CFB: What to watch, 9/1 - 9/5

Opening week of college football is great, especially because it falls over Labor Day weekend.  Many parts of the country still have great weather, so its perfect for a barbecue or tailgate.  Unfortunately the quality of the games don't always measure up.  But there's a few out there to peek in on...

All times Eastern. 

Thursday

...but opening night is not one of those nights.  UNLV-Wisconsin (ESPN, 8pm) and Mississippi St.-Memphis (FSN, 8pm) are there for your football fix, but no one will judge you if you decide to watch MLB or preseason NFL football.

Friday

TCU at Baylor (8pm, ESPN) provides a nice start to the weekend.  Baylor made its 1st bowl game as a Big 12 member last year, when the conference name numerically matched the number of schools.  Robert Griffin III doesn't always get the publicity he deserves as a dual threat QB.  TCU lost key players like quarterback Andy Dalton and receivers James Young and Jeremy Kerley, so the offense will be learning on the fly.

Saturday

No one will be upset if you want to bypass the early afternoon games.  Sleep in, get some chores done, get some groceries, stock the fridge.  You'll thank me later.

USF at Notre Dame (3:30pm, NBC) is a great starter to the day.  Notre Dame is an improving team, but USF is too and will likely have a say in the Big East's title race.  QB BJ Daniels will begin his 3rd year as a starting QB and he needs to improve on his passing awareness, improving his completion percentage, but throwing more INTs than TDs and seeing his rushing stats decline, though Skip Holtz's offense goal was to try to limit Daniels' improvisation skills.  For the Irish, Dayne Crist was named the starter over Tommy Rees through training camp competition, though Rees finished last year 4-0.  Key stat, though somewhat irrelevant due to USF's change in coaches is that Brian Kelly went 3-0 vs. USF as head coach at Cincinnati.

Last year, I thought Houston's visit to UCLA would result in a pretty severe beating for the Bruins, but Case Keenum ended up being injured for the rest of the season and took a fair amount of steam from the rest of the Cougars rematch.  Keenum returns for the somewhat rare 6th season of eligibility in the rematch in Houston (3:30pm, FSN).

BYU replaced Boise St. in this visit to Ole Miss (4:45pm, ESPN) so that the Broncos could participate in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff vs. Georgia, but the degree of difficulty on Ole Miss's part didn't change.  Problem for the Rebels is that their challenges have been self-inflicted with starting QB Randall Mackey suspended for a bar fight.  In BYU's case, they'll enter this season with a clear #1 QB in Jake Heaps vs. the in-season competition with Riley Nelson that hampered the Cougars early in the year.

ABC and ESPN have dueling 8pm games that are the best of the day, particularly the Oregon-LSU game from Dallas on ABC.  LSU will be down a starting QB in Jordan Jefferson, but some Tigers fans aren't exactly thrilled with his ability at times.  Still, when #3 meets #4 on a neutral field to open the year, its must see.  ESPN's contribution is Boise St.'s matchup with Georgia in "neutral" Atlanta.  Don't kid yourself, this is a Boise St. road game with the number of tickets sold to Georgia fans and proximity to campus.  But this is not the same as the Broncos' visit to Athens when they were looking for national respect and received a beating at the hands of the eventual SEC champs.  The tables have turned, the men in blue are a top five team and Georgia is the team trying to (re)gain a measure of national respect.

Sunday & Monday

On Sunday, we'll get to see how well West Virginia's personnel matches up with Dana Holgorsen's "mad scientist"-like offense (3:30pm, ESPN).  After that, SMU will visit Texas A&M (7:30pm, FSN).  Maybe we'll find out which conference the Aggies will belong to in 2012 at that point.  Same with SMU possibly...

