Random Thoughts

Haven't posted a blog entry in almost a month, so I owe one.

• The SEC's new TV contract has been a resounding success so far for out-of-market coverage of the conference. So many more markets received the SEC Network football games and the games available on FSN and CSS were available to many markets outside of the southeastern US. Every game in HD was the cherry on top, minus the ESPN Classic games. Now that basketball season has started, we've seen many of the FSN games get that extra coverage too. Have to see what happens with the SEC Network games.
• The ACC and C-USA rights negotiations should be heating up soon. A report on Bleacher Report says that FOX has been involved, and that doesn't surprise me. I've heard of a joint FOX/Comcast bid could be in the cards, but we'll have to wait and see what the ACC decides.
• NBC and Comcast appear to be heading towards a merger. Will be interesting to see what sports NBC and Comcast and leverage. Versus and Golf Channel have NHL and PGA rights that can be worked into NBC Sports existing coverage of these two properties. The Olympics or Notre Dame football on Versus? Could they also bid on the upcoming pay TV rights for the ACC, Big 12 or PAC-10?
• ESPN and ESPN2 have done a great job getting a ton of early season college basketball in HD. Same with ESPNU, though I wouldn't know that DirecTV is still dragging its feet on offering ESPNU in HD.
• Speaking of DirecTV, they are now in the regional sports network business, now as the owners of three FSN affiliates (Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain/Utah and Northwest). Question becomes whether these will end back in FOX Cable Networks hands once again, be sold off to someone like Comcast who has large cable clusters in these areas or stay in-house.
• DirecTV & Comcast, part II: Versus is still off DirecTV but the two sides have been in negotiations according to Sports Business Journal. Meanwhile, two Comcast RSNs have been on DirecTV without contract for a few months and another two will expire at the end of the year. There haven't been rumblings about removing these stations from DirecTV, but they could be part of a larger deal between the two entities. And no, don't expect CSN Philadelphia to be part of that deal.
• Finally, the Big Ten announced that they are going to collectively begin considering expansion. Couple schools came out with statements that they were happy with their existing status (Notre Dame & Rutgers), while Missouri's statement was definitely non-committal towards the Big 12 and that they would listen if offered. I'm not convinced that the Big Ten will expand and their statement notes that they may decide not to consider any schools. At least they appear to be doing things above board and more transparent than the ACC was when they offered membership to Miami (FL), Virginia Tech and later Boston College.
  
  
  

Bowl Predictions

Since we have one full regular season week left, plus the conference championship weekend, lets make the following assumptions:

• Cincinnati, Oregon, Texas, Georgia Tech and Florida win their respective conferences
• Army does not make a bowl, leaving the EagleBank to use a C-USA rep
  
• Notre Dame loses to Stanford, leaving them at 6-6
• Wyoming and UConn get to 6 wins
  
• Kansas loses to Missouri, is not bowl eligible
  
• TCU, Oklahoma St., Alabama and Boise St. are the BCS at-large
  

Here's my crack at the bowl lineup

New Mexico: Wyoming vs. Nevada
St. Petersburg: UConn vs. UCF
New Orleans: East Carolina vs. Troy
Las Vegas: Utah vs. Oregon St.
Poinsettia: BYU vs. California
Hawai'i: SMU vs. Fresno St.
Little Caesar's: Michigan St. vs. Temple
Meineke: North Carolina vs. Rutgers
Emerald: Boston College vs. Stanford
Music City: Georgia vs. Florida St.
Independence: Kentucky vs. Iowa St.
EagleBank: Marshall vs. Ohio
Champs Sports: Miami (FL) vs. Northwestern
Humanitarian: Idaho vs. Bowling Green
Holiday: Missouri vs. USC
Armed Forces: Southern Miss vs. Air Force
Sun: Oklahoma vs. Arizona
Texas: Navy vs. UCLA
Insight: Texas A&M vs. Minnesota
Chick-Fil-A: Clemson vs. Auburn
Outback: Penn St. vs. Tennessee
Capital One: Iowa vs. Ole Miss
Gator: Pittsburgh vs. Virginia Tech
Cotton: Nebraska vs. LSU
International: West Virginia vs. Northern Illinois
PapaJohns.com: South Carolina vs. USF
Liberty: Arkansas vs. Houston
Alamo: Texas Tech vs. Wisconsin
GMAC: Central Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee

