Friday, April 17, 2015

When Are Game Times Going To Be Set?

The title question is a question, now that a few more kickoff times were announced this week, that I'll start receiving more and more.  And I can't give you a specific answer.  I don't work for a TV network and when I ask a conference or network about that information, I either don't get a response or the response is vague and I respect their wishes to keep that close to the vest.

But the next six to eight weeks should have what you are looking for with respect to early season kickoff times and weeknight games.  So with that in mind, here's the dates they came out last year for each conference and some notes:

Early season neutral site games - 5/21/15 for Wisconsin-Alabama, 5/28/15 for Louisville-Auburn.  Waiting on Arizona St. vs. Texas A&M, which ASU indicates will be released with other SEC games.

ACC - They are out, including nearly all weeknight games.

American - Most, but not all, early season & weeknight games have been set for TV or webcasts as of 5/27.  Penn St. at Temple on 9/5 and three games on 9/12 are awaiting placement.  I assume these games will air on traditional TV outlets.

Army - Released on 5/5/15.

Big 12 - Most announced on 6/1 as part of a FOX release.

Big Ten - Night games are out for both ABC/ESPN and BTN. Homecoming game times are out too (games listed as ESPN Networks & BTN).  7/16/14 (early season) - The reason for the early announcement of primetime games is so any stadium that needs temporary lights can make arrangements.  The date of the early season games was a bit later than usual as arrangements were being made to place games on ESPNEWS.  I would think that this would move back to a late May - early June date.

Now why did the BTN weeknight games come out before the ABC/ESPN ones?  That I'm not sure.

BYU - Weeknight & BYUtv game times have been set.  Boise St. game time will be set, probably, in late May or early June.  Others will be set around twelve days in advance.

C-USA - 6/1/15 (CBSSN & FOX Sports), 7/17/14 (American Sports Network) - The selections for CBSSN and FOX were timed to coincide with a release by FOX for their entire season's schedule of telecast windows.  Not all start times were set by FOX as some were set during the season.  The ASN games were announced right before the conference's media days but could appear earlier this year with an agreement in hand.

MAC - Times are set for early season and mid season weeknight games (ie. not Black Friday) as of 6/10.

Notre Dame - They are out as of 4/18/15.  Every game will air on NBC.

Navy - Already set.

Mountain West - Weeknight and CBSSN & ESPN Saturday selections have been made, 6/5/14 (early season ESPN start times), 6/26/14 (late ESPN & CBSSN additions), 7/1/14 (Campus Insiders MW Network & ROOT Sports) - I believe the only game ESPN could make an announcement on in early June is the San Jose St. at Air Force game for its start time and network.

Pac-12 - Released on 6/1/15 along with other conferences associated with FOX Sports.

SEC - 5/1/14 (early season SEC Network), 5/30/14 (rest of early season & special dates) - Note that the SEC Network games were released early last year as ESPN was negotiating for carriage of the network.  Now that nearly every major carrier is on board, those games could be held back.  For your sanity and mind, lets hope they don't wait until the conference's media days like they used to for several years.

Sun Belt - Set on 6/8/15.

1 comment:

dukeallstar said...

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