Notes on 2015 Mountain West Weeknight CFB Schedule & Other Weeknight Games

Mountain West TV schedule so far

* Two things that stuck out to me:

• CBS Sports Network, as part of their trade with ESPN for a Boise St. home game, was "stuck" with the game vs. Idaho St.  Based on today's announcement, it isn't clear which Boise St. MW road game CBSSN gave up for this honor.  It would either be the Colorado St. game on 10/10 or the UNLV game on 10/31.
  
  A report came out this week that NC State denied a request from CBSSN and Old Dominion to move their game to Friday 9/18, so I'm not sure if the ISU at BSU would have been part of a doubleheader or not.
• Colorado at Hawai'i stayed with the start time of 7pm local Thursday / 1am Friday.  Thought that it would be moved up one hour or 90 minutes, but maybe UH did not want a start time of 5:30pm or 6pm on a weeknight.  I really don't know.  I will be curious to see how this game will be paired with Duke at Tulane and if CBSSN three games into the evening.  Maybe it would something like this:
• 6pm ET: A east coast DII game
• 9pm ET: Duke at Tulane
• 1am ET: Hawai'i at Colorado

* Boise St. has apparently agreed to play four five Friday night and one Friday afternoon game.  Two on ESPN through their MW television contract, one on ESPN through the ACC's TV deal and two three more on CBSSN through their MW rights agreement. (Edited to correct CBSSN count)

* Here's a look at how some other previously scheduled weeknight games could be affected:

• On 9/4, either Baylor at SMU or, potentially, Michigan St. at Western Michigan will start at 7pm on ESPN leading into Washington at Boise St.
• Assuming this BYU poster schedule is accurate, and it is with respect to the date change for the San Jose St. game, the Cougars home game vs. Cincinnati on is now on 10/16 alongside Houston at Tulane and UNLV at Fresno St., the latter being announced as starting at 10:30pm ET.  Potential options for Houston at Tulane were ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.  Note that 10/16 could potentially be "Midnight Madness" practice night for the 2015-16 MBK season using the 2014 date, so here's a few ways to schedule that assuming it is indeed Midnight Madness night (in my opinion, option #2 is likely):
• One game each on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.  With UNLV at Fresno St. on ESPN2, Houston at Tulane & Cincinnati at BYU would be looking at options on ESPN and ESPNU.
• A doubleheader on ESPN2 of Houston at Tulane at 7pm ET and UNLV at Fresno St. following it with Cincinnati at BYU on ESPN 
• A doubleheader on ESPN of Houston at Tulane at 7pm ET with Cincinnati at BYU following it.
• 10/31 has Louisville at Wake Forest on ESPN or ESPN2 and Wyoming at Utah St. on ESPN2 at 10:15pm.  Seems convenient to have a game at 10:15pm paired with a 7pm ET start.  ESPN could end up televising a NBA preseason game by this time.
• Air Force at Boise St. on 11/20 was scheduled at 9:30pm with several MBK events in mind as ESPN owned events from Puerto Rico & Charleston, SC, plus the 2K Sports Classic, are scheduled to be played on this date.
• On 11/5 ESPN potentially has five games to offer on this Thursday night:  A couple different ways to schedule them.  I tend to favor option #1.
• ESPN: Mississippi St. at Missouri; ESPN2: Ball St. at Western Michigan or Buffalo at Kent St. followed by Nevada at Fresno St.; ESPNU: Arkansas St. at Appalachian St.; either ESPN3, ESPNEWS or a sublicense for whichever MAC game doesn't air on ESPN2.  
• Same as above, except move Mississippi St. at Missouri over to SEC Network and show Baylor at Kansas St. on ESPN.
• Rice at UTEP was scheduled for a national television outlet on 11/6, which I thought was a shoe-in for CBSSN because FS1 has a NASCAR truck series race at 8:30pm ET.  BYU at San Jose St. was scheduled for CBSSN at 10:30pm 11:30pm ET.  After talking it over with the Twitter account for BlazerTalk.com, wanted to provide our exchange because the person running their account made some decent points:
  

  .@BlazerTalk Yep, possible now that we're talking through it. Using MT, trucks start @ 6:30pm, assume over by 8:30pm, start game @ 8:45pm?
  — Matt Sarzyniak (@mattsarz) April 15, 2015

  
  

  @mattsarz 8:45 to 9. Broadcast made just for night owls and west coasters.
  — BlazerTalk.com (@BlazerTalk) April 15, 2015

 Your thoughts?