Rose: Ohio St. vs. Oregon
Sugar: Alabama vs. Cincinnati
Orange: Georgia Tech vs. Boise St.
Fiesta: TCU vs. Oklahoma St.
BCS: Florida vs. Texas

Why is Notre Dame, at 6-6, not in any bowl? I had the following bowls as at-large

EagleBank (one slot filled with C-USA backup)
Humanitarian
Texas

The GMAC was a fourth, but they have an agreement with the Sun Belt to provide a team if they have one at 7-5 or better. Middle Tennessee fills that spot. Ohio at 7+ wins would then fill another slot, likely the EagleBank.

So that leaves Humanitarian or Texas. Since Texas has Navy preslotted, the Irish are not interested in a rematch and that leaves the Humanitarian vs. Idaho and the Irish simply say "no thanks".

Final Weekend TV Selections Announced

The Big East and ESPN announced the game times and telecasts of their three games and it also sets the C-USA Championship game time.

12pm ABC: Cincinnati at Pitt
12pm ESPN/ESPN2: West Virginia at Rutgers
12pm ESPN/ESPN2: C-USA Championship Game
8pm ESPN2: USF at Connecticut

Week 13 TV Guesses & Selections

Decided to combine the thread since the Big Ten is finished for the year and the Big 12 and PAC-10 finished their selections. Will mark a selection as confirmed when known

All selections are now confirmed.

CBS
Florida St. at Florida, 3:30pm

ABC
Friday 12pm: Illinois at Cincinnati
Friday 3:30pm: Nebraska at Colorado
Saturday: Missouri vs. Kansas, Arizona at Arizona St. and Miami (FL) at USF, 3:30pm
Saturday: Notre Dame at Stanford and Georgia at Georgia Tech, 8pm

Notre Dame-Stanford and Georgia-Georgia Tech will be reverse mirrored to ESPN2. Whichever game you see on ABC, the other game will be on ESPN2.

ESPN
12pm: Clemson at South Carolina
3:30pm: Virginia Tech at Virginia
7pm: Arkansas at LSU

ESPN2
Friday 11am: Rutgers at Louisville
Friday 7pm: Pittsburgh at West Virginia
Friday 10:15pm: Nevada at Boise St.
Saturday 12pm: North Carolina at NC State

FSN (all Saturday)
Oklahoma St. at Oklahoma, 12:30pm
Texas Tech vs. Baylor, 6pm
USC at UCLA, 10pm

ESPNU
Friday 11am: Temple at Ohio
Saturday 12pm: NCAA Playoff Game
Saturday 3:30pm: Boston College at Maryland
Saturday 7pm: Tennessee at Kentucky

CBS College Sports
Southern Miss at East Carolina, 1:30pm

Others
Friday: Northern Illinois at Central, 1pm ESPN360
Saturday: Ole Miss at Mississippi St., 12pm SEC Network
Saturday: Wake Forest at Duke, 12pm Raycom
Saturday: Connecticut at Syracuse, 12pm Big East
Saturday: Washington at Washington St., 6:30pm FSN Northwest

College Basketball Opening Day

Opening day on the hardcourts. Very little has changed with respect to TV coverage but there are some changes

SEC - SEC coverage will be wider in many areas of the country. The SEC games that ESPN has sublicensed to FSN and CSS won't be seen just in the southeast, but virtually any FSN region that decides they want to clear the game. No idea how blackouts will go, but if football is any indication, these games should be more viewable too those out of market using satellite sports packages than the old FSN package.

The conference will also have a new home for its championship, with the semifinals and final moving to ABC.

WAC - The WAC now has games on ESPNU and will have a consistent time slot on ESPN2 during the conference portion of the schedule, usually on Wednesday nights at 11pm ET.

Atlantic 10 - After having its conference championship game shifted to ESPN2 to make room for the Big 12 championship, the conference revamped its tournament format and will now finish on Sunday, in the slot vacated by the SEC. The semifinals will also be nationally televised on CBS College Sports.

