Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Remaining Early Season Start Times & MW Regional TV Guesses

Mountain West

* The regional TV schedule for the Mountain West does have to work around the schedules of the Colorado Rockies, Utah Jazz and Vegas Golden Knights which are carried on AT&T SportsNet in large areas of the RSN's territory.  The Jazz are also carried in some areas on ROOT Sports, which is why a portion of the Big Sky's TV schedule on that RSN has a few TBA start times.

Anyways, here's a guess on the remaining games from the Mountain West, placing them with particular TV or digital platforms:

AT&T SportsNet
9/1: Stony Brook at Air Force
9/8: New Mexico St. at Utah St.
9/29: Liberty at New Mexico
10/13: UNLV at Utah St.
10/13: New Mexico at Colorado St.
10/20: Utah St. at Wyoming
10/27: UNLV at San Jose St.
11/10: San Jose St. at Utah St.
11/17: Nevada at San Jose St.
11/24: Wyoming at New Mexico

A few notes on these:
  • Taking the Air Force game with the Rockies in the evening feels like a no-brainer with all other Air Force games selected by other MW TV partners
  • I looked at New Mexico St. at Utah St. as a good regional selection.
  • For October & November, I tried to balance the selections of UNLV and Nevada games based on if or when the Golden Knights were playing.  
  • There are occasions where ROOT only carried the Big Sky game & ATTSN only carried the MW game live, so this doesn't mean the two conferences would be aired as consecutive games.
Stadium Production on Facebook or ESPN Digital
9/1: Idaho at Fresno St.
9/8: Sacramento St. at San Diego St.
9/8: UTEP at UNLV
9/13: Tennessee Tech at Utah St.
10/6: New Mexico at UNLV
10/27: New Mexico at Colorado St.
11/3: San Jose St. at Wyoming
11/17: Utah St. at Colorado St.

ESPN and CBS Sports Network are each allowed up to two additional selections after AT&T Sports Network and Stadium make their selections.  One of those intraconference games could be an ESPN3 game.

School Produced Mountain West Network or No Streaming
8/30: UC Davis at San Jose St.
8/31: Portland St. at Nevada
9/1: Incarnate Word at New Mexico
9/15: Prairie View at UNLV
9/15: Wofford at Wyoming
9/22: Illinois St. at Colorado St.

Spectrum PPV for Hawai'i & Stadium app on the mainland
9/8: Rice at Hawai'i
9/22: Duquesne at Hawai'i
9/29: Hawai'i at San Jose St.
10/6: Wyoming at Hawai'i
10/20: Nevada at Hawai'i
11/3: Utah St. at Hawai'i
11/17: UNLV at Hawai'i

Conference USA

There are six regular season C-USA games, all involving FAU and UAB as the home teams, that are awaiting final start times.  Five of them are scheduled to air on Stadium or Stadium on Facebook with the sixth on ESPN3.  I suspect that FAU is working with Stadium on the games for their TV feed to figure out the best start time with respect to hot weather and UAB may be doing the same, though since both UAB games are on digital outlets, they have a bit more control on the start times.  All might be set by the time C-USA Media Days start up in a week.

The conference championship game's start time is also TBA.  If CBSSN carries the final day of the Belfast Classic, the football game wouldn't start any earlier than 1pm ET based on the tip times in Belfast.

Liberty, New Mexico St. and Massachusetts

Liberty & New Mexico St. set the start times for their home games already and both schools have produced telecasts before, so its likely that they'll continue down this route and figure out a way to distribute those games out of market digitally.  As for UMass, they are staying with Eleven Sports for national coverage, so they may be working with the network alongside other FCS game coverage to figure out the appropriate start times.

I put forth the possibility of both Liberty and New Mexico St. maybe looking at Eleven Sports with both schools producing the coverage for the national network, mostly because the Big Sky schedule had few start times announced (they could also be working with other FCS conferences like the Southland).

Liberty would be less likely because of their A-Sun sports coverage being part of ESPN Digital.  New Mexico St. I could see looking at it since they have the UMass model to follow, which still allowed for regional TV coverage (UMass used NESN) and free streaming through the UMass athletics website.  Whether they look at that or if Eleven is even interested, I can't say.  Would it be a step up from AggieVision w/FSAZ & Altitude regionally & ESPN3 and FOX College Sports nationally?  Possibly.

4 comments:

bigddan11 said...

Eleven uses fewer cameras than AggieVision, so that'd be a downgrade. The biggest evidence of this is on extra points. Also FCS is in slightly more homes- 60 million while in the states Eleven is only in around 55 million. Plus the WAC, New Mexico State's primary league, also has a contract with ESPN, so AggieVision on ESPN3 or ESPN+ makes more sense in the long run.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

The only thing I want to clarify is the 60 million number for FOX College Sports & 50-55 million for Eleven Sports. Both tout the "available" number (FOX also says FCS is on Comcast systems when it has disappeared, the literature is a bit outdated & not on their press pass site), not the subscriber number. Its a subtle difference and as you know it depends on the tier where the channel appears whether someone is actually subscribing for the channel, etc.

https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/what-is-fox-college-sports-011014

http://elevensportsusa.com/eleven-sports-enters-u-s-market/

CBS Sports Network used to tout it as well with a mid 90 million number when they weren't being subscribed to in that many homes.

http://awfulannouncing.com/2013/cbs-sports-network-is-now-seen-in-53-million-homes.html

I hear your point on the WAC, though how much of a contract is it really? Handful of ESPN Digital games & some championships on ESPNU? UMass figured out in the A-10's multiple TV partner situation how to go about getting a handful of men's basketball games, plus other sports, on Eleven with NESN.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Also, I mentioned above in the post that AggieVision could be the production used by Eleven, not in place of.

Wayne said...

I can't wait o. Thanks for sharing!