Going back through a few items, some related to the Big Ten rights negotiations upcoming in the next year. The rights that are housed in BTN aren't up for negotiation, but the rest will be and there is the belief that FOX will be active in acquiring a portion of the rights they currently don't have.
Besides the college football that FOX Sports 1 already carries, there is also MLB, NASCAR and UFC that the network carries on Saturdays, so it is rare for the network to have just college football shown on a particular Saturday. So the focus comes to FOX Sports 2, which doesn't have the distribution number that FS1 has. Typically FS2 is on a different tier from FS1 or it might not be carried at all. FS2 was subscribed to in around 33-37 million homes coming into the year compared to around 85-90 million for FS1, so there is a big gap.
For the Big 12, Pac-12 & C-USA content that FOX has rights to, there are differences that FOX can exploit. These come from press releases, not actual contracts, so we don't know the exact language being specified. Many of these press releases listed FX or FSN as well, but FS1 is more or less a direct replacement for F/X when it comes to FOX's national sports content.
It is probably easier to exploit the Big 12's and C-USA's contract provisions. Both conferences place games on FSN and FOX College Sports. The Big 12 has a very low minimum number of just six games on a national cable outlet, so their agreement may have been built to be flexible with a secondary outlet or FSN in mind. C-USA's agreement may be built to be flexible. I'm less certain about the Pac-12.
But the ability to schedule a game for a particular outlet may require FOX to guarantee a level of distribution for that channel. Could be why FOX still puts a decent number of Big 12 & C-USA football on FSN instead of FS2.
So I ask you - if you were a conference commissioner negotiating rights for a conference and FOX wanted to move games to a secondary outlet like FS2, what would be the minimum number of subscribing homes you could accept nationally? Does it have to be 1-for-1 with FOX Sports 1? Can it be closer to ESPNU (~75 million homes) or lower like CBSSN (~60 million) or BTN (~59 million)?
And this isn't saying the network can't grow from there. Doesn't have to be a big time game either, but what is that minimum that you would accept to schedule a game over there?
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
MBK & CFB TV Roundup, Opinions, BS, etc.
I couldn't put together a complete post on a particular topic, so this is just random stuff. There's conjecture and opinion sprinkled in here.
* On 11/29, there are only four SEC controlled games. There's a CBS 3:30pm window and it could end up airing the Egg Bowl or the Iron Bowl. No guarantees yet for either one. What is interesting is that there are three scheduled SEC Network windows, per ESPN MediaZone. Three, not two.
There is no men's basketball scheduled for the network that day. No other events currently. So, if the number of telecast windows hold up, and when running the numbers for 11/29, they might as the ACC has five games for ESPN nets after Raycom & RSN packages and the Big Ten has four games (assuming two on BTN), you won't see either the Egg Bowl or Iron Bowl on ESPN if CBS doesn't take it. You might need the SEC Network.
* For the 11/8 football TV selections, it makes sense in some ways that FOX took, arguably, the top two Big 12 selections (Baylor at Oklahoma & Kansas St. at TCU while the Pac-12's top two games (Notre Dame at Arizona St. & Oregon at Utah) found their way to ESPN.
ESPN has used fourteen of their nineteen Big 12 selections with four weeks left. On 12/6, with three Big 12 games, FOX does not have a broadcast TV window for the conference and FS1 has a single window at 3pm, so it would make sense that ESPN would have two games that day. There's only one way to accomplish that realistically and that is for ESPN to skip airing any Big 12 games one of these weeks. That particular Saturday appears to be on November 8th.
* And both the Pac-12 & Big 12 appear to be intertwined by the common rightsholders of ESPN and FOX. ESPN had six remaining Pac-12 selections to use coming into the 11/8 selections and FOX had five. ESPN used two, FOX used one and now they are on equal ground for the rest of the season with four to use over the final three Saturdays. The math seems to work out.
11/15 - 3 games. Pac-12 Networks has one scheduled window at 4pm ET. FOX & ESPN each take one game.
11/22 - 6 games. Pac-12 Networks has three telecasts scheduled at 1pm, 4:30pm and 10:30pm ET. FOX could take a game, then ESPN could take two. Or vice versa
11/29 - 5 games. Pac-12 Networks has two windows at 1pm & 4:30pm. Whomever takes two games on 11/22 takes only one on 11/29.
* Periodically, ESPN airs two games or more on ABC without 100% reverse mirror coverage for all the games. Usually the ACC, Big 12 or American is involved in these scenarios. The reason for that is that these three conferences don't have the requirement of their games airing "nationally" via a reverse mirror.
