Friday, September 4, 2015

Men's Basketball TV Scheduling Roundup

Some overall notes
  • Not pictured below, but the WatchESPN website notes that the SMU at Stanford game on 11/19 is an 11pm start on ESPN2.
  • The Georgetown at Maryland game on 11/17 will be preceded by a MAC football game on ESPN2, starting at 6pm.  As ESPN just proved on the opening Thursday night of the college football season, a three hour TV window means you won't see the start of the next event on the network that intends to air it.
  • ESPN added two ESPNU games to the Tip Off Marathon
    • Tennessee at Georgia Tech on 11/16
    • DePaul at Penn St. on 11/17
  • ESPN2 will air the Memphis vs. Ohio St. game from Miami on 11/27 at 7:30pm and the Hall of Fame Tip Off championship game at 5:30pm on 11/22.
  • The American Sports Network's sublicense agreement with ESPN for MAC content will include ten men's basketball games,
  • Speaking of the MAC, when Bowling Green released their conference schedule, they noted that all twelve games televised on ESPN Networks and CBS Sports Network would be wildcard selections.
ACC
  • Breakdown of regular season conference games by network for ESPN and CBS
    • CBS: 5
    • ESPN: 12
      • Includes Duke at North Carolina shared with Raycom
    • ESPN2: 23
    • ESPN or ESPN2: 21
    • ESPNU: 45
  • The conference tournament will be shared once against between ESPN and Raycom
  • In conference play, there are 66 games that will be split up in some fashion by Raycom's ACC Network over-the-air package and the regional sports network package that airs on mostly FOX RSNs.  Two games from non-conference play were set aside for the RSN package, one each involving North Carolina and Duke.  The remaining 77 non-conference games will be split by the RSN package and ESPN Networks, with a lot of them airing on ESPN3.
  • North Carolina at Syracuse, depending on other games that day, will either precede or follow ESPN's NFL wildcard game (yes, ABC is airing it too).
American
  • Breakdown of regular season games by national television/webcast outlet.  Includes both conference and non-conference games.
    • CBS: 3
    • CBS Sports Network: 29
    • ESPN: 1
    • ESPN2: 11
    • ESPN or ESPN2: 10
    • ESPNU: 29
    • ESPNEWS: 28
    • ESPN3: 57
      • Seven of the ESPN3 games are intraconference games.
  • One CBS Sports Network game remains unaccounted for as they can carry up to 30 games
  • Tulane has yet to release television and webcast details for their non-conference schedule.  Their game vs. Georgia Tech could be in one of the television packages.
  • Several of the CBS Sports Network games were not set with start times.  Those are likely waiting for the Big East, C-USA and Patriot League packages to be finalized.  The Atlantic 10 and Mountain West are in the same position.
Atlantic 10
  • Breakdown of regular season games by national television/webcast outlet.  Includes both conference and non-conference games.
    • American Sports Network: 30
      • 17 on Tuesdays/Wednesdays & 10 on Saturdays.
    • CBS Sports Network: 25
      • 12 on Tuesdays/Wednesdays & 9 on Saturdays
    • ESPN: 1
    • ESPN2: 8
      • Five will air on Friday nights
    • ESPNU: 5
    • NBCSN: 25
      • 15 on Saturdays and 10 on Sundays
  • The American Sports Network appears to have swallowed up the Campus Insiders & Comcast regional sports network packages.  The conference no longer has a presence at the Campus Insiders website.  I would expect some sharing of games between schools who have a presence on Comcast RSNs but not a package that is designated as the A-10 Network.
  • The conference tournament's only change with respect to broadcast outlets is that ASN will take the two opening round games that have been shown on Comcast RSNs.
Horizon League
  • Breakdown of regular season games on ESPN Networks. 
    • ESPN2: 2
      • Both on Friday nights
    • ESPNU: 5
    • ESPN3: 6
  • The conference tournament's two second round games will air on ESPN3 and the semifinals will air live on ESPNU.  The conference has moved to a neutral site tournament in Detroit where the semifinals will be played on Monday night and the second round the day before.  
  • Additional games will air on American Sports Network plus many more games on ESPN3 that are produced by the schools themselves.
Mountain West
  • Breakdown of regular season games by national television/webcast outlet.  Includes both conference and non-conference games.
    • CBS Sports Network: 31
    • ESPN2: 3
    • ESPN3: 22
    • ESPNU: 6
    • Campus Insiders' MW Network: 9
      • Additional games will air on the MW Network but produced by the schools
  • ROOT Sports will carry an additional 32 games regionally on television which the MW Network will carry to the rest of the nation digitally.
  • Nearly all of the ESPN2 and ESPNU games will be decided during the season.  Games have been set aside to air on either one of those two networks or ESPN3.
WCC
  • Breakdown of regular season games on ESPN Networks. 
    • ESPN: 1
    • ESPN2: 6
    • ESPN or ESPN2: 2
    • ESPNU: 12
  • Seventeen of the 21 games will have at least BYU or Gonzaga as one of the two competing schools
  • Of the four non-conference WCC controlled games being televised on ESPN Networks, three will involve Gonzaga.  The fourth involves St. Mary's.  Three of those four games involve Pac-12 opponents.
  • Games on partners such as BYUtv, ROOT Sports, Time Warner Cable SportsNet, etc. will be announced at a later date.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Matt, been following your site/updates for two years now and just wanted to drop a note to say how great all your info is. I watch a ton of college sports and am also interested in how schedules come together. Worked in sports information and sports tv production years ago and can appreciate all the hard work you put in finding and maintaining accurate info. Great job!

Bruce Burns
sportsattitudes.wordpress.com