Sunday, September 8, 2019

CFB TV Guesses for 2019 Week Four (9/21/19)

Here are the games already set for television and/or webcast.  Here are the known available telecast windows.

 Things to know in advance
* Michigan at Wisconsin was selected to air on FOX at 12pm ET in advance of the 12 day selection process.  It is the only game window scheduled for broadcast network.
* CBS selected Notre Dame at Georgia for the 8pm primetime game a few weeks ago and also selects its 3:30pm game before ESPN can choose any games.  Because of the doubleheader involving a primetime game, any SEC games on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU will air in the 12pm ET timeslot.
* Connecticut at Indiana, Boston College at Rutgers & Miami (OH) at Ohio St. were announced as airing on BTN during Big Ten Media Days.  Either Nebraska at Illinois or Michigan St. at Northwestern will also air on BTN.
* RSN listings indicate two ACC games, one at 12pm ET & one at 3:30pm ET.

Decisions I made
* In terms of pick order
  • After Michigan at Wisconsin was selected by FOX, my assumption is that ESPN is choosing between Nebraska at Illinois or Michigan St. at Northwestern with whichever game isn't chosen airing on BTN as mentioned earlier.
  • With FS1 carrying just two Saturday games and FOX just one, I gave ESPN both the the top Big 12 (Oklahoma St. at Texas) and the top remaining Pac-12 selections (Oregon at Stanford and Colorado at Arizona St.) as FS1 has Utah at USC on Friday night.  Weeknight games are supposedly drafted by ESPN and FOX outside of the Saturday selections, with the options available, I think ESPN is taking two Pac-12 games this week.
* The Pac-12 Networks advance schedules no longer list fixed game windows for future weeks.  I did notice that the Washington Pac-12 RSN schedule has an event for 9pm ET / 6pm PT (women's volleyball) and since the games have to be cleared on the competing regions' RSNs, I placed it at 4pm ET / 1pm PT.  East coast Pac-12 primetime games on ABC and FOX are supposed to have a exclusivity at the start of the game for at least 90 minutes, so I went with afternoon instead of 9pm ET.

* I chose Louisville at Florida St. at noon over Oklahoma St. at Texas, figuring that Oklahoma St. at Texas could help provide ESPN two good viewing options at night (Oregon at Stanford being the other) in the event Notre Dame at Georgia is a dud.

* I was nearly swayed to swap Oklahoma St. at Texas & Oregon at Stanford, but ESPN has a very small requirement of two Pac-12 games on ABC and just one in primetime.  Figured this was the better week to get it out of the way.

12pm ABC: Louisville at Florida St.
12pm ESPN: Tennessee at Florida
12pm ESPN2: California at Ole Miss
12pm FS1: UL Monroe at Iowa St.
12pm ESPNU: South Carolina at Missouri
12pm SECN: Kentucky at Mississippi St.
12pm ACCN: Old Dominion at Virginia
12pm BTN: Boston College at Rutgers
12pm BTN: Connecticut at Indiana
12pm ACC RSNs: Central Michigan at Miami (FL)
3pm Pac-12: UCLA at Washington St.
3:30pm ABC: Michigan St. at Northwestern
3:30pm CBS: Auburn at Texas A&M
3:30pm ESPN: Charlotte at Clemson
3:30pm ESPN2: Washington at BYU
3:30pm FS1: West Virginia at Kansas
3:30pm ESPNU: Ball St. at NC State
3:30pm CBSSN: Wyoming at Tulsa
3:30pm BTN: Miami (OH) at Ohio St.
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Elon at Wake Forest
4pm SECN: LSU at Vanderbilt
4pm SECN: San Jose St. at Arkansas
4pm ACCN: Western Michigan at Syracuse
7pm ESPN: Oklahoma St. at Texas
7pm ESPN2: Appalachian St. at North Carolina
7pm ESPNU: SMU at TCU
7:30pm ABC: Oregon at Stanford
7:30pm SECN: Southern Miss at Alabama
7:30pm ACCN: UCF at Pittsburgh
7:30pm BTN: Nebraska at Illinois
10:15pm ESPN2: Toledo at Colorado St.
10:30pm ESPN: Colorado at Arizona St.

ESPN3
William & Mary at East Carolina

ESPN3 or ESPN+
Troy at Akron
Temple at Buffalo
Central Connecticut St. at Eastern Michigan
UL-Lafayette at Ohio
Bowling Green at Kent St.
Southern Illinois at Arkansas St.
Georgia St. at Texas St.
at

4 comments:

  1. RobSeptember 8, 2019 at 2:40 PM

    Hey matt, OK State at Texas is the sexier game. ESPN is gonna have it over a OR at Stanford to go against ND at Georgia. Plus theirs better P12 games for ESPN to put in primetime later in the season. FS1 will put WV at KU on at 12pm not ULM at ISU guaranteed.

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    Replies
    1. Matt SarzyniakSeptember 8, 2019 at 2:42 PM

      Here's my thought on which B12 game in a particular slot - I'm trying to put the game that's least likely to draw folks away from UM-Wisc on FS1 and to me, that's ULM-ISU

      Delete
  2. SchmolikSeptember 9, 2019 at 7:10 AM

    Can ABC count Notre Dame-Stanford as its Pac 12 prime time game or does it have to be two Pac 12 teams? If the Notre Dame game counts and ABC does have it this year, they can always use it as their prime time game. Of course they're counting on both Notre Dame and Stanford to have good years and they may have Bedlam this year. Not a bad idea to get the prime time game out of the way this week, there isn't anything stopping ABC from airing ND-Stanford in prime time (if they have it) later.

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  3. Matt SarzyniakSeptember 9, 2019 at 7:42 AM

    I looked from 2012-2018 and there wasn't a single season where a non-conference game was the only Pac-12 primetime game on ABC. As far as I know, it could be any game the conference controls. What I also don't know is what where FOX falls in selection order when those games are being played.

    ReplyDelete