Saturday, October 14, 2017

2017 CFB TV Facts & Figures Through 10/21 TV Selections

First, I'll give you an idea of where I think they'll slot the remaining 10/21 games:

12pm ABC: Oklahoma St. at Texas
12pm ESPN: Iowa at Northwestern
12pm ESPN2: Louisville at Florida St.
3:30pm ABC: Syracuse at Miami (FL)
3:30pm ESPN: Indiana at Michigan St.
3:30pm ESPN2: North Carolina at Virginia Tech
3:30pm FS1: Kansas at TCU
4pm FOX: Arizona St. at Utah
7:15pm ESPN: Auburn at Arkansas
7pm ESPN2: USF at Tulane
7:30pm ESPNU: Wake Forest at Georgia Tech
7:30pm SEC: LSU at Ole Miss
8pm FOX: Oklahoma at Kansas St.

Now to some facts & figures about the conference selections through 10/21.

ACC
* One six day hold has been used.  Three remain.  As far as I know, the shifting of games on 9/16 did not trigger the use of a six day hold, though it would not surprise me if it was a condition of moving Clemson-Louisville and Notre Dame-Boston College to later in the day.
* Have heard that Raycom will be allowed to have an extra window, possibly on 10/28, for the ACC Network.  This would be due to the loss of the UL-Monroe at Florida St. game earlier in the season.

American
* 26 games have been scheduled for primary TV networks ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU with two additional games expected to be added on Black Friday, including the conference championship game.  28 games are the minimum with at least three of those games on ABC.
* 15 games have been scheduled for ESPN3 or local/regional TV, putting them right on the minimum end of 81% of conference controlled games on national TV.
* No six day holds have been used.  I think the hold on USF-Tulane is allowed due to only a 30 minute time difference and no change in the TV rightsholder.  Two are available.

Big 12
* Halfway through the season (weeks 1-7) and no Big 12 game has appeared on ABC.  All of the conference's broadcast network games (five) have aired on FOX.  EDIT: ABC will have a 12pm game on 10/21.
* With at least one game on FOX on 10/21 (the 8pm ET slot is guaranteed), FOX will have met their minimum requirement of Big 12 games on broadcast television.  They have already met their minimum on the national cable side with ten games on FS1.
* ESPN has selected 10 of their 23 Big 12 selections for the season.  Look for them to catch up on 10/28 with FOX Sports only showing three games across all their platforms and one window already accounted for.
* ESPNU has shown three of the ten ESPN selections.  ESPNU has a soft maximum of 4-5 games per season.
* Overall, 21 games have been selected to air on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, FOX and FS1.  The Big 12 requires 25 games per season to be shown nationally on those outlets and should easily eclipse that.
* One six day hold has been used.  Three more remain.
* Complete Speculation: In terms of top selections, I believe each TV partner has had them on the following dates:

ESPN Networks: 9/9, 9/16, 9/23, 10/14
FOX Sports: 9/2, 9/30, 10/7, 10/21

Also, note that FOX Sports preselected Oklahoma St.-Oklahoma on 11/4, so it seems safe to assume that they picked first for that particular week.

Big Ten
* ESPN has selected 19 of their 27 selections across the season, including future weeks.  They'll have eight to use over the final five weeks.
* FOX Sports has used 17 of their 27 selections, including future weeks and excluding the conference championship game.  Ten more selections to use over the final five weeks.
* Both ESPN and FOX has each aired six games in primetime, either on weeknights or Saturdays.  Both TV partners could air up to three more games each in primetime.
* Michigan, Maryland and Northwestern each require one more appearance on BTN.  Each school has a non-conference appearance on the network already.
* No six day holds have been used.
Complete Speculation: In terms of top selections, I believe each TV partner has had them on the following dates:

ESPN Networks: 9/2, 9/9, 9/30, 10/7, 10/21
FOX Sports: 9/16, 9/23, 10/14

Also, FOX Sports selected Penn St.-Ohio St. (10/28) and Ohio St.-Michigan (11/25) in advance, so its fair to say they have the top choices those weeks.

Pac-12
* ESPN has used 15 of their 22 selections, including a pre-selection of Oregon at Oregon St. on 11/25.  Seven more Saturday selections across the remaining five weeks, excluding the conference championship game.
* ABC has aired their minimum two Pac-12 games with one of the two in primetime.
* ESPN has two six day holds to use.
* FOX Sports has used 16 of their 22 selections.  Six more Saturday selections.
* FOX broadcast network has aired five Pac-12 games out of a minimum number of eight.  Four of those games must air in primetime and, when including the Sunday night game of Texas A&M at UCLA, they've aired four in primetime.
* FOX has used one of their two six day holds.  Similar to USF-Tulane & Wake Forest-Georgia Tech on 10/28 for ESPN, I don't believe a 30 minute time difference across two different FOX platforms triggers a six day hold.
* Utah (EDIT: and Washington St.) must appear once more on Pac-12 Networks based on the number of games available to Pac-12 TV partners.  A school cannot appear more than nine times total between ESPN Networks and FOX Sports.  All other Pac-12 schools are free to appear on any Pac-12 TV partner's platform.
Complete Speculation: In terms of top selections, I believe each TV partner has had them on the following dates:

ESPN Networks:  9/23, 9/30, 10/14, 10/21
FOX Sports: 9/2, 9/9, 9/16, 10/7
Pac-12 Networks: None yet

SEC
* Tennessee & Florida have each been scheduled to appear three times on CBS out of a maximum five appearances, including Florida vs. Georgia on 10/28.
* One six day hold has been used by CBS and they have one remaining.
* There is one more ESPN sublicense window, I believe on 11/18, where the appearances in CBS's 12pm game will not be counted towards anyone's appearance maximums.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Does Wazzu need one more P12N game? They have only had 2 so far and all 12 of their games TV rights are controlled by the P12.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

You're correct on Washington St. Will edit. Thank you.