ROOT Sports (regional TV) and the Campus Insiders' Mountain West Network (digital network) get the next set of selections for the Mountain West. Usually the ROOT Sports package has a slant towards the schools located in the areas where ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain is the primary RSN. ROOT Sports Northwest happens to serve the rest of Idaho and ROOT Sports Southwest has a slice of New Mexico which overlaps with the Rocky Mountain RSN, but the Rocky Mountain RSN has five Mountain West schools within its territory: Air Force, Colorado St., New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah St. and those schools are often the ones featured in their package of games. All Boise St. games, which would also be a geographical fit, have been earmarked for the ESPN and CBS Sports Network packages.
Here's the available games and what package they could be set for. Considerations were made with respect to the close of the Colorado Rockies season, which has games on four of the first five Saturdays of the season. Several of the ROOT Sports games could be paired with games already selected for ROOT's Big Sky football package.
As far as I know ROOT and Campus Insiders pick the games they intend to produce. It is a key distinction as many games airing on the Mountain West Network are produced by the schools. After that ESPN and CBSSN can come back and select two games each if they desire.
Also, Hawai'i has its own PPV package as it does not receive revenues from the conference's television packages, so those eight games will be set aside for those packages.
| ROOT Sports | Mountain West Network | Hawai'i PPV |
| Morgan St. at Air Force (9/5) | Southern Utah at Utah St. (9/3) | UC Davis at Hawai'i (9/19) |
| New Mexico at Wyoming (9/26) | Abilene Christian at Fresno St. (9/3) | San Diego St. at Hawai'i (10/10) |
| New Mexico St. at New Mexico (10/3) | UC Davis at Nevada (9/3) | Hawai'i at New Mexico (10/17) |
| New Mexico at Nevada (10/10) | New Hampshire at San Jose St. (9/5) | Hawai'i at Nevada (10/24) |
| New Mexico at San Jose St. (10/24) | North Dakota at Wyoming (9/5) | Hawai'i at UNLV (11/7) |
| UNLV at Colorado St. (11/14) | San Diego at San Diego St. (9/5) | Fresno St. at Hawai'i (11/14) |
| Colorado St. at New Mexico (11/21) | Savannah St. at Colorado St. (9/5) | San Jose St. at Hawai'i (11/21) |
| UNLV at Wyoming (11/28) | Mississippi Valley St. at New Mexico (9/5) | UL-Monroe at Hawai'i (11/28) |
| Tulsa at New Mexico (9/12) | ||
| Eastern Michigan at Wyoming (9/12) | ||
| South Alabama at San Diego St. (9/19) | ||
| Idaho St. at UNLV (9/26) | ||
| UNLV at Nevada (10/3) | ||
| San Jose St. at UNLV (10/10) | ||
| San Jose St. at Nevada (11/14) |
A few notes on my selections
* New Mexico at Wyoming and Northern Arizona at Montana, in this scenario, would be played at the same time with the Mountain West game on ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain and the Big Sky game on ROOT Sports Northwest. Both RSNs are scheduled to carry MLB games in the evening.
* Morgan St. at Air Force was placed on ROOT Sports because it is the only Air Force game available to be carried outside of the national television packages, which gave it the nod over the North Dakota at Wyoming game.
* I considered placing Southern Utah at Utah St. on ROOT Sports, but there is a Rockies game that evening. ROOT does have the capability of doing secondary feeds as they do them to show Utah Jazz games. In most cases, pro sports trumps college sports on RSNs, but exceptions do occur.
* The Hawai'i PPV package requires seven games for the school to receive a minimum payout of $2.3 million. Since there are eight games in the package listed above, I do not know if one of the games can be selected by ESPN, CBSSN or air on the Mountain West Network. ROOT Sports could certainly simulcast one of the PPV games as well.
* In the end, there is some flexibility. During Fresno St.'s undefeated run in 2013, ESPN and the MWN swapped games on 11/9. ESPN swapped their pre-selected Nevada at Colorado St. game in exchange for Fresno St. at Wyoming, which they placed on ESPN2.
2 comments:
I mostly agree, but I think a few things turn out differently.
I think New Mexico at Nevada ends up on MW Network/Campus Insiders while UNLV at Nevada moves to ESPN3 and Hawaii at New Mexico ends up on Root Sports.
I do this because Nevada does typically have 1 home conference game on MW Network, but when was the last time UNLV/Nevada football wasn't televised. It could end up being picked up by a local station and simulcast on MW Network, but ESPN3 loves to get state rivalries.
As for the other games that could be picked up by CBSSN or ESPN, I'd lean toward South Alabama at San Diego State being on ESPN3, Tulsa at New Mexico on CBSSN, and San Jose State at Nevada ending up on CBSSN.
Tulsa-New Mexico could be an issue. Feasible for them to start at 10am? Probably for either New Mexico or Colorado St., but I think its less likely. From what I've been told, one of three American games will end up on CBSSN at 12pm ET on 9/12 and CBSSN already has three other MW games already scheduled at 3:30pm (Minn-CSU), 7pm (AZ-Nevada) & 10:30pm (UCLA-UNLV). I think that particular game is out for national TV. Regional TV is a possibility when you consider ROOT SW extends into Oklahoma.
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