Sunday, October 5, 2014

SEC Guesses for 10/11, A Brief Rant on 3 hr CFB TV windows & CFB TV Guesses for 10/18

Quick guess on the 10/11 SEC 12 day selection based on results.  Key item re: having Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M at 6pm - if its "second best" game of these bunch, I personally wouldn't want it at 9pm because it is more likely for the start of the game to be shown online.  I will repeat this again and for the ESPN folks that do read this blog, the idea that a college football TV window can be three hours in length absolutely boggles my mind and I believe you know better.   I'm sure there is something ratings driven about it because the viewer is less likely to change the channel, etc, and that WatchESPN is in a lot of homes (let's continue to work on that DirecTV deal boys & girls), but I can tell you from my inbox, twitter feed, etc. - folks don't like having to be driven to a second screen to find a game when it should have been on the first one.  They might be a minority but they are not silent, even though a lot of us are more tech savvy than five years ago.

Really don't like being driven to a second channel subscribed to be less homes either.  Ask FOX about that this weekend with the MLB playoffs.  IMO, not completely their fault either.

I digress.  Here you go.  CBS picks first for 3:30pm, ESPN then gets two, then CBS picks the 12pm game.  Per purposes of this exercise, SEC Network got the last game left.

CBS 12pm: Georgia at Missouri
CBS 3:30pm: Auburn at Mississippi St.
ESPN 6pm: Ole Miss at Texas A&M
SEC Network 7:30pm: LSU at Florida
ESPN 9pm: Alabama at Arkansas


* No game scheduled for FOX due to possibility of NLCS Game Six and the need to be flexible with the time of the game.  ALCS Game Seven is the same day, if necessary, so if it is played, it gets primetime TV with the NLCS in the afternoon.  If no ALCS game, NLCS in primetime.
* If there were to be no LCS game on 10/18, because of the short notice in changing game times, etc. I don't think FOX would move a game to their broadcast network.
* All four Big Ten games not set for a television outlet are set with respect to their games times as all are homecoming games and were set back in May.  Iowa at Maryland & Purdue at Minnesota at 12pm ET, Rutgers at Ohio St. & Michigan St. at Indiana at 3:30pm ET.
* BTN schedule for 10/18 has only a 12pm window plus the primetime game.  No 3:30pm game.
* I don't know if FOX necessarily had the top choice for the week in the Pac-12 because Utah at Oregon St. doesn't seem like it would be for FS1.
* While neither ABC nor FOX has a primetime Pac-12 game, I'm making the leap that ESPN has the top Pac-12 choice and will use it on Washington at Oregon and that FS1 has the top Big 12 choice and will put their best game on FS1 in primetime.
* Notre Dame at Florida St. seems like a virtual lock for the 8pm ET ABC game.
* Advance listings suggest that there is a 12pm-3:30pm ACC RSN doubleheader.  

12pm ESPN: Iowa at Maryland
12pm ESPN2: NC State at Louisville
12pm FS1: Baylor at West Virginia
12pm ESPNU: Georgia Tech at North Carolina
12pm ESPNEWS: Cincinnati at SMU
12pm FSN: Kansas at Texas Tech
12pm SEC: Tennessee at Ole Miss
12pm BTN: Purdue at Minnesota
12pm ACC RSNs: Clemson at Boston College
12:30pm ACC Network: Virginia at Duke
3:30pm CBS: Texas A&M at Alabama
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Rutgers at Ohio St.
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Oklahoma St. at TCU
3:30pm ESPN: Michigan St. at Indiana
3:30pm ESPNU: Tulane at UCF
3:30pm FSN: UTSA at Louisiana Tech
3:30pm CBSSN: USF at Tulsa
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Syracuse at Wake Forest
4pm FS1: Stanford at Arizona St.
4pm SEC: Furman at South Carolina
4pm Pac-12: Colorado at USC
7pm ESPN: Washington at Oregon
7pm ESPN2: Georgia at Arkansas
7pm ESPNU: Kentucky at LSU
7:30pm SEC: Missouri at Florida
8pm ABC: Notre Dame at Florida St.
8pm FS1: Kansas St. at Oklahoma
8pm ESPNEWS: San Jose St. at Wyoming
10:30pm ESPN: UCLA at California
10:15pm ESPN2: Nevada at BYU

ESPN3 Exclusives
Ball St. at Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan at Massachusetts
Miami (OH) at Northern Illinois
Western Michigan at Bowling Green
Akron at Ohio
Army at Kent St.
Georgia St. at South Alabama
New Mexico St. at Idaho
Appalachian St. at Troy

5 comments:

Sean OLeary said...

FSU/ND is probably the game of the year, ratings-wise. No Fox primetime game. No other big games except A&M/Bama and that'll be in the afternoon. I can only imagine the ESPN folks doing cartwheels when Golson threw the TD to beat Stanford.

Unknown said...

Yeah with Winston playing, ratings might reach double digits (remember USC-ND 2 yrs ago)

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I think the difference there is that it was the only game in town. This will be opposite NLCS Game 1 on FOX, but it will do very well.

Unknown said...

No it would be against gm 6 if necessary.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Correct. My mistake. If no primetime LCS game (ALCS Game 7 also possible), should be huge.