Monday, February 2, 2015

Early Guess at Week 1 CFB on TV for 2015 (9/3/15 - 9/7/15)

A few items that were considered.  I'll note them by the day of the week.  An overall note: I expect ESPN2 to be the home of evening US Open coverage during this time period and that the channel will also have all day weekend coverage.

If the game you are looking for isn't listed, it should air on a syndication package, a local TV package or webcast.

I'll take care of week two and week three at a later time.  A few more unknowns there as it looks like some intraconference games in Group of Five conferences could be slotted in for those weeks.

All times Eastern

Thursday

* South Carolina, by virtue of winning a coin toss, is the home team.  Have been able to confirm that this means the SEC's TV agreements are in place
* I moved Oklahoma St. at Central Michigan to Thursday night so it could fill a slot on ESPNU.

7pm SEC: North Carolina vs. South Carolina
7:30pm ESPNU: Oklahoma St. at Central Michigan
8pm CBSSN: Duke at Tulane
8pm ESPN: TCU at Minnesota
9pm FS1: Michigan at Utah
10pm Pac-12: UTSA at Arizona
11:30pm CBSSN: Colorado at Hawai'i

Friday

* A tweet came out that Army is working to move their opener to a Friday night, similar to their opener in 2013.


* Boise St. notes that ESPN will air the Washington game on either Thursday or Friday.  I went with Friday.
* To get Purdue at Marshall on the air, I moved their game with Purdue to a Friday night.

7pm ESPN: Michigan St. at Western Michigan
7pm CBSSN: Fordham at Army
8pm FS1: Purdue at Marshall
10:15pm ESPN: Washington at Boise St.

Saturday

* With an MLB game expected plus a tentatively scheduled UFC PPV and its associated prelim matches presumably on FS1, I expect the channel to only carry a game at 12pm ET.
* The NASCAR schedule has the Xfinity Series race on 9/5 at 3:30pm ET on NBC.  Right now I'm projecting the Texas at Notre Dame game to air in the evening.  I don't believe it will air in the early afternoon where NBC usually airs the Barclays Premier League, as the BPL could be off that weekend as England's national team playing a Euro qualifier on 9/5 if I read the schedule properly.
* I'm torn as to whether FOX will carry a broadcast network game or skip the week and place a second game on FS1 after the UFC prelims.  I suppose it depends on the order of games selected by the Pac-12 TV partners.
* With no FOX RSN package for the SEC, the overflow feeds will be used a bit more often I believe.
* In my opinion, nearly all of the Big 12 controlled games for 9/5 will be returned back to the schools for airing on their local packages.

12pm ESPN: BYU at Nebraska
12pm FS1: Mississippi St. at Southern Miss
12pm FSN: Georgia Southern at West Virginia
12pm ESPNU: Penn St. at Temple
12pm SEC: UL-Lafayette at Kentucky
12pm BTN: Southern Illinois at Indiana
12pm BTN: Norfolk St. at Rutgers
12:30pm ACC Network: Texas St. at Florida St.
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Troy at NC State
3pm Pac-12: Eastern Washington at Oregon
3pm Pac-12: Portland St. at Washington St.
3:30pm ABC: Auburn vs. Louisville
3:30pm ESPN: UL-Monroe at Georgia
3:30pm ESPNU: UT Martin at Ole Miss
3:30pm CBSSN: Colgate at Navy
3:30pm BTN: Richmond at Maryland
3:30pm BTN: Kent St. at Illinois
3:30pm BTN: Illinois St. at Iowa
4pm SEC: Bowling Green vs. Tennessee
4pm SEC: Southeast Missouri at Missouri
7pm ESPN: Arizona St. vs. Texas A&M
7pm ESPNU: New Mexico St. at Florida
7pm CBSSN: FIU at UCF
7:30pm NBC: Texas at Notre Dame
7:30pm SEC: UTEP at Arkansas
7:30pm SEC: McNeese St. at LSU
8pm ABC: Alabama vs. Wisconsin
8pm BTN: Stanford at Northwestern
10pm FOX Sports 1: Arkansas St. at USC
10pm Pac-12: Grambling at California
10pm Pac-12: Weber St. at Oregon St.
10:30pm ESPN: Virginia at UCLA

Sunday

* I'm working under the assumption that Baylor at SMU will be played as scheduled.  Have read in multiple places that the game was under consideration for being canceled.
* I'm told the Bowling Green at Tennessee game must be played on Saturday due to considerations about the possibility of a Titans preseason home game on Thursday.  Since it would mean Tennessee and Vandy playing at home on the same date, I moved the Western Kentucky at Vanderbilt game to Sunday night.

3:30pm ESPN: Baylor at SMU
7pm SEC: Western Kentucky at Vanderbilt

Monday
8pm ESPN: Ohio St. at Virginia Tech (confirmed)

5 comments:

Sean OLeary said...

Man football is so far away. Not much to quibble with here, though I'd be very surprised to see Stanford/NW end up on BTN.

You have to figure they follow Alabama again for the first Gameday of the season but, man, Texas/ND at South Bend would a much better college scene.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I suppose I punted on that one, but by making the assumption that ESPN2 is completely unavailable, it does compress things a little. Two things I thought of to change that.

1) Swap BYU-Nebraska for Stanford-Northwestern.
2) Move UL Monroe-Georgia to SEC at 12pm (each slot has one overflow game), move Kent St.-Illinois to nightime and slot in Stanford-Northwestern at 3:30pm on ESPN.

Greg M. said...

As an LSU and Southern Miss fan who has been dying to see either Mississippi State or Ole Miss play here in Hattiesburg, I hope your predictions are right. Would be nice to go to the State/Southern Miss game and also see the LSU season opener that night. Thanks for all the hard work you do with your blog!

Raul said...

With CBS not airing the US open anymore, is there a possibility that the national network airs an SEC game that day?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I think its less likely based on available games. Week 2 has more promise when you look at it.