CFB TV Guesses for 2021 Week 7 (10/16/21)

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.

Some considerations you may want to be aware of

* ESPN Networks has preselected Stanford at Washington State

* FOX Sports has preselected two Mountain West games:

• Air Force at Boise State
• Fresno State at Wyoming

* These Big Ten games are locked to their start times as homecoming games:

• Rutgers at Northwestern (12pm)
• Michigan State at Indiana (12pm)
• Purdue at Iowa (3:30pm or 4pm)

* CBS has a doubleheader at 12pm and 3:30pm ET.  When this occurs, 

• CBS does NOT have the top two selections, but picks 1st at 3:30pm and 4th at 12pm.  ESPN picks in between.
• The 12pm CBS game is not an exclusive window for them.  ESPN can air a concurrent game.
• Historically, this has been a place to use a six day hold.

* FOX Sports is tentatively scheduled to carry ALCS Game 2.  Schedules currently have both FOX and FS1 carrying the game at that time, likely for a simulcast of FOX's airing for an alternate presentation on FS1.  Because of listings showing the game on both networks, I have no afternoon game on FS1.

* CBS Sports Network has a MAC selection at 3:30pm ET.

* At the moment, ACC Network isn't carrying a 12pm game, but it also isn't clear what is being shown instead.  Could be just two games on ACCN based on the number of available games.

* BTN has no mid-afternoon window, airing women's volleyball.  The primetime slot on BTN has already been announced as Army West Point at Wisconsin.

* I went with the top Big Ten choice with ESPN and the top Big 12 and Pac-12 choices with FOX Sports.

Some early trends to consider:

Big Ten

* ESPN appears to have had the top Saturday selection just once (9/18, Auburn at Penn State) and I still expect them to go on a run of top selections, especially with FOX using what appears to be their seven top choices.

* Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Penn State needs to appear once on BTN against another Big Ten opponent.  In the case of Minnesota, it is once more against a Big Ten school as they did not have any non-conference games on BTN.

* Counting future selections

• ESPN Networks: 12
• Five in primetime (including weeknights) with a minimum of six
• FOX Sports: 17
• Six in primetime (including weeknights) with a max of nine.

Big 12

* More of an even split in terms of top Saturday choice

• ESPN Networks: 9/11, 9/25, 10/9
• FOX Sports: 9/4, 9/18, 10/2

* ESPN Networks has used 14 of their 23 selections.

* At least 18 games have been earmarked for ABC, FOX, ESPN or FS1 out of a minimum of 25 games.

Pac-12

* In terms of Saturday top choice, I think this is the following split, though the Pac-12's use of priority selections where both ESPN and FOX can choose a game in advance of the weekly draft order skews this somewhat. I did have FOX Sports with the 10/9 selection top choice and I think its safe to question whether that was correct with Stanford at Oregon on ABC, so I'm going to move 10/9 over to the ESPN side 

• ESPN Networks:  9/25, 10/2, 10/9
• FOX Sports: 9/4, 9/11, 9/18

* ESPN Networks has used 11 of their 22 selections and must air one more game on ABC that is in primetime on the east coast.

* FOX Sports has used 12 of their 22 selections.  Four more games must air on FOX and of those four, one must air in primetime on the east coast.

Now to the guesses.  All times Eastern:

12pm ABC: Michigan State at Indiana

12pm CBS: Auburn at Arkansas

12pm FOX: TCU at Oklahoma

12pm ESPN: Alabama at Mississippi State

12pm ESPN2: NC State at Boston College

12pm FS1: Iowa State at Kansas State

12pm ESPNU: Texas Tech at Kansas

12pm SECN: Vanderbilt at South Carolina

12pm BTN: Rutgers at Northwestern

12:30pm ACC RSN: Duke at Virginia

3:30pm ABC: Purdue at Iowa

3:30pm CBS: Kentucky at Georgia

3:30pm ESPN: UCF at Cincinnati

3:30pm ESPN2: Nebraska at Minnesota

3:30pm CBSSN: Bowling Green at Northern Illinois

3:30pm ESPNU: Kent State at Western Michigan

4pm SECN: Ole Miss at Tennessee

4pm ACCN: Miami (FL) at North Carolina

4pm Pac-12: Arizona at Colorado

4:30pm FS2: Fresno State at Wyoming

7pm ESPN: BYU at Baylor

7pm ESPN2: Texas A&M at Missouri

7pm ESPNU: Liberty at ULM

7:30pm ABC: Oklahoma State at Texas

7:30pm SECN: Florida at LSU

7:30pm ACCN: Pitt at Virginia Tech

8pm FOX: Arizona State at Utah

9pm FS1: Air Force at Boise State

10:30pm ESPN: Stanford at Washington State

10:30pm ESPN2: UCLA at Washington

* I think its realistic to wonder if there will be a six day hold in the Big 12 pending the outcome of Oklahoma-Texas.  If there is, maybe consideration is also given to UCF-Cincinnati and possibly NC State-Boston College as the ABC primetime game.

* Similar situation in the Pac-12 where a six day hold could be used by FOX deciding between Arizona State-Utah and UCLA-Washington.

* With the late windows on ESPN and ESPN2 is at 10:30pm ET, Pac-12 home games cannot be slotted later than 8pm local time (though they did allow a couple last year with no fans in attendance), which means if Arizona State-Utah were to fall here, it would need to be slotted at 10pm ET.

* Why not the Pac-12 in primetime on ABC? Mostly because FOX and ABC try to not have competing games from the Pac-12 in the same TV window.  Also, the two late evening windows left me a bit tied to filling those.

* If Fresno State had beaten Hawai'i, you would have had a very good case to swap the two Mountain West games on FOX Sports.

ESPN3 or ESPN+

Tulsa at USF

Akron at Miami (OH)

Ball State at Eastern Michigan

Toledo at Central Michigan

Troy at Texas State