I can't speak for either conference, but I would suspect that if they wanted full coverage for every game, they would have had to give up something in return, possibly monetary (I know, these conferences make a lot of money already). The Big 12, by having their rights split by FOX and ESPN, does enjoy the ability for a few extra national broadcast games via FOX.
* The Pac-12 Networks, instead of picking a specific 10pm ET / 7pm PT men's basketball game on the opening night of the season out of the five available, will show "Full Court Friday Coverage" on the national feed. I'm interpreting this to mean they will show whiparound coverage of the five available games instead of focusing a specific game.
*Straight up got it wrong regarding my position on Big Ten rights and what is going out for bid. Apparently everything is.
The BTN partnership is 25 years, so I guess its possible for FOX to own a network where they control none of the rights on it, but that doesn't make a lot sense. I imagine the conference would approve of putting a handful of games that currently reside on BTN on a more widely distributed network. Not sure if ESPN would like that, but I'm not sure it matters. I don't see FOX getting into the game at a big scale. I'm looking at a BTN that after the first few weeks isn't that clogged up with two or three games.
It is something I need to rethink in the offseason.
* I am curious to see the final number of Big Ten games that air across all ESPN platforms. So far, they've had fourteen games on ABC & 29 games on ESPN platforms, which is two over their previous maximum of 41 games. Five of the 29 have aired on ESPNEWS and that network is new to airing Big Ten football. I had it pegged at around 44 games and they'll match that, at least, with the 11/15 selections.
* If FOX isn't tied to placing the live college sports content they own on FSN, maybe FOX Sports 2 would have a few more live events and subscribers. Most of the Big 12 and C-USA football games that end up on FSN aren't impressive to you and me, but FSN currently has a lot of sublicensed content from the ACC tied into the next 10+ years that they can distribute to all of their RSNs and it doesn't appear that FOX can place this ACC content on FS1 or FS2. Again, the Big 12 and C-USA stuff, plus around 18-20 Big East basketball games, isn't great content and I don't know what guarantees FOX has with its RSNs to provide college sports programming, but some of this content could be used to slowly build up FS2 while they continue to control the sublicensed ACC content for another decade, or at least until it is bought back for a possible ACC 24/7 Network.
* I'm really surprised/dumbfounded/in the dark when it comes to the MAC. I expected the regional syndication items to fall off since they fell off for other conferences that ESPN administered syndication packages. I am more surprised that the regional cable/sports package ended completely, at least for the moment. In football, only Buckeye Cable Sports has picked up any games to air regionally. For basketball, an announcement for more regional coverage is supposed to be forthcoming. At least it was at the end of September.
* On 11/29, there are only four SEC controlled games. There's a CBS 3:30pm window and it could end up airing the Egg Bowl or the Iron Bowl. No guarantees yet for either one. What is interesting is that there are three scheduled SEC Network windows, per ESPN MediaZone. Three, not two.
There is no men's basketball scheduled for the network that day. No other events currently. So, if the number of telecast windows hold up, and when running the numbers for 11/29, they might as the ACC has five games for ESPN nets after Raycom & RSN packages and the Big Ten has four games (assuming two on BTN), you won't see either the Egg Bowl or Iron Bowl on ESPN if CBS doesn't take it. You might need the SEC Network.
* For the 11/8 football TV selections, it makes sense in some ways that FOX took, arguably, the top two Big 12 selections (Baylor at Oklahoma & Kansas St. at TCU while the Pac-12's top two games (Notre Dame at Arizona St. & Oregon at Utah) found their way to ESPN.
ESPN has used fourteen of their nineteen Big 12 selections with four weeks left. On 12/6, with three Big 12 games, FOX does not have a broadcast TV window for the conference and FS1 has a single window at 3pm, so it would make sense that ESPN would have two games that day. There's only one way to accomplish that realistically and that is for ESPN to skip airing any Big 12 games one of these weeks. That particular Saturday appears to be on November 8th.
* And both the Pac-12 & Big 12 appear to be intertwined by the common rightsholders of ESPN and FOX. ESPN had six remaining Pac-12 selections to use coming into the 11/8 selections and FOX had five. ESPN used two, FOX used one and now they are on equal ground for the rest of the season with four to use over the final three Saturdays. The math seems to work out.
11/15 - 3 games. Pac-12 Networks has one scheduled window at 4pm ET. FOX & ESPN each take one game.
11/22 - 6 games. Pac-12 Networks has three telecasts scheduled at 1pm, 4:30pm and 10:30pm ET. FOX could take a game, then ESPN could take two. Or vice versa
11/29 - 5 games. Pac-12 Networks has two windows at 1pm & 4:30pm. Whomever takes two games on 11/22 takes only one on 11/29.
