Wednesday, March 4, 2020

How Might the Thursday & Friday night CFB Schedules Shake Out for 2020?

Patching together Thursday & Friday night schedule.  Please note that I've left Black Friday alone as each network group could do something different.

Should look like this:

ESPN

Thursday night doesn't have much intrigue with the exception of potentially replacing SMU at Temple if there's an Eagles home game scheduled for that evening.  Friday still has a couple openings.

Please note that this is for ESPN & ESPN2 only.  ESPNU will have its own schedule of Thursday night games from the Sun Belt & HBCU conferences and Friday should have a package of Ivy League games.

Thursday
9/3: Clemson at Georgia Tech
9/10: None (opening night NFL)
9/17: UAB at Miami (FL)
9/24: UCF at ECU
10/1: Memphis at SMU
10/8: Tulane at Houston
10/15: Baylor at Texas Tech
10/22: Boston College at Virginia Tech
10/29: Utah at UCLA
11/5: SMU at Temple
11/12: ECU at Cincinnati
11/19: Florida State at Syracuse
11/26: Mississippi State at Ole Miss

Friday
9/4: North Carolina at UCF (ESPN)
9/11: Western Michigan at Cincinnati (ESPN2 with US Open on ESPN)
9/18: UCF at Georgia Tech (ESPN)
9/25: ???
10/2: Clemson at Boston College & Utah State at BYU (ESPN)
10/9: Miami (FL) at Wake Forest & Colorado at Arizona (ESPN)
10/16: UCF at Memphis & Houston at BYU (ESPN, or one on ESPN while the other airs on ESPN2)
10/23: Tulsa at USF & Arizona at Washington (ESPN2)
10/30: ECU at Tulsa (ESPN2)
11/6: Virginia Tech at Pitt (ESPN2)
11/13: Virginia at Duke (ESPN2)
11/20: ???

Both nights that are currently open have UConn home games, so if ESPN were to be working with the Huskies to carry a couple football games, they could slot in here (Indiana on 9/25 moving from 9/26, Middle Tennessee on 11/20 moving from 11/21). 9/25 could end up being a night ESPN airs MLB as a "pennant race" window, pushing any college football to ESPN2 or vice versa.  11/20 could have a later game due to ESPN covering the NBA, plus ESPN2 & ESPNU should be carrying some early season men's college basketball events, so maybe not a UConn game, but a Sun Belt instead if it involves one of the schools on Central time.

FS1

Thursday
9/3: Oregon State at Oklahoma State
10/29: Iowa State at Kansas State

Friday
9/4: Indiana at Wisconsin
9/18: Iowa at Minnesota
9/25: Air Force at Fresno State or San Diego State at Nevada
10/2: USC at Utah
10/30: Oregon State at Stanford
11/6: BYU at Boise State
11/13: Arizona State at Oregon
11/20: Utah State at Colorado State

Why not the other Fridays?
  • 9/11 has regular season MLB on FS1 at 7pm ET.  I don't see a Mountain West game worth moving to air after MLB, though I could see UTEP at Nevada moving there if FS1 chose it.
  • I'm leaving open 10/9 & 10/16 for MLB postseason. I think they'll end up giving up one of their NLDS games on 10/2 to MLB Network which should allow them to carry USC at Utah.
  • On 10/23, FS1 has to be left open for Smackdown to air there due to the World Series airing on FOX. 
It would make some sense for FS1 to add Mountain West games on 9/25 (would have to be after NASCAR, but both MW schools hosting are on Pacific time, so an 8pm PT / 11pm ET host is possible, or the game airs on FS2) & 11/20.  I know they have the ability to carry up to five Mountain West Friday night games, but I don't they will use them all unless a couple Friday night games air on FS2.  At this time, I'm not sure I'd move games to Friday night to air on FS2, though it is in more homes than CBS Sports Network.

CBS Sports Network
I think things could shake out like this:

Thursday
9/3: Washington State at Utah State
10/15: WKU at UAB

Friday
9/4: Bucknell at Army (linear TV) & Wake Forest at Old Dominion (CBSSN on Facebook)
9/25: C-USA
10/3: UNLV at San Diego State
10/10: C-USA
10/17: Hawai'i at Air Force
10/24: Colorado State at UNLV
11/13: C-USA

At the moment, I've left 11/6 & 11/20 as unavailable.  11/6 already has the PBR World Finals late in the evening and I believe the Veterans Classic men's basketball event would be slotted in for the time leading into PBR.  On 11/20, there should be coverage of the Jamaica Classic men's basketball event all day.