And on Monday, find out who is left from Miami (FL) that will be able to take the field vs. Maryland (8pm, ESPN).  Nothing has been set regarding when Miami has to sit the players that the NCAA has ruled to be ineligible, if they can stagger the suspensions or if they must be taken all at once, particularly when your opener is a conference game.  I suspect that if Bethune-Cookman were the opener, everyone with a one game suspension would be sidelined, but if they can stagger them, you might see a mostly full squad suit up.

The entire schedule

What's New for college football on TV in 2011?

What's new in broadcasting:

ACC - A brand new rights agreement with ESPN should allow for more games to air on TV.  Not necessarily on ESPN or ABC though.  Raycom will manage a pair of syndication packages, one for over-the-air networks and one for regional cable networks.  Fox Sports South (including the Carolina subfeed) & Fox Sports Florida/Sun Sports will carry games from the regional cable package.  Also appears Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic will have some games.  It is unknown who would be an affiliate in New England, but NESN was part of FSN's affiliate group for ACC games, so they may be in the mix again.

C-USA - Also starting a pair of new rights agreements, one with CBS Sports Network (formerly CBS College Sports) and one with Fox Sports Media Group.  C-USA will increase its national game coverage by over 60%, not to mention their right fee revenue, by moving to FSMG from ESPN.  The FSMG deal has not been without controversy, as ESPN has sued the conference, believing that C-USA did not negotiate in good faith.  Most of the FSMG games will air on FSN and the conference's championship game will air on F/X or on FOX's broadcast network.

F/X - FOX decided to take some of its inventory and place it on F/X.  Games from the Big 12, Pac-12 and C-USA will air on the network with Gus Johnson signed to the network to be the primary voice of the package of games.

Big Ten - Besides negotiating their championship game rights with FOX, the conference also was able to strike a deal with ESPN that would allow ABC telecasts to coexist with BTN games (BTW, the Big Ten Network is now officially going by the acronym of BTN).  This will lighten the load of 3-4 games in the same time slot on BTN, plus allow the Big Ten to retain its stance of no night games in November.

Pac-12 - FOX signed up the Pac-12's championship for 2011 in a one-year deal that will also provide an additional six games for FSN & F/X to air this season.  Their package of pay-TV games increased from 18 games to 24.  None of the added games are being sublicensed to Versus, who will retain their seven game package of games sublicensed from FSMG.

With the Pac-12 Network and regional nets starting up next year, Utah (KJZZ) and Colorado (rumored to be Fox College Sports) will make agreements to have their 3rd tier games aired.

BYU - Armed with their own TV deal with ESPN, plus at least one game on BYUtv, the Cougars start life as a football independent.  They'll have at least four home games on ESPN/ESPN2 (including the "neutral" site game vs. TCU in Arlington), plus possibly three games on ESPNU (San Jose St., Idaho & New Mexico St.) with the Idaho St. game on BYUtv.

WAC - The biggest casualty in realignment, the conference will see its exposure cut at least in half, while their rights fee with ESPN may have been cut even more.  Won't get any easier for the conference next year.

Versus - After the season, the network's name will change to NBC Sports Network as Comcast is now the primary stakeholder of NBC Universal.  No word as to whether there will be more college sports programming besides the package of games they have from the Ivy League, Mountain West and Pac-12.

ESPN - Per ESPN PR's Mike Humes, both halves of a Reverse Mirror game should be available in HD to all viewers.  Sadly, it appears that the Game Plan package will remain HD-less and ESPN3.com will not carry ESPNU games live, though users of the WatchESPN app & ESPN's authenticated services will be able to watch ESPNU on their PCs and mobile devices.

Longhorn Network - Saving the most controversial for last, the ESPN-owned and University of Texas-centric network struck a deal with FOX to allow for games from the ABC inventory of Big 12 games to appear on the network in 2011.  At least the opener vs. Rice will appear on the networks, plus the possibility of a conference game as long as the competing schools and the conference grant approval.  I'm not going to go into the messy situation regarding the possibility of high school games airing on the network.

