Sunday, September 19, 2021

CFB TV Guesses for 2021 Week 5 (10/2/21)

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

I have done my best to list what TV windows are out there. Every listing service has a little different schedule for these networks. It is also possible that a window could be eliminated or the time of a window could shift slightly to accommodate a network's needs.

A few notes and considerations:
* Three Big Ten games are locked into their start times as homecoming games:
  • Minnesota at Purdue (12pm)
  • Northwestern at Nebraska (7:30pm)
  • WKU at Michigan State (7:30pm)
* Boston College at Clemson has been preselected to air on ACC Network, but the start time is not finalized.
* Air Force at New Mexico and Nevada at Boise State will air on a FOX Sports platform.
* FOX is scheduled to air MLB in the evening.
* ESPN advance schedule lists games at 6pm and 9pm ET, which in the past has meant a doubleheader of SEC games in the evening.
* FS1 has NASCAR Trucks in the early afternoon.
* FS2 has one slot in the evening.
* CBS Sports Network has a selection from the MAC at 12pm ET.

My thoughts
* On the most recent episode of Richard Deitsch's podcast, Gus Johnson believed that his next game after Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin is Michigan at Wisconsin.  They're not 100% accurate on knowing their upcoming schedule, but let's assume Gus is accurate and that FOX had the top Big Ten choice this week.
* I have ABC with the top Big 12 and Pac-12 selections.

12pm ABC: Baylor at Oklahoma State
12pm FOX: Michigan at Wisconsin
12pm ESPN: Mississippi State at Texas A&M
12pm ESPN2: Duke at North Carolina
12pm ESPNU: Memphis at Temple
12pm SECN: Troy at South Carolina
12pm BTN: Minnesota at Purdue
12pm BTN: Charlotte at Illinois
12pm CBSSN: Army West Point at Ball State
12pm ACCN: Louisville at Wake Forest
12:30pm ACC RSN: Louisiana Tech at NC State
3pm Pac-12: Washington State at California
3:30pm ABC: Indiana at Penn State 
3:30om CBS: Ole Miss at Alabama
3:30pm FOX: Texas at TCU
3:30pm ESPN2: Syracuse at Florida State
3:30pm FS1: Texas Tech at West Virginia
3:30pm ESPNU: ULM at Coastal Carolina
3:30pm BTN: Ohio State at Rutgers
4pm SECN: Tennessee at Missouri
4pm ACCN: Pitt at Georgia Tech
6pm ESPN: Arkansas at Georgia
6:30pm Pac-12: USC at Colorado
7pm ESPN2: Kansas at Iowa State
7pm ESPNU: UConn at Vanderbilt
7pm FS1: Nevada at Boise State
7:30pm ABC: Oklahoma at Kansas State
7:30pm SECN: Florida at Kentucky
7:30pm FS2: Air Force at New Mexico
7:30pm BTN: WKU at Michigan State
7:30pm BTN: Northwestern at Nebraska
7:30pm ACCN: Boston College at Clemson
9pm ESPN: Auburn at LSU
10pm Pac-12: Washington at Oregon State
10:30pm ESPN2: Arizona State at UCLA
10:30pm FS1: Oregon at Stanford

ESPN3 or ESPN+
Tulane at ECU
USF at SMU
Bowling Green at Kent State
Central Michigan at Miami (OH)
Eastern Michigan at Northern Illinois
Western Michigan at Buffalo
Louisiana at South Alabama
Arkansas State at Georgia Southern
Appalachian State at Georgia State

11 comments:

Schmolik said...

In your available TV windows file, you have Oklahoma-Texas and Oklahoma-Oklahoma State both as ABC/ESPN games. If Oklahoma-Kansas State is also ABC/ESPN, that's a lot of top Oklahoma (Big 12) choices going to ESPN with the only top known FOX choice so far Nebraska/Oklahoma. FOX has to have at least some of the big Oklahoma games. If ABC gets Okl/KSU, you'd have to think FOX will get Okl/ISU (or FOX burned all their picks on Texas games:)

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Well, they just had one top Big 12 choice with Oklahoma-Nebraska and likely used one on Week 1 too with Louisiana-Texas. As someone pointed out to me, FOX may have had five of the first six Big Ten top selections, along with Ohio State-Michigan at the end of the year. The middle of the season may be more Big 12 and Pac-12.

GoBlue7 said...

Matt: best guess for start time for Mich v MSU on 10/30/21?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I'll have that in mid-October. I don't guess that far in advance.

Peter M said...

Matt, I know you said you don't predict games far in advance but hoping this isn't too too far out - Michigan vs Nebraska. Nebraska is hosting Northwestern at night the week prior to this matchup. Given that, would you say it's extremely unlikely that they would have night home games for two consecutive weeks and this would likely be a noon or 3:30 games? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I'll have it with next week's guesses. I take one week at a time. I don't have a complete knowledge of TV windows more than 2 weeks in advance.

William said...

If your predictions are correct, it looks like the Pac-12 will be blacked out of broadcast television for the second straight week. Living in Pac-12 country, I think it would be great to have Pac-12 football on broadcast TV. Unfortunately, the Pac-12 is getting what it deserves (from a broadcast TV perspective), especially since Arizona State lost to BYU and UCLA to Fresno State (at home) late last night and USC losing badly (at home) to Stanford last week. I am convinced the ASU vs. UCLA game would have been on broadcast TV if both teams had won last night. Hopefully, ABC and Fox will cover more Pac-12 games as the season goes along.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

@William - I tried to fit a Pac-12 game in on broadcast ABC or FOX at 3:30pm ET, but with the three Pac-12 Networks windows that most cable systems are listings, plus the late windows on FS1 and ESPN2, no other conferences could be enlisted to fill those openings. The Mountain West does have two games on FOX Sports this particular week, but those games have to start before 9:45pm ET (7:45pm local) by contract.

Schmolik said...

Put Oregon at Stanford at noon on ABC instead of Baylor-Oklahoma State, it'll probably get better ratings. If the Pac 12 really wants to be on broadcast TV, are they willing to accept 9am starts to get it?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

If I recall correctly, the Pac-12 was only willing to accept those in cases where the start time was known months in advance. Likely in the spring.

William said...

I'd like to offer a mea culpa on my comment yesterday. It appears it is the ACC and not the Pac-12 that will go dark on broadcast TV for 2 weeks in a row. ABC selected the Oregon vs. Stanford game for the 12:30 PT/3:30 ET slot. This is a good choice; ABC will feel even better about this selection if Stanford knocks off UCLA on Saturday afternoon and is ranked in the Top 25 or close to being ranked this time next week.