1's original list.  They may have been waiting to have their MLB postseason schedule confirmed, though "Big" FOX's CFB window is also at 3:30pm ET, presumably due to the World Series.

It also may have been FOX working with their Big 12 and Pac-12 partners to determine what their possible selection order would be that week.  FS1 has a Pac-12 game on Friday night (Oregon vs. Cal), so their late evening window may be another Pac-12 game.  The Pac-12 Networks also have two windows tentatively scheduled, so ESPN may have two selections to use.  That would seem to indicate FOX's broadcast window is a Big 12 game with ESPN taking the other two Big 12 games.

* Several Big East schools noted that their men's basketball schedule, presumably with TV details,  would be released tomorrow afternoon.  FOX Sports 1 now gets to do the shuffling of MBK games alongside commitments for NASCAR.  Three Saturdays will have Xfinity Series races on FS1 and one of those Saturdays (2/28 from Atlanta) will have both the Xfinity & truck series.

An article on Pac-12 scheduling by Jon Wilner from earlier this year noted that FOX likes to use Sundays as a destination for basketball because of the sheer number of games being played on Saturdays.  A year ago, C-USA moved to a Thursday-Saturday scheduling rotation with Sundays allowed for TV.  Now that FS1 has its own additional conflicts, provided that FS2 is not allowed to take these games on and I don't think they can take the Pac-12 ones, FS1 might be heavy on men's basketball on Sundays late in the season.

FOX could also use Saturdays on their broadcast network for Big East basketball, if they so desire.  I do not know if their Pac-12 selections are restricted to FS1 or not.

* With the Big East schedule's release, that should also free up CBS Sports Network to put some tip times around their Atlantic 10 and Mountain West games that do not have a tip time set.   This would then allow the network to slot in their C-USA and Patriot League schedule, along with any other games they may sublicense.  Last year, they sublicensed a few OVC and NEC games, presumably from ESPN.

9/20 TV Confirmations

Games currently scheduled for 9/20
My Guesses

This post will be filled in as announcements are made and as I have time to fill them in.  ESPN3 exclusives will be added here too.

12pm ESPN/ESPNU: Iowa at Pittsburgh
12pm ESPN/ESPNU: Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech
12pm ESPN2: Bowling Green at Wisconsin
12pm ESPNEWS: Western Illinois at Northwestern
12pm FSN: Old Dominion at Rice
12pm BTN: Southern Illinois at Purdue
12pm BTN: Eastern Michigan at Michigan St.
12:30pm ACCNet: Maryland at Syracuse
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Tulane at Duke
1pm ESPN3: Maine at Boston College
2pm ESPN3: Marshall at Akron
2pm Pac-12: Hawai'i at Colorado
3:30pm CBS: Florida at Alabama
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Texas A&M at SMU
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Utah at Michigan
3:30pm FS1: Louisville at FIU
3:30pm ESPN/ESPNU: Virginia at BYU
3:30pm ESPN/ESPNU: North Carolina at East Carolina
3:30pm FSN: Central Michigan at Kansas
3:30pm ESPN3: Army at Wake Forest
3:30pm ESPN3: Norfolk St. at Buffalo
4pm ESPNEWS: Texas St. at Illinois
4pm SECNet: Indiana at Missouri
4pm BTN: Massachusetts at Penn St.
4pm BTN: San Jose St. at Minnesota
6pm Pac-12: Georgia St. at Washington
7pm ESPN: Mississippi St. at LSU
7pm ESPNU: Northern Illinois at Arkansas
7pm CBSSN: Miami (OH) at Cincinnati
7pm ESPN3: Ball St. at Toledo
7pm ESPN3: Idaho at Ohio
7pm ESPN3: Utah St. at Arkansas St.
7pm ESPN3: Murray St. at Western Michigan
7pm ESPN3: Middle Tennessee at Memphis
7:30pm FOX: Oklahoma at West Virginia
7:30pm SECNet: South Carolina at Vanderbilt
7:30pm ESPN3: Georgia Southern at South Alabama
8pm ABC: Clemson at Florida St.
8pm ESPN2: Miami (FL) at Nebraska
8pm ESPN3: UNLV at Houston
10pm Pac-12: California at Arizona
10:30pm ESPN: Oregon at Washington St.
10:30pm FS1: San Diego St. at Oregon St.

