Quick Hitter on the 2018 MAC Schedule Release

Some quick items on the MAC schedule release and the TV selections made

* CBS Sports Network used six of their 12 sublicense selections for non-Saturday games, two less than 2017.  I don't if that means CBSSN will choose their six Saturday games earlier in the year or if they'll pick up games that were set for Saturdays in November, which is a change from the schedule the MAC released last year where there were no Saturday intraconference games in November.

* Last year CBSSN aired four consecutive MAC Thursday games from late October to November, where this season they'll skip November 8th.  I don't if CBSSN has other plans with respect to football or men's basketball now that basketball season will start a few days earlier (more on that in a minute), but that week also has CBSSN airing the PBR World Finals, which will have its programming start with a pre-event show at 9:30pm ET on 11/8.

* With the move of the start of the men's basketball season to 11/6/18, the MAC appears to have lost one of their ESPN2 Tuesday night slots.  ESPN has the Champions Classic that evening and I assume ESPN2 will either have other college basketball or other programming.  Hence, the only MAC game that evening is on ESPNU.

* I did a doubletake when I saw a MAC Thursday night game on ESPN2 on 10/25 (maybe its how they made up for the lost Tuesday night), but it does provide some clarity on a few things.  Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech is anchored to ESPN (it probably was anyways, but the ACC said ESPN or ESPN2) and Baylor at West Virginia is now virtually certain to be in the camp of FOX Sports.

10/25 would be the 1st travel day in the 2018 World Series schedule, so its understandable that the football schedule would increase for this date.

* The network designation of the 11/20 for one game on either ESPN2 or ESPNU and the other on ESPN3, at least that's how I read it from the MAC's release, I assume is due to trying to figure out scheduling for the multiple men's basketball events that ESPN carries at the beginning of Thanksgiving week, such as the Maui Invitational, Legends Classic, CBE Classic, etc.