College Football on Fox Sports Detroit for September 2011

Received an email confirming the live football telecasts that Fox Sports Detroit will have for September 2011.  In short, they'll have all the FSN games live on the main channel, with the 12pm SEC Network games shown on the plus/alternate channel.

9/1 8 pm, Mississippi State at Memphis
9/3 12 pm, Miami (OH) at Missouri
9/3 12 pm, Kent State at Alabama (FS PLUS)
9/3 3:30 pm, UCLA at Houston
9/3 10 pm, Louisiana Tech at Southern Miss
9/4 7:30 pm, SMU at Texas A&M
9/10 12 pm, Iowa at Iowa State
9/10 12 pm, Mississippi State at Auburn (FS PLUS)
9/10 3:30 pm, Virginia Tech at East Carolina
9/10 7 pm, UTEP at SMU
9/17 12 pm, Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (FS PLUS)
9/17 1:30 pm, Colorado State at Colorado
9/17 10 pm, Oklahoma State at Tulsa
9/24 12 pm, SMU at Memphis
9/24 12 pm, SEC Game TBD (FS PLUS)
9/24 3:30 pm, PAC-12 Game TBD

1st 3 Weeks of CFB on Fox Sports South & SportSouth

Received this from Fox Sports South this morning.  All times Eastern.  Most of the national FSN games have been pushed to SportSouth, while FSSouth gets the regional ACC & SEC packages.

Thu 9/1/2011 Mississippi State @ Memphis 8:00 PM SPSO
Sat 9/3/2011 Miami (OH) @ Missouri 12:00 PM SPSO
Sat 9/3/2011 UCLA @ Houston 3:30 PM SPSO
Sat 9/3/2011 James Madison @ North Carolina 3:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/3/2011 East Carolina vs South Carolina 7:00 PM FSSO
Sat 9/3/2011 Louisiana Tech @ Southern Miss 10:00 PM SPSO
Sun 9/4/2011 SMU @ Texas A&M 7:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/10/2011 Iowa @ Iowa State 12:00 PM SPSO
Sat 9/10/2011 NC State @ Wake Forest 3:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/10/2011 Virginia Tech @ East Carolina 3:30 PM SPSO
Sat 9/10/2011 UAB @ Florida 7:00 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Kansas @ Georgia Tech 12:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Colorado State @ Colorado 1:30 PM SPSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Arkansas State @ Virginia Tech 4:00 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 North Texas @ Alabama 7:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Oklahoma State @ Tulsa 10:00 PM SPSO

Remember that Fox Sports Carolinas & Fox Sports Tennessee are subfeeds of Fox Sports South.

Schedule Stuff & Media Days

* Media days for conferences and independent schools start today with the BYU media day on BYUtv and ESPN3.com.  ESPNU will also carry coverage of the SEC (7/20-7/22), Pac-12 (7/27, taped from 7/26), Big East (8/2) and whip-around coverage on 7/25 & 7/26, which should cover the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 and possibly coverage from the MAC & MWC.  ESPN3.com will simulcast all ESPNU coverage.

I'm unsure if its been confirmed, but I'll be surprised if the Big Ten's media days are not covered by BTN on 7/28 & 7/29.

* ABC will have five 12pm ET windows in 2011, four on Saturdays and one on Black Friday.  Three of the five windows have games attached to them (9/17: Auburn at Clemson, 10/8: Oklahoma vs. Texas, 11/25: Nebraska at Iowa).  The other two windows are on 9/24 and 11/26.  11/26 is very likely to be the Ohio St.-Michigan game and the 9/24 game could be one of two Big East games that are marked for TV on an ABC/ESPN platform (Notre Dame at Pittsburgh or LSU at West Virginia).

* FSN is extremely stretched this year with the addition of C-USA to its roster nationally and the ACC on a regional basis.  Next year the load could be lighter as all Pac-12 content will move to F/X.   An early casualty, regionally, is the Southern Conference who closed a deal with public broadcasting entities in NC, SC and GA.  When the SEC moved on to CSS, several SoCon games moved from CSS to local TV, so this isn't much of a surprise.

