Saturday, June 1, 2024

2024 Conference TV Requirements, Six Day Holds and Likely First Picks

Instead of cluttering up the weekly picks for 2024, I'm going to keep track of selection specific information in this post like six day holds that have been used, the number of times I think a network has chosen first and the required appearances that a school needs to fill on conference networks like Big Ten Network.

Updated through 9/28 selections made on 9/16.  Six day decisions are not included.

Six Day Holds Used
ACC (4 remaining): 
American (4 remaining): 
Big Ten (4 remaining): 9/28
Big 12 (3 remaining): 9/28

I'm unsure if six day holds will continue to remain a going concern in the SEC with their declarations of telecast windows for a game earlier in the offseason.  I think they could remain a thing if a game could air on ABC or ESPN at a particular time, or if a game is to be scheduled between 3:30pm & 7:30pm and doesn't have a finalized start time until six days before.  I'm also unsure whether there will be any maximum number of times a school can appear on ABC.  I think that is gone as well.  We'll find out as the season goes on.

Please note that this is my guess about who chose first in a given Saturday. This is not a confirmation from either the networks or conferences of who chose first.

Big Ten

Assumed top Saturday choice each week.  Weeks 2-4, 10 and 13 were mostly known in advance of the early season selection release.

Re: Week 5.  I think FOX controlled the six day hold.  Yes, Ohio State at Michigan State was picked by Peacock and set, but I don't think think it was picked ahead of the games FOX was jockeying for.

08/31/2024NBC: Fresno St. at UM
09/07/2023FOX: Texas at UM
09/14/2023FOX: 'Bama at WISC
09/21/2024CBS: USC at UM
09/28/2024FOX: MN at UM
10/05/2024CBS: IA at OSU
10/12/2024
10/19/2024
10/26/2024
11/02/2024FOX: TBD
11/09/2024
11/16/2024
11/23/2024
11/30/2024FOX: UM at OSU

Each school is supposed to appear on BTN twice each season with at least one appearance against another Big Ten school

SchoolRemaining
Illinois1 conference game
IndianaRequirements met
Iowa1 conference game
MarylandRequirements met
Michigan1 conference game
Michigan StateRequirements met
MinnesotaRequirements met
Nebraska1 conference game
NorthwesternRequirements met
Ohio State1 conference game
Oregon1 conference game
Penn State1 conference game
PurdueRequirements met
Rutgers1 conference game
UCLA2, with 1 being a conference game
USCRequirements met
Washington1 conference game
Wisconsin1 conference game

There were ranges previously announced for the Big Ten and its TV partners, but they were announced prior to Oregon and Washington being accepted as future members.   

126(!) regular season games are available to the Big Ten's rightsholders.  It appears that NBC, CBS and Peacock will take at least 39 of those games.  FOX, FS1 and BTN would take on 87 of them, 41 of which have been accounted for. 

Here's the known remaining selections from each rightsholder:

FOX/FS1NBCCBSPeacockBTN
?? (25 used)8 of 158 of 153 of 9?? (28 used)

Big 12

Assumed top Saturday choice each week.  

08/31/2024FOX: PSU at WVU
09/07/2023ABC: AR at OK St
09/14/2023FOX: UCF at TCU
09/21/2024FOX: UofU at OK St
09/28/2024ESPN: AZ at UofU
10/05/2024ESPN: WV at OK St
10/12/2024
10/19/2024
10/26/2024
11/02/2024
11/09/2024
11/16/2024
11/23/2024
11/30/2024

Last year, ESPN had a limit of 32 linear TV games.  I have no clue this year how those limits have changed with the increase in membership.  101 regular season games are in the Big 12's governance,
10 of which have been selected for ABC & ESPN's linear TV channels so far across the season.

FOX Sports has the overall number 1 choice to use for the Big 12 in 2024.  I believe it was used on Penn State at West Virginia in Week 1.

As for member retained games, 14 of the 16 Big 12 games had their ESPN+ games selected through Week 4.  Colorado and Arizona State did not have their member retained game used on a non-conference game.  The Big 12, several years ago, said there were circumstances where those games could be a) returned to the national rightsholders and/or b) used on a game vs. another Big 12 school.

American

The American has a minimum of 40 games per season on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.  At least 20 of the 40 are expected to be on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.  So far, at least 14 games have been guaranteed to air on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2

It appears that one Army road game vs. an AAC opponemt (Army at Florida Atlantic) was traded to CBSSN in exchange for an Army home game (East Carolina at Army).  I've listed the FAU game in the Other column.

ABC0
ESPN8
ESPN27
ESPNU8
ESPNEWS/Other1
TBD2
Total26

5 comments:

Patrick T said...

It seems odd that NBC has already used 4 of its 8 Peacock picks. Do you think there a possibility that NBC got more Peacock picks with addition of Washington & Oregon? Both already have pretty decent games scheduled on Peacock.

Anonymous said...

Michigan State and Maryland have both fulfilled BTN obligations with the 9/21 selections.

Anonymous said...

Do you the specifics of the ACC agreements?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Nope. Just like the AG in Florida who asked for them. Only really know that CW's choice is near the back.

Anonymous said...

Any reason you believe FOX had the first pick on 9/28? It seems NBC landed two games that I would have expected to be higher in the pecking order than Minnesota @ UM? Appreciate your work on this!