As for why I selected specific Mountain West games, but didn't for C-USA except WKU at UAB, its because I don't have a great feel for which games would be candidates to move.  WKU at UAB is a unique situation as it is the only UAB home game that coincides with a Saturday where both Alabama and Auburn are at home vs. SEC opponents.  Figured it was a good idea to get UAB off of a Saturday date in that situation.

Also, my Week Three predictions had Utah at Wyoming as a candidate to move to Friday night, but I've backed away from that in favor of a C-USA game on 9/25.  After seeing that this would put Utah at three weeknight games, I figured they would not want the Wyoming game moved.

Others
It looks like ACC Network will carry three weeknight games

9/3: Either Clemson at Georgia Tech or NC State at Louisville
9/4: Syracuse at Boston College
9/11: Appalachian State at Wake Forest

SEC Network usually takes one or two games for the opening Thursday night of the season as well.  The options might be limited.  Some schools really do not want night classes disrupted if they are in session and the football stadium is on campus, as it can cause parking issues.  When Tennessee hosted a Thursday night game in 2016, they shut down classes for that day.

The games that could be targeted include Coastal Carolina at South Carolina, Abilene Christian at Texas A&M and Mercer at Vanderbilt.  Texas A&M has been the Thursday night host the last two years, so that could leave them out.  I know that my Week One predictions have Coastal Carolina at South Carolina & Nevada at Arkansas, but the latter might not be an option as it is being played in Fayetteville and not in Little Rock.  When Arkansas hosted Florida A&M on Thursday night in 2017, it was played in Little Rock.

Pac-12 Network should also be the carrier of the Northern Arizona at Arizona State game on 9/3.

Monday, March 2, 2020

2020 Early Season Selections (Take No. 2)

I usually take a mulligan on the first time I take a stab at the early season TV selections, so here's that mulligan.  The difference between that first try is that I didn't feel comfortable choosing games in Week Three because several Group of Five Conferences were not ready.  Now they are, so you'll get Week Three too.

To set up the posts:

* There's a lot not yet known about potential programming conflicts, like MLB on FOX & FS1, Big3/Fireball3 Championship on CBS and WNBA on CBSSN.  I've assumed one MLB game on FS1 on Saturday in both Week 1 & 2.

* Conflicts that have been considered include the US Open (all day Week 1 on ESPN2, midday on ESPN in Week 2), Little League World Series (Week 0 on ABC in afternoon) and motorsports on FOX (Week 1 on Sunday for FS1 & Monday on FOX)

* Still have no idea regarding what the plan is with Big 12 games on the FOX Sports branded & affiliated RSNs.  I elected not to place them on RSNs and use FS2 where I could.

* No clue as to whether any AAC games get sublicensed to CBS Sports Network.  At this point, I assumed none.

* For those keeping track, I assumed FOX Sports & ESPN had the top Saturday choice for these conferences in the first three Weeks

Week 1
ESPN: Big Ten (Bowling Green-Ohio St.) & Pac-12 (Alabama-USC)
FOX Sports: Big 12 (Buffalo-Kansas St., by default)

Week 2
ESPN: Big 12 (Tennessee-Oklahoma)
FOX Sports: Big Ten (Iowa St.-Iowa) & Pac-12 (Ohio St.-Oregon)

Week 3
ESPN: Big 12 (Maryland-West Virginia) & Pac-12 (USC-Stanford)
FOX Sports: Big Ten (Buffalo at Ohio State)

* The following choices were made regarding the Big 12 member retained games, because they set up the choices made for Weeks 1 & 2, and will help with week 3.

Week 1
New Hampshire at Kansas
Missouri St. at Oklahoma
USF at Texas

Week 2
North Dakota at Kansas St.
Prairie View A&M at TCU
Alabama St. at Texas Tech
Eastern Kentucky at West Virginia

Week 3
UIW at Baylor
UNLV at Iowa St.
Western Illinois at Oklahoma St.

Without further ado, Weeks 0 & 1Week 2 and Week 3.

2020 Week Three CFB TV Guesses

If a game:

* is in bold, the network, time & date is confirmed
* is in italics, the network & date is confirmed, but not the start time
* is in red, I made the date change to accomodate TV and that date change is not confirmed by anyone.
* isn't listed, its likely to be streamed through various streaming platforms (C-USA or MW for Facebook, MW Network, ESPN3, ESPN+, CBS All-Access etc.).

