Changes to College Sports Scheduling for ESPN & FS1 with Move of UFC?

Quickly tossing this one out as ESPN finalized a UFC TV contract, apparently replacing FOX Sports as a TV partner per the Hollywood Reporter.

* FS1 had plenty of live UFC content during college football & basketball seasons.  I don't know what 2018 will look like yet since it seems like the UFC fall schedule is being finalized.  Here's a quick view of 2017 & 2016 for college football season alone:

If FOX Sports isn't going after another college sports conference, maybe they would look to start their Pac-12 games a bit earlier where possible.  After UFC, I believe the NHL is the next pro sport to potentially be available after the 2020-21 season.

FS2 felt a de facto UFC replay channel, so it would need something new.  Maybe more college sports with some from the content staying behind if the sale of their regional sports networks goes through.  Maybe something else is coming that we don't know about.  FOX reportedly is adding Smackdown, but that would be for the broadcast network on Friday nights.   Archival WWE items come to mind but the WWE Network would seem to be the home for that.

* ESPN picking up 15 fight cards & PPV prelims, assuming this is what they got from THR's reporting, doesn't necessarily mean they'll be concentrated during college football & basketball season.  They aired one Top Rank card on a Saturday during college football season on 11/11/17.

At the risk of being way off on how this deal is structured & executed, does this affect any late evening college football or basketball?  Would there be more ESPN+ cards from September through March to reduce potential conflicts?  The Mountain West will be on the market soon & previously they made noise about their distaste for some of those later evening starts.  From several reports, BYU wants to remain with ESPN & prefers that relationship.  The Pac-12 should be unaffected as their media rights deals run through the 2023-24 athletic year.

As a side note, I'd be interested to see if there's any cross promotion between ESPN's Top Rank boxing cards and UFC.

CFB TV Roundup from the ACC, ESPN and FOX Sports

* ESPN announced the first three weeks for ABC's Saturday Night Football today.  Some observations:

• On paper, where matchups go to be proven wrong at times, Alabama-Louisville would look to be a mismatch, but ABC often only gets one chance a season to show Alabama & typically it is in these neutral site games.  Michigan at Notre Dame is also that evening & it could siphon off viewers if it is close.  We also don't know what other plans ESPN has for other games they have access to, such as Washington vs. Auburn.
• Penn St. at Pittsburgh was given away as a night game by the Pirates when they moved the start time of their game on 9/8 from the evening to the afternoon.  From there, it was a matter of whether it was going to air on ABC or ESPN, but with some solid SEC options available for ESPN to work with, ABC was the place for the game.
• The choice of Ohio St. vs. TCU for ABC on 9/15 is interesting from a few points, none of which I have the answer to, but should become clearer by the end of May:
• Did ESPN choose this over USC vs. Texas?  FOX Sports announced at their advertising upfront on 5/14 that they would be carrying Oklahoma vs. Texas (keep reading for info on that), so was this the first choice of weeks by ESPN where they would pick first?
• Did ESPN manage to get the top two Big 12 choices on 9/15, meaning they could air USC vs. Texas on ABC leading into this one, or on ESPN?  This isn't unheard of.  One could look at 9/8/17, where ABC had a tripleheader of Big Ten games, including both Pittsburgh at Penn St. & Oklahoma at Ohio St., though FOX had some limitations in their programming schedule with FS1 taken up most of the day by the Walker Cup and MLB in the early afternoon.
• If FOX has USC vs. Texas, and it was not mentioned at the advertising upfront, will they air it as a competing night game?  As mentioned by Burke Magnus of ESPN in his appearance w/me on SportsTVRatings podcast, both ESPN and FOX Sports try to keep from showing games from the same conference on ABC & FOX when possible. The last time this occurred with the Big 12 was late 2015.  In non-conference play, the last time was early 2014.

* FOX Sports did announce three specific matchups that would be part of their schedule at their advertising upfront:

• Michigan at Ohio St. (11/24)
• Oklahoma vs. Texas (10/6)
• Michigan at Michigan St. (10/20)

None of the games are a real surprise.  FOX Sports has the top choice of weeks to pick first from both the Big 12, which rotates between ESPN and them, and the Big Ten, which FOX Sports has for the duration of the rights agreement.  The slotting of the last two games will be worth watching.  When they last had access to Oklahoma vs. Texas, they chose to air it on FS1 and use it as a lead-in to their NLDS coverage...which was promptly rained out.  Either way, it ended up being a highly rated game and ESPN followed suit last year, airing it on pay TV instead of ABC.