But the SoCon deal with public TV isn't as viewable as some would make it out to be.  A poster on the506.com (a great place for all things sports and TV) noted that the games would appear on digital subchannels, not on the main channels of these public broadcasters.  Could mean that an extra digital tier might need to be purchased on cable for the games.  Satellite folks could be out-of-luck as subchannels aren't required to be carried as part of "must carry" laws and very few appear on these systems, usually only those that are Big Four affiliates.

* CBS Sports Network's new deal with the Patriot League will give the network a foothold in the "Championship Week" arena with its 1st conference championship.  The conference will also have a national outlet for at least two football games per year, which puts it ahead of more prestigious FCS conferences like the Big Sky, CAA and SoCon.  At this time, only the Ivy League places more games on a national network with their package of games on Versus.

* The move of the Air Force-Navy game to CBS on 10/1 was a great move.  Too bad CBS allowed Versus to have the rights to Army-Air Force.  Would make great sense, and be a very cool gesture, to have the three Commander-in-Chief's games on network television.

Longhorn Network, ESPN's use of HD & Pac-12 Network

ESPN's use of HD

This revolves around the GamePlan package and reverse mirror games that usually occur at 3:30pm with a Big Ten game and on occasion at 8pm.  The good news is that it appears that ESPN plans to make both reverse mirror games available in HD to 100% of the nation.  Previously, it would depend on how widely distributed a game would be on ABC and subsequently on ESPN.  It would take me a long time to explain, but the rule of thumb used to be if a game would be seen by over 50% of the nation on ABC, it would not be in HD on ESPN.  Now ESPN's plan is to make everything available in HD for these situations.

Item #2 revolves around the GamePlan package, which will not be in HD this year.  I have not subscribed to GamePlan in several years, using ESPN3.com and regional sports networks to fill in the gaps.  I do realize that this upsets some people, particularly those who do not have the ESPN3.com option or go to bars/restaurants to watch games. 

All courtesy of this Twitter exchange.

Longhorn Network

It came out yesterday that the opener vs. Rice would officially be the 1st live football game on the Longhorn Network.  The item that was somewhat surprising, though alluded to by John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, is that the network will air a 2nd Texas game and it will be a Big 12 conference game.

Based on several tweets and discussions yesterday, this is what we know:

• FOX received some form of special considerations for allowing the 2nd LHN game.  It could be that FOX will leapfrog ABC in the selection order a certain number of times during the season for a premium game on F/X or FSN and/or that FOX Network will be able to air a Big 12 game or two.
• Any game on Longhorn Network beyond the initial game that is set aside for them to air, as per the new media deal starting next year, will come out of ABC's rights agreement.  But ESPN had to work with FOX to get any games for 2011.  This means that ABC could air 15 Big 12 games as a maximum in 2011.  ABC is contracted for 18 games and when Texas-Texas A&M appears on ESPN, it counts towards the 18 games.
• The current deal with ABC allows for a team to appear on ABC no more than six times as part of the contract.  Since both Longhorn Network games come out of ABC's pool, plus ESPN has set aside the Baylor (ABC), Oklahoma (ABC) and Texas A&M (ESPN) games, ABC will likely have only one other Texas game as part of the Big 12 contract (ie. excluding their appearance at UCLA).
• Texas can still appear on ESPN as part of games sublicensed from FOX, such as the BYU game.  Those do not count towards appearances from the ABC contract.
• These games will not be available on ESPN3.com

What we don't know:

• Does the 2nd game have to be a Texas home game?  I assume that it does, so either road game vs. Missouri and Oklahoma St. could end up being the other ABC appearance.  That leaves home games vs. the Kansas schools, plus Texas Tech as options.  My money feels safe on Texas Tech.  Makes sense too since you are trying to sell the network in Texas.
• How would the other Big 12 team get compensated for a game on LHN?  My assumptions, since it comes out of the ABC pool of games, is that they get compensated as if the game aired on ABC.
• Can I see these games on LonghornNetwork.com?  You might.  Maybe that's where they end up instead of ESPN3.com

Pac-12 Network

Per a series of tweets from Jon Wilner, the Pac-12 Network expects to have overflow channels for football games like BTN uses throughout the season.  Also, FOX & ESPN will consult with the conference office to determine game draft order and scheduling to allow for all parties, including the Pac-12 Network, to have premium content available to them throughout the season.