Horizon League - The conference appears that it will have a syndicated game of the week and many of those games will be on ESPN Full Court

HD - Supposedly a fair amount of the SEC Network and Big 12 Network games produced by ESPN Regional will be in HD. Don't know if that extends to the Big East Network games. CBS College Sports is also supposed to deliver more games in HD.

UPDATE: Some Big East games will be in HD on a regional basis.

ABC - ABC has virtually abandoned college basketball, choosing only to air the SEC semifinals and championship. No regular season games whatsover.

Week 12 Network Selections

This is the final week where all six BCS conferences will have selections as the Big Ten ends their schedule on 11/21. A 12pm ABC window is virtually certain to be Ohio St.-Michigan.

ACC
Duke at Miami (FL), 12pm ESPN2/ESPNU

All other games are on six day selections

Big 12
Oklahoma at Texas Tech, 12:30pm or 3pm FSN
Kansas at Texas, 3:30pm or 8pm ABC
Kansas St. at Nebraska, 7:45pm ESPN/ESPN2

Big East
Louisville at USF, 12pm Big East
Rutgers at Syracuse, 3:30pm ESPN360

Big Ten
Ohio St. at Michigan, 12pm ABC
Minnesota at Iowa, 12pm ESPN/ESPN2
Penn St. at Michigan St., 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
Purdue at Indiana, 3:30pm Big Ten
Wisconsin at Northwestern, 3:30pm Big Ten

MAC
11/27:

PAC-10
Oregon at Arizona, 3:30pm or 8pm ABC
Arizona St. at UCLA, 4pm FSN (they say this is a finalized time, which means the OU-TT time should stay at 12:30pm)
California at Stanford, 7:30pm Versus

SEC
Chattanooga at Alabama, 12pm SEC Network
Mississippi St. at Arkansas, 12pm SEC Network
LSU at Ole Miss, 3:30pm CBS
Vanderbilt at Tennessee, 7pm ESPNU
Kentucky at Georgia, 7:45pm ESPN/ESPN2

WAC
Nevada at New Mexico St., 10:30pm ESPNU

Also, the Big 12 decided to take care of its selections for 11/28. They are as follows:

Oklahoma St. at Oklahoma, 12:30pm FSN
Missouri vs. Kansas (at Kansas City), 3:30pm ABC
Texas Tech vs. Baylor (at Arlington), 6pm FSN

FSN moved the start time of TT-Baylor, presumably to give themselves some buffer before the 10pm start of USC-UCLA on the same evening.

Week 12 TV Predictions

Because Alabama used up its PPV option against Florida International, the game against Chattanooga has to be televised on ESPN Networks. CSS has a college basketball telecast in the evening, so I think that there could be a split SEC Network 12pm telecast.

CBS
LSU at Ole Miss, 3:30pm

ABC
Ohio St. at Michigan, 12pm
Oklahoma at Texas Tech, Oregon at Arizona, Penn St. at Michigan St., North Carolina at Boston College 3:30pm
Kansas at Texas, 8pm

ESPN
Iowa at Minnesota, 12pm
Kansas St. at Nebraska, 7:45pm

ESPN2
Duke at Miami (FL), 12pm
Kentucky at Georgia, 7:30pm

FSN
Baylor at Texas A&M, 12:30pm
Arizona St. at UCLA, 6:30pm

Versus
California at Stanford, 10pm

ESPNU
Maryland at Florida St., 12pm
Louisville at USF, 3:30pm
Chattanooga at Alabama, 7pm

Big Ten
Purdue at Indiana & Wisconsin at Northwestern, 3:30pm

Others
Arkansas at Mississippi St., 12pm SEC
Vanderbilt at Tennessee, 12pm SEC
Virginia at Clemson, 12pm Raycom
Rutgers at Syracuse, 12pm Big East
Iowa St. at Missouri, 12:30pm Fox College Sports
NC State at Virginia Tech, 1:30pm ESPN360
Oregon St. at Washington St., 6:30pm FSN NW

Tulsa at Southern Miss has already been confirmed as CBS College Sports C-USA flex pick