Thursday
7pm ESPN: UAB at Miami (FL)
7pm ACCN: Charlotte at Duke

Friday
8pm ESPN: UCF at Georgia Tech
8pm FS1: Iowa at Minnesota
9pm CBSSN: Utah at Wyoming

Saturday
12pm ABC: Maryland at West Virginia
12pm FOX: Florida State at Boise State
12pm ESPN: Auburn at Ole Miss
12pm ESPN2: Rutgers at Temple
12pm FS1: Vanderbilt at Kansas State
12pm ESPNU: NC State at Troy
12pm SECN: Missouri at South Carolina
12pm BTN: Central Michigan at Northwestern
12pm BTN: South Dakota State at Nebraska
12pm CBSSN: Northern Illinois at Eastern Michigan
12pm ACCN: UConn at Virginia
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Colgate at Syracuse
2:30pm NBC: Western Michigan at Notre Dame
3pm Pac-12: Portland State at Oregon State
3:30pm ABC: Arkansas State at Michigan
3:30pm CBS: Georgia at Alabama
3:30pm ESPN: Air Force at Purdue
3:30pm ESPN2: Navy at Tulane
3:30pm FS1: San Jose State at Penn State
3:30pm SECN: Furman at Tennessee
3:30pm SECN: Kent State at Kentucky
3:30pm BTN: Appalachian State at Wisconsin
3:30pm BTN: Ball State at Indiana
3:30pm CBSSN: Virginia Tech at Middle Tennessee
3:30pm ACCN: James Madison at North Carolina
4pm FOX: Buffalo at Ohio State
4pm ESPNU: Cincinnati at Miami (OH)
6:30pm Pac-12: Hawai'i at Oregon
7pm ESPN: Colorado at Texas A&M
7pm ESPN2: Houston at Memphis
7pm FS1: Boston College at Kansas
7pm CBSSN: LSU vs. Rice
7:30pm ABC: USC at Stanford
7:30pm ESPNU: South Alabama at Florida
7:30pm SECN: Arkansas at Mississippi State
7:30pm BTN: Toledo at Michigan State
7:30pm BTN: Bowling Green at Illinois
7:30pm ACCN: Akron at Clemson
8pm FOX: Arizona at Texas Tech
8pm Longhorn: UTEP at Texas
10pm Pac-12: Idaho at Washington State
10:30pm ESPN: Utah State at Washington
10:30pm FS1: BYU at Arizona State
10:30pm CBSSN: UCLA at San Diego State

2020 Week Two CFB TV Guesses (Take No. 2)

If a game:

* is in bold, the network, time & date is confirmed
* is in italics, the network & date is confirmed, but not the start time
* is in red, I made the date change to accomodate TV and that date change is not confirmed by anyone.
* isn't listed, its likely to be streamed through various streaming platforms (C-USA or MW for Facebook, MW Network, ESPN3, ESPN+, CBS All-Access etc.).

Friday
7pm ACCN: Appalachian State at Wake Forest
7pm ESPN2: Western Michigan at Cincinnati

Saturday
12pm ABC: Penn State at Virginia Tech
12pm FOX: Iowa State at Iowa
12pm ESPN: Kentucky at Florida
12pm ESPN2: Memphis at Purdue
12pm FS1: Tulsa at Oklahoma State
12pm ESPNU: Central Michigan at Nebraska
12pm SECN: ECU at South Carolina
12pm BTN: Ball State at Michigan
12pm BTN: Southern Illinois at Wisconsin
12pm ACCN: Mississippi State at NC State
12:30pm ACC RSN: Samford at Florida State
2pm Pac-12: Fresno State at Colorado
2:30pm NBC: Arkansas at Notre Dame
3:30pm ABC: North Carolina vs. Auburn
3:30pm FOX: Ohio State at Oregon
3:30pm CBS: Boise State at Air Force
3:30pm ESPN2: Georgia State at Alabama
3:30pm FS1: Kansas at Baylor
3:30pm NFLN: Louisiana Tech at Southern Miss
3:30pm BTN: UConn at Illinois
3:30pm BTN: Tennessee Tech at Minnesota
3:30pm CBSSN: Lafayette at Navy
4pm ESPNU: FIU at UCF
4pm SECN: Southeast Missouri at Ole Miss
4pm SECN: North Texas at Texas A&M
4pm ACCN: Ohio at Boston College
4pm NESN+: Troy at UMass
5pm Pac-12: Houston at Washington State
5pm Pac-12 Bay Area: Cal Poly at California
7pm ESPN: Texas at LSU
7pm ESPN2: Tulane at Northwestern
7pm CBSSN: Pittsburgh at Marshall
7pm Stadium: Army at Rice
7:30pm ABC: Tennessee at Oklahoma
7:30pm FOX: Syracuse at Rutgers
7:30pm ESPNU: ETSU at Georgia
7:30pm SECN: Vanderbilt at Missouri
7:30pm BTN: Western Kentucky at Indiana
7:30pm BTN: Northern Illinois at Maryland
7:30pm ACCN: Louisville at Clemson
8pm Pac-12: Colorado State at Oregon State
8pm Pac-12 Mountain: Montana State at Utah
8pm AggieVision: Akron at NM State
10:15pm ESPN2: Michigan State at BYU
10:30pm ESPN: New Mexico at USC
10:30pm FS1: Stanford at Arizona
10:30pm CBSSN: Arizona State at UNLV
11pm Pac-12: Sacramento State at Washington
11:59pm Spectrum PPV: Fordham at Hawai'i