CFB TV Guesses for 9/20/14

Games currently scheduled for 9/20
Available TV windows

* FOX Sports 1's late evening window starts at 11pm ET, but there is a one hour buffer between their MLB game at ending at 10pm, where they have scheduled FOX Sports Live at 10pm ET.  Could be some room to work with.
* Listings for SportSouth on Zap2It.com had a C-USA game at 12pm ET and Big 12 game at 3:30pm
* Listings for the Pac-12 Networks tentatively have three game windows.  Unless they are reconfigured, that may lead one to believe that FOX's primetime window is a Big 12 game.  Note that ESPN grabbed Auburn-Kansas St. early and moved it to Thursday 9/18.  That's why I have Oklahoma-WVU in the evening on FOX despite some comments from Oliver Luck that said the game would be in the afternoon
* Speaking of those Pac-12 Networks windows, I think those will stay at 3pm, 6:30pm & 10:30pm, but if they change and dump the 6:30pm window, it does open up things for FOX.

12pm ESPN: Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech
12pm ESPN2: Massachusetts at Penn St.
12pm ESPNU: Indiana at Missouri
12pm ESPNEWS: Miami (OH) at Cincinnati
12pm FSN: Old Dominion at Rice
12pm BTN: San Jose St. at Minnesota
12pm BTN: Southern Illinois at Purdue
12pm BTN: Eastern Michigan at Michigan St.
12:30pm ACCNet: Maryland at Syracuse
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Army at Wake Forest
3pm Pac-12: Hawai'i at Colorado
3:30pm CBS: Florida at Alabama
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Iowa at Pittsburgh
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Oregon at Washington St.
3:30pm ESPN: Utah at Michigan
3:30pm FS1: Louisville at FIU
3:30pm ESPNU: Texas A&M at SMU
3:30pm FSN: Central Michigan at Kansas
3:30pm BTN: Texas St. at Illinois
3:30pm BTN: Bowling Green at Wisconsin
3:30pm BTN: Western Illinois at Northwestern
4pm ESPNEWS: North Carolina at East Carolina
4pm SECNet: Northern Illinois at Arkansas
6:30pm Pac-12: Georgia St. at Washington
7pm ESPN: Mississippi St. at LSU
7pm ESPNU: Tulane at Duke
7pm CBSSN: Middle Tennessee at Memphis
7:30pm FOX: Oklahoma at West Virginia
7:30pm SECNet: South Carolina at Vanderbilt
8pm ABC: Clemson at Florida St.
8pm ESPN2: Miami (FL) at Nebraska
10:30pm ESPN: Virginia at BYU
10:30pm Pac-12: California at Arizona
11pm FS1: San Diego St. at Oregon St.

ESPN3 Exclusives
Maine at Boston College
Presbyterian at NC State
UNLV at Houston
Marshall at Akron
Idaho at Ohio
Murray St. at Western Michigan
Norfolk St. at Buffalo
Ball St. at Toledo
Utah St. at Arkansas St.
Georgia Southern at South Alabama

A few MBK & CFB housekeeping items

* As of Monday 9/8, most FBS football games will have their kickoff times & TV set twelve days in advance.  There are occasions where networks can make their selections as little as six days advance upon agreement with the conferences they have agreements with and the number of times they can do this are limited, but vary by the conference.

Tomorrow I'll release what I think the TV selections should be.  I slot every game and generally do not leave slots open for six day selection holds, but I'll note where I think a six day hold could occur.  I'll tweet what I see on Monday and keep a running blog entry.   Most of the selections occur after 10am ET and then throughout the early afternoon.

* The Big 12 and Mountain West have been silently updating the tip times of their games on various networks and I've done my best to get those in place on the schedule.

For the Big 12, January 17th and March 7th remain mostly without set tip times.  Those could end up as dates where they will have a chance to fill the primetime College Gameday slot.  With that said, Duke at North Carolina has already been earmarked for the 9pm slot on 3/7, but could be switched to 6pm with several other games available.

With the Mountain West, a handful of tip times on CBS Sports Network remain empty.  Several of those could be set once the Big East schedule is set with C-USA and Patriot League games filling in the remaining slots.

* The Big East will now have a dedicated "channel" through FOX Sports GO.  The press release indicates that they are the first conference to have a dedicated channel through FOX.   The conference will provide production of events and studio programming.  The events that are not paired with a live TV broadcast will be available without authenticating through your television provider.

The free events will apply to sports like baseball, women's basketball, etc.  Men's basketball that FOX does not sublicense to CBS will only be available online with authenticating through your video provider.