Wilner also notes that no distribution models have been finalized and that having TV overflows could be a companion to digital/mobile outlets.

CFB TV Scheduling Update, 6/28/2011

Because I feel the need to write something....

It's the very end of the 2010-11 athletic year so I suspect some college administrators and maybe some TV folks are laying low.  On Friday, the athletic calendar turns to 2011-12 which does mean some realignment will occur (Boise St., BYU, Colorado, Nebraska and Utah: welcome to your new homes in FBS; same to you Savannah St. in FCS, moving football into existing all-sports conferences Old Dominion & Lamar, plus startup program UTSA).   Expect some college athletic websites to transition over to new hosts as Nevada, Ohio St., Minnesota, Army and Missouri St. transition over to the CBS College Network, which could also mean downtime.  I'll probably keep track of that on Friday as its been a day to redesign or fire up a new website host in prior years. 

Here's what we're waiting on, conference by conference, regarding some final TV decisions for the 1st few weeks

ACC - Nothing major.  The regional cable package will have some Fox Sports affiliates and probably at least one Comcast Sports affiliate.  Because of the Comcast negotiations with Raycom, some FCS conferences like the CAA are waiting to set their TV schedules.

Big 12 - Regional/local/PPV/FOX College Sports games.  There's a few open holes, namely one at 3:30pm ET on 9/3.  Sounds like the Rice at Texas game is targeted to the Longhorn Network and that would enable other schools to make plans for regional, PPV or FOX College Sports games on that day.  But if it becomes an ABC game, it becomes an exclusive TV window and pushes everything outside of that window.

Big East - Local games and/or ESPN3.com exclusives.  After the Wake Forest-Syracuse game was moved to Thursday for ESPN3.com (bleh), teams are likely working with ESPN and/or regional networks to air games.

Big Ten - Making the official announcement that Nebraska's games vs. Chattanooga & Fresno St. will air on BTN.  Widely alluded to during interviews with BTN and Big Ten staff, but both sides want Nebraska's cable systems on board with how the network is distributed in other Big Ten states.

C-USA - Removing of "TBA" from the kickoff times of several games, plus addition of some local/regional telecasts, notably for East Carolina.  Most of the FSN game times are known or have been found, but the CSS games are likely waiting on finalizing of the SEC's regional TV schedule (see below).

Independent - Besides the rumored move of the Air Force-Navy game to CBS (its apparently being discussed), I don't have a great feeling as to whether all BYU kick times will be known before the season or not.  Four home games are TBA.  At least one game must be televised by ESPNU.  Maybe ESPN would release the Idaho St. game to BYUtv so they can work on televising that one.

MAC - Maybe a few regional telecasts from Northern Illinois and any announcement regarding a conference web-streaming package such as the All-MACcess package offered previously.

MWC - Nothing.  Everything is in place.

Pac-12 - A fair number of games during the 1st three weeks are waiting for local carriers to pick them up.  Only one has been finalized, UCLA's home game vs. San Jose St.

SEC - The ESPNU, CSS, Fox Sports regional and institutional packages (PPV or other distribution means).  These often come out at the SEC media day.

Sun Belt - The Sun Belt Network regional package.  CSS helps in production of these games, so while they might announce the package of games, the kick times, along with the C-USA slate of CSS games, may have to wait until the SEC's games are decided.

WAC - Maybe a few ESPNU games, plus the Hawai'i PPV package and the AggieVision games for New Mexico St.