Notes from the Big East & Big Ten Basketball TV Schedules Releases

* For the Big East and Big Ten television schedules, I had a few takeaways

• FOX Sports is definitely going in on carrying as much live sports on the broadcast network as possible.  At the moment, I have 23 games scheduled there.  16 from the Big East and 7 from the Big Ten.  Two more Big East games are scheduled for either FOX or FS1 based on NFL playoff scheduling. 
  
  Last year there were 29 games scheduled on FOX, which included the championship round of the Las Vegas Invitational, which has moved back to FS1 this coming season.  So FOX's schedule might have a few less games unless there's a push to place more Pac-12 games on the broadcast network.  December 21st has a lot of available neutral site contests unless they've already been claimed by other TV networks.
  
• No wildcard selections for either the Big Ten or Big East on their final weekend(s).  In the past, the TV partners would have the option of choosing the best available game.  In the case of the Big Ten, that could also mean the date of a game being either Saturday or Sunday if BTN is the TV partner.
  
• For those of you needing a fix on RSN news, there were no FSN or FOX College Sports games listed in FOX Sports' release of Big East games.  They also didn't have those games in the initial list of college football games they are carrying.  I assume that they maintain rights to these games but they no longer own the RSNs carrying these games, so they've not elected to acknowledge them.  I do want to follow up with someone on the rightsholder part of things.
  
• Eight of the 16 Big Ten schools will appear on FOX or CBS as part of the conference's TV package.  DePaul is the only Big East school that will not appear on either FOX or CBS, unless they make it to the Big East championship game.

* I'm very curious to see who takes any part of the James Naismith Classic event being played on Saturday, November 16th due to so many networks already committed to carrying college football.  A handful of games scheduled through the Basketball Hall of Fame did end up on FloSports last year when linear TV networks didn't pick them up.  Its also possible that the event could be split between multiple rightsholders, such as a game on Pac-12 or SEC Network (Tennessee vs. Washington), another on BTN (Rutgers vs. St. Bonaventure) and the third on streaming services (Buffalo vs. Harvard).  Or Stadium could end up claiming it to air on their linear TV or Facebook services.

* So I went through the ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS listings for November at WatchESPN.com to see what conference controlled men's basketball games were listed.  ESPNEWS had no conference controlled games listed, but the other three had a few.  I didn't go through ACC or SEC Network since its a bit obvious what conference they'll be covering.

Also, might be a clue in here regarding a conference who may be placing some games on ESPN television outlets when they had not been previously.

ESPN
11/10 1pm: "Southeastern Conference Basketball" - Florida St. at Florida seems likely
11/17 3pm: "Southeastern Conference Basketball" - New Orleans at Mississippi St. is the only SEC game scheduled for this date.

ESPN2
11/8 10:30pm "Pacific-12 Conference Men's Basketball" - Arizona St. vs. Colorado from Shanghai, China or Iowa St. at Oregon St. look like possibilities.
11/13 6pm "Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball" - already announced as LSU at VCU
11/14 7pm "Southeastern Conference Basketball" - Towson at Florida looks likely based on the Gators' standing in several early top 25 projections.
11/18 7pm "Southeastern Conference Basketball" - Utah Valley at Kentucky
11/18 9pm "Big 12 Conference Basketball" - Air Force at TCU, Northern Colorado at West Virginia & William & Mary at Oklahoma are scheduled for this date

ESPNU
11/5 7pm "Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball" - Virginia Tech at Clemson was scheduled for ESPN2 or ESPNU.  ESPNU seems to be the place.
11/5 9pm "Big Ten Conference Basketball" - The conference released its TV schedule but did not list TV for the St. Mary's vs. Wisconsin game being played in Sioux Falls, SD.  Looks to be the place for it.
11/6 7pm & 9pm "Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball" - Florida St. at Pittsburgh & Wake Forest at Boston College are the games.
11/8 7pm & 9pm "Big 12 Conference Basketball" - Akron at West Virginia & UNC Greensboro at Kansas are the two games available from the conference
11/10 4pm "Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball" - UMass Lowell at Ohio St. is scheduled here
11/10 6pm "Big Ten Conference Basketball" - Assuming the conference designations were flip flopped, five games are available, including James Madison at Virginia, the defending champions' first home game.
11/12 6pm "Northeast Conference Basketball" - Must be Pittsburgh at Robert Morris
11/15 9pm "Southeastern Conference Basketball" - Gonzaga at Texas A&M looks to be the best available of five SEC games
11/17 2pm "Big 12 Conference Basketball" - Yale at Oklahoma St. is the only Big 12 game scheduled
11/17 4pm "Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball" - already announced as Seton Hall at Saint Louis
11/17 6pm "Conference USA Basketball" - Yes, you read that correctly and I did a double take when I saw it.  Maybe a small package of ESPNU games is replacing what C-USA lost moving away from beIN Sports.  Wake Forest at Charlotte is the only C-USA game scheduled for that day.
11/18 7pm "Big Ten Conference Basketball" - I don't know.  I don't have a Big Ten game scheduled for TV that day on ESPNU nor one sitting out their waiting for a TV assignment.  Maybe the conference designation is incorrect.
11/20 11pm "Mountain West Conference Basketball" - This game shows when looking at 11/21, so I think its picking up when the game ends in the Eastern time zone.  Anyways, BYU at Boise St. & Fresno St. vs. St. Mary's from Sacramento seem likely.