Early college football related items for 2016

I've been intentionally avoiding anything to do with the college football season for 2016 until maybe a week ago.  Schedules that were tweeted out weren't being looked at and I wanted to make sure I intended to do a 2016 section before looking over anything.

A few items:

* Per Harry Minium report on C-USA TV rights for the 2016-17 athletic year and future years, C-USA athletic directors will be briefed on TV rights negotiations early next week at their winter meetings in Boca Raton.  I do not know if this briefing will be the ADs receiving a finalized set of deals before a public announcement or just an update.

Either way, don't expect financials from the conference.  Harry & other writers will likely have to pull that information in off the record conversations.  My hope is that the terms (ie. number of games, potential outlets, streaming, etc.) are made relatively clear whenever an announcement is made.

* From past precedent & from some info being provided, here's the conferences I'm expecting to own the TV rights to the following neutral site games:

• Hawai'i vs. California at Sydney, Australia (8/27/16) - Pac-12
• Assumption based on Pac-12 desire to retain media rights for one-off neutral site games.
• Colorado St. vs Colorado in Denver (9/2/16) - Pac-12
• Last year the rights were with the Mountain West.  The Colorado website has also placed this game in bold on their site along with all other games being played in Boulder.
• Oklahoma vs. Houston at NRG Stadium (9/3/16) - American
• Told that this one will be with the American.  Makes sense since:
• The game is still in the city of Houston
• If its declared a Big 12 game, FOX could, in theory, take it.  They have 1st selection rights in 2016 each week.  With that said, Notre Dame is at Texas on 9/3.
• This also would allow ESPN to take a Big 12 game after Notre Dame at Texas, such as the Missouri at West Virginia game.
• LSU vs. Wisconsin in Green Bay (9/3/16) - Big Ten
• Assumption is being made based on the state where the game site is located.  Could be considered an extension of the game in Houston in 2014, which could have been termed as a SEC controlled game.
• North Carolina vs. Georgia at Atlanta (9/3/16) - SEC
• Last year's contract had the SEC being granted the rights.
• USC vs. Alabama (9/3/16) - SEC
• This one is tricky to me b/c the Pac-12 stance on receiving a cut of media rights for all one-off neutral site games, but its being played in a SEC state.
• BYU vs. Arizona at Glendale (9/3/16) - Pac-12
• Confirmed when series was announced.
• Florida St. vs. Ole Miss at Orlando, FL (9/5/16) - ACC
• I'd normally say SEC, but since its being played in Florida and on Labor Day, I believe this will be used to count as the ACC's Labor Day game.
• Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee at Bristol, TN (9/10/16) - SEC
• USA Today referenced the term sheet for the game and that the SEC's TV partners will have the rights to the game.
• BYU vs. West Virginia at Landover, MD (9/24/16) - Big 12
• The series was signed back in 2010 when WVU was still a member of the Big East.  I may end up FOIA'ing WVU for details on the game.

I left off some obvious ones, like when two schools from the same conference are playing each other, Notre Dame vs. Navy in Jacksonville and Notre Dame's Shamrock Series game vs. Army in San Antonio.

Also, depending on the US Open schedule and what networks are used, some of these games could end up moving to TV partners you would not expect, for example the two SEC games that were sublicensed by ESPN to CBS last year.  It was unclear when asking for clarification from multiple parties last year whether the sublicense of games was a multi year deal or not.

* Massachusetts is an independent in football starting in 2016 and will have two home games vs. Power Five opponents: Boston College on 9/10 & Mississippi St. on 9/24.  When asked whether UMass was working on an agreement for TV rights for their home football games, they responded that they were communicating with television outlets about a rights deal.  No idea who is involved in those discussions, and UMass wasn't likely to provide that information, at least not on the record.

* For the NASCAR Truck Series races that fall during college football season, only the Talladega race has a start time and that one will air on FOX, presumably with postseason MLB to follow it.  The other eight races, starting with the first race in September, will have some effect towards FS1's college football scheduling.  Four of the races are on Friday nights, three are on Saturday and one is on the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend.

The WeatherTech Sports Car Championship will have the beginning of Petit Le Mans from Road Atlanta on FS1 on 10/1, but only the first hour (11am-noon) before shifting networks.

* FOX's MLB schedule, for the broadcast network and FS1, is partially set.  It appears that the broadcast network will not show MLB games on Saturday 9/3, but may end up with a doubleheader on FS1 as Astros at Rangers is scheduled for the pay TV channel at 4:05pm ET.

A couple broadcast network windows at the end of the season are usually set aside as "best available game" choices and FS1's remaining schedule should be comprised of games where both teams are affiliated with FOX majority owned RSNs (ie. regional elevates).  Once this, along with the NASCAR Truck Series schedule & UFC calendar are finalized, we'll have a better understanding of available time slots for college football.