As for Michigan at Michigan St., using the scheduling pattern of the 2014 & 2016 MLB postseason, the potential for a Saturday NLCS Game Six has to be accounted for and the game time is flexible based on whether there is a ALCS Game Seven or not.  Using FOX's strategy to give ALCS Game Seven in 2017 as little potential internal competition as possible with TCU vs. Kansas as the FOX night game, it would not surprise me to see FOX or FS1 air this intrastate matchup at noon.

* The first three weeks, plus nearly all non-Saturday games, of ACC controlled games had their time & TV assignments set on Friday.  Some items of note:

• Samford at Florida St. being at night on ACC Network on 9/8 is the same as the original plans for FSU's game vs. UL Monroe last year.  As someone mentioned to me last year, FSU requested any early season ACC Network games to air at night.
• The Braves are scheduled to play on FOX Sports South on 9/15 at night vs. Washington.  I would assume that the WKU-Louisville game being distributed to ACC RSNs will air on FOX Sports Southeast in many of those overlapping areas.  I believe a lot of Kentucky is served by FOX Sports Ohio.
• For a few of the Friday night games, there looks to be potential for doubleheaders based on a few 7pm start times:
• On 10/5, the Georgia Tech at Louisville game appears to be set to lead into Utah St. at BYU.
• On 10/26, Miami (FL) at Boston College appears to be positioned to lead into Utah at UCLA.
• Conversely, the 7:30pm start of Pittsburgh at Virginia on 11/2 leads me to believe the Colorado at Arizona game ends up with Pac-12 Networks or FS1, unless Arizona is cool with a 8pm local start on a Friday (they might be).  FS1 does have a NASCAR Truck Series race that evening, but Dennis Dodd reports that if there is a need for an overflow channel, FOX Business Channel will get the nod instead of FS2.
  
  To that point, there was a report from Sports Business Journal that FS1 could get a Thursday night NFL game or two in the event of a World Series conflict because of weather.  If that happens, and I believe Baylor at West Virginia is scheduled for FS1 based on ESPN having a full schedule of Thursday night games on 10/25, maybe that's the place the Big 12 game ends up instead of FS2 if an alternate network is needed.

Navy, AAC & CBS Sports Carve Out Unique Rights Agreement

When Navy moved to the American Athletic Conference as a football-only member, it did so while an existing contract was in place with CBS Sports Network to televise football games, with the exception of Army-Navy and their "home" game vs. Notre Dame.

Over that time, I admit that as I was under the impression that Navy's rights would then revert to the existing television contract the conference has with ESPN, but over this winter I was corrected on that stance and that the conference had retained those rights.  From there, the conference, Navy, CBS Sports and current primary rightsholder ESPN came to a new agreement on how to divide up Navy's football rights.

Note that Army-Navy is covered under a separate agreement that ends after the 2028 game.  That deal also included the matchup(s) in basketball.

From here, I'm going to ask you to read Bill Wagner's report from the Capital Gazette because he gets direct quotes on the agreement & negotiations from American Athletic commissioner Mike Aresco & Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk.

To summarize what Bill unearthed:

• One Navy home game each season, plus the "home" game vs. Notre Dame in even numbered seasons, will be available to the primary rightsholder.  This provides some value to the American's future rights agreement with four Notre Dame games available to the conference for the length of this agreement.
• All other home games will be on CBS Sports Network.
• Navy had a strong desire to keep all of their football home games on Saturdays, which CBS was amenable to.

A source clarified that the primary rightsholder will not have access to Navy home games until 2020, which would be the first year of any new rights agreements.  CBS Sports Network would have all home games until then.  CBS also has exercised the option to carry the game vs. Notre Dame from San Diego.

From the press release, there are a few subtle items that may be noteworthy:

• At the end of the first paragraph: "As part of the agreement, CBS Sports Network will continue to televise the majority of Navy home football games, including the Air Force at Navy game."
  
  Since Navy's out-of-conference schedule is fairly rigid with games vs. Army, Air Force & Notre Dame on an annual basis*, if CBSSN retains the Air Force game, that would seem to indicate that the primary rightsholder will get the top choice of Navy's AAC home games.
  
  *2018 has Navy playing 13 regular season games due to a road game at Hawai'i, so they have two other non-conference games instead of just one.
• "The network also will televise additional select Navy home athletic events, including basketball, baseball and lacrosse games."
  
  Right now, I believe these events are covered through the Patriot League's agreement with CBS Sports Network.  I do not know if this statement is referring to that agreement, or if Navy was allowed to place specific events on the network outside of any agreements the Patriot League has.  As mentioned early, at least one Army-Navy matchup in basketball is covered as part of the agreement for the football game.
• The length of the agreement is ten years, but the first two years run alongside the final two years of the American's rights agreement with ESPN.  Does this signal that the length of the American's upcoming rights agreement, potentially with ESPN based on the Capital Gazette article, will be eight years to line up the two agreements?