(Side note: there's a lot of games here through January that conferences & TV networks have not yet announced. Worth a peek)
* The Big 12 appears to be a beneficiary of the move of 30+ Big Ten games over to FOX Sports in two places
- Only six conference games will appear on ESPNEWS, down from fifteen in 2016-17. It bears watching when the American's schedule comes out if they have less games on ESPNEWS or not. Right now, I see 4-5 more games on ESPNU compared to last year in the regular season for the Big 12.
- A few more Monday games compared to last year, with a couple ESPN2 Monday games in addition to the ESPN Big Monday game. Do wonder if this is ESPN counterprogramming against what is rumored to be a package of Big Ten games on Mondays or if they are using a couple men's games to draw additional eyeballs to the women's basketball Big Monday games on ESPN2. Also wonder if the ACC will join the Monday ESPN2 party. They had one late season ESPN2 Monday game last season (Miami (FL) at Virginia Tech, 2/27).
* As you can see from the release, six intraconference games were't picked up for national TV & revert back to the home team school for their local/regional packages. As you've probably picked up from prior years, this allows ESPN to push a few Texas home games vs. Big 12 schools over to Longhorn Network. Those games are:
12/29: Baylor at Texas Tech
1/6: Kansas St. at Texas Tech
1/17: Texas Tech at Texas
2/7: Kansas St. at Texas
2/21: TCU at Iowa St.
2/24: Oklahoma St. at Texas
Iowa St.'s game will be on the Cyclones.TV channel, while I would expect FOX Sports Southwest to take the two Texas Tech games.
* Besides the 84 conference games that were selected for national TV, 18 additional non-conference games will air on ESPN network, five of those belonging to the challenge series with the SEC. Here's a breakdown by network so far:
CBS - 3
ESPN - 10
ESPN2 - 23
ESPN or ESPN2 - 18
ESPN2 or ESPNU - 1
ESPNU - 37
ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU - 5 (SEC challenge series)
ESPNEWS - 6
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