2020 Weeks Zero & One CFB TV Guesses (Take No. 2)

If a game:

* is in bold, the network, time & date is confirmed
* is in italics, the network & date is confirmed, but not the start time
* is in red, I made the date change to accomodate TV and that date change is not confirmed by anyone.
* isn't listed, its likely to be streamed through various streaming platforms (C-USA or MW for Facebook, MW Network, ESPN3, ESPN+, CBS All-Access etc.).

Week Zero
2pm ESPN: Notre Dame vs. Navy
6pm ESPN: Marshall at East Carolina
7pm ESPN2: Central Arkansas vs. Austin Peay
10pm FS1: Hawai'i at Arizona
10pm CBSSN: California at UNLV
10:30pm Pac-12: NM State at UCLA

Week One

Thursday
6pm SECN: Coastal Carolina at South Carolina
7pm ESPN: Clemson at Georgia Tech
7:30pm SNY: UMass at UConn
8pm FS1: Oregon State at Oklahoma State
8pm ESPNU: Rice at Houston
8pm ACCN: NC State at Louisville
8pm BTN: FAU at Minnesota
9pm SECN: Nevada at Arkansas
9pm CBSSN: Washington State at Utah State
10pm ESPN: BYU at Utah
10pm Pac-12: Northern Arizona at Arizona State

Friday
6:30pm CBSSN: Bucknell at Army
7:30pm ACCN: Syracuse at Boston College
8pm ESPN: North Carolina at UCF
8pm FS1: Indiana at Wisconsin
8pm BTN: Illinois State at Illinois

Saturday
12pm ABC: West Virginia vs. Florida State
12pm FOX: Purdue at Nebraska
12pm ESPN: Northwestern at Michigan State
12pm FS1: Buffalo at Kansas State
12pm ESPNU: Eastern Washington at Florida
12pm SECN: Eastern Michigan at Kentucky
12pm SECN: Central Arkansas at Missouri
12pm BTN: Kent State at Penn State
12pm ACCN: Miami (OH) at Pittsburgh
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Middle Tennessee at Duke
3pm Pac-12: North Dakota State at Oregon
3:30pm ABC: Bowling Green at Ohio State
3:30pm CBS: Colorado at Colorado State
3:30pm FOX: Michigan at Washington
3:30pm ESPN: Baylor vs. Ole Miss
3:30pm ESPNU: Arkansas State at Memphis
3:30pm BTN: Monmouth at Rutgers
3:30pm BTN: Towson at Maryland
4pm SECN: New Mexico at Mississippi State
4pm SECN: Mercer at Vanderbilt
4pm CBSSN: San Jose State at Central Michigan
4pm ACCN: Liberty at Virginia Tech
6pm FS2: South Dakota at Iowa State
7pm ESPN: UTSA at LSU
7pm Pac-12: William & Mary at Stanford
7pm Sooner Sports PPV: Missouri State at Oklahoma
7:30pm ABC: Alabama vs. USC
7:30pm ESPNU: Charlotte at Tennessee
7:30pm SECN: Abilene Christian at Texas A&M
7:30pm SECN: Alcorn State at Auburn
7:30pm BTN: Northern Iowa at Iowa
7:30pm ACCN: Temple at Miami (FL)
8pm CBSSN: Texas Tech at UTEP
8pm Longhorn: USF at Texas
9pm FS1: Georgia Southern at Boise State
10pm FS2: Louisiana Tech at UNLV
10:30pm ESPN: TCU at California
11pm Pac-12: Portland State at Arizona
11:30pm CBSSN: UCLA at Hawai'i

Sunday
3:30pm ESPN2: South Carolina State vs. Grambling
5pm NFLN: Central State vs. Howard

Monday
8pm ESPN: Virginia vs. Georgia