Tuesday, August 4, 2015

FOX sets three C-USA FB start times, Bayou Classic to NBCSN & more

* FOX Sports set coverage plans for three C-USA games in the month of October yesterday
  • 10/3: Western Kentucky at Rice - 3:30pm ET, FSN
  • 10/17: Marshall at FAU - 12pm ET, FOX College Sports
  • 10/24: Army at Rice - 12pm ET, FSN
October 3rd is FOX's last Saturday for MLB regular season coverage.  The broadcast network has a MLB telecast window at 1pm while FS1 will have a MLB game either at 4pm or 7pm ET.  The schedule that came out from FOX in early June had a college football telecast window at 4pm and the network also (tentatively) has a UFC Fight Night that evening.  In March, a UFC card moved to F/X due to FS1's coverage of the Big East men's basketball championship, so the card could move there.  FOX could also take on a CFB game after the MLB window on FOX for a doubleheader if necessary.

As for 10/17 and 10/24, those choices might have been made based on FOX's discussions with MLB as to their telecast windows for the ALDS and ALCS and where other Big 12 and Pac-12 games will land on those days.

* I mentioned on Friday night that the Pac-12 Network had tentative telecast windows on 9/26 of 4pm ET & 8pm ET and found that a bit odd for two reasons:
  • It would usually eliminate a Pac-12 game from being aired on ABC or FOX in east coast primetime.  The broadcast networks generally have exclusivity in their telecast windows, at least at the start of the game, where ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and FOX Sports 1 do not.
  • The two Arizona schools are scheduled to play at home on 9/26 and prefer night games, local time, due to heat concerns.
As with anything, this is subject to change and/or negotiation.  Depending on the selection order for the week (which isn't known), the Pac-12 Network could move their telecast windows around or ABC or FOX could allow for concurrent games.  For example, on 9/19, Stanford at USC will air on ABC at the same time as two Pac-12 Network games: San Jose St. at Oregon St. and Wyoming at Washington St.

To be clear, this might be allowed in situations where there is an abundance of games and there isn't an ideal way to stay out of the exclusive network window.  On 9/19, there are seven games on Saturday and an eighth game, New Mexico at Arizona St., was moved off of Saturday to a Friday night.

* Grambling and Southern have confirmed that the annual Bayou Classic game between the two schools will move from NBC to NBCSN with a start time of 5pm ET / 4pm CT.  The game had aired on NBC since 1991.

* Per Jon Rothstein, the NIT Tip Off pairings at Barclays Center are:
The move from MSG to the Barclays Center is due to MSG being unavailable for the dates of the NIT.  The two matchups above will be played on Thanksgiving (11/26) with the winners & losers facing off against each other on Black Friday.

* With the pairings for the Las Vegas Classic announced and the NIT Tip Off leaked, three events that typically end up on TV are waiting on finalized pairings: Barclays Center Classic, Battle 4 Atlantis, Great Alaska Shootout.  Several tournaments have said their pairings would be officially announced in early August and ESPN had their "bracket reveal" last year on August 5-6th, so the rest could be coming very soon.

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