* Periodically, ESPN airs two games or more on ABC without 100% reverse mirror coverage for all the games. Usually the ACC, Big 12 or American is involved in these scenarios. The reason for that is that these three conferences don't have the requirement of their games airing "nationally" via a reverse mirror.
I can't speak for either conference, but I would suspect that if they wanted full coverage for every game, they would have had to give up something in return, possibly monetary (I know, these conferences make a lot of money already). The Big 12, by having their rights split by FOX and ESPN, does enjoy the ability for a few extra national broadcast games via FOX.
* The Pac-12 Networks, instead of picking a specific 10pm ET / 7pm PT men's basketball game on the opening night of the season out of the five available, will show "Full Court Friday Coverage" on the national feed. I'm interpreting this to mean they will show whiparound coverage of the five available games instead of focusing a specific game.
*
@mattsarz My understanding is that BTN's rights deal also ends at the same time. It's not like they would take the games off BTN, though.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) October 27, 2014
@mattsarz It's more to allow flexibility with the packages they will be offering to ESPN and others.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) October 27, 2014
- ESPN, which includes football & men's basketball
- CBS, for basketball including the conference tournament semifinals and championship
- FOX, for the football championship game
BTN is a 25 year partnership for FOX and the Big Ten and that includes the games on the network and its distribution (TV, internet, etc.). Just try to get the correct items out there. My apologies.
* I am curious to see the final number of Big Ten games that air across all ESPN platforms. So far, they've had fourteen games on ABC & 29 games on ESPN platforms, which is two over their previous maximum of 41 games. Five of the 29 have aired on ESPNEWS and that network is new to airing Big Ten football. I had it pegged at around 44 games and they'll match that, at least, with the 11/15 selections.
* If FOX isn't tied to placing the live college sports content they own on FSN, maybe FOX Sports 2 would have a few more live events and subscribers. Most of the Big 12 and C-USA football games that end up on FSN aren't impressive to you and me, but FSN currently has a lot of sublicensed content from the ACC tied into the next 10+ years that they can distribute to all of their RSNs and it doesn't appear that FOX can place this ACC content on FS1 or FS2. Again, the Big 12 and C-USA stuff, plus around 18-20 Big East basketball games, isn't great content and I don't know what guarantees FOX has with its RSNs to provide college sports programming, but some of this content could be used to slowly build up FS2 while they continue to control the sublicensed ACC content for another decade, or at least until it is bought back for a possible ACC 24/7 Network.
* I'm really surprised/dumbfounded/in the dark when it comes to the MAC. I expected the regional syndication items to fall off since they fell off for other conferences that ESPN administered syndication packages. I am more surprised that the regional cable/sports package ended completely, at least for the moment. In football, only Buckeye Cable Sports has picked up any games to air regionally. For basketball, an announcement for more regional coverage is supposed to be forthcoming. At least it was at the end of September.
CFB TV Confirmations for 11/8
Six day hold for two Big 12 games. Baylor at Oklahoma & Kansas St. at TCU will air on FOX platforms. One at 12pm on FS1, the other at 7:30pm on FOX.
12pm ESPN: Georgia at Kentucky
12pm ESPN2/ESPNU: Iowa at Minnesota
12pm ESPN2/ESPNU: Wisconsin at Purdue
3:30pm ABC: Notre Dame at Arizona St.
12pm ESPN2/ESPNU: Iowa at Minnesota
12pm FSN: UTSA at Rice
12pm CBSSN: SMU at Tulsa
12pm BTN: Penn St. at Indiana
12pm SEC: Presbyterian at Ole Miss
12:30pm ACC Network or RSNs: Georgia Tech at NC State
12:30pm ACC Network or RSNs: Duke at Syracuse
3pm ESPN3: Georgia St. at Troy
3pm ESPN3: South Alabama at Arkansas St.
3pm ESPN3: Georgia St. at Troy
3pm ESPN3: South Alabama at Arkansas St.
3:30pm ESPN2: Michigan at Northwestern
3:30pm CBS: Texas A&M at Auburn
7:30pm SEC: Florida at Vanderbilt
3:30pm CBS: Texas A&M at Auburn
3:30pm FS1: West Virginia at Texas
3:30pm ESPNU: Tulane at Houston
3:30pm FSN: Iowa St. at Kansas
3:30pm ESPN3: UL-Monroe at Appalachian St.
4pm SEC: UT Martin at Mississippi St.
3:30pm ESPN3: UL-Monroe at Appalachian St.
4pm SEC: UT Martin at Mississippi St.
4pm Pac-12: Washington St. at Oregon St.
4pm ESPN3: Georgia Southern at Texas St.
6:30pm ESPN: Virginia at Florida St.
7pm FS1: UCLA at Washington
7pm ESPNU: Hawai'i at Colorado St.
7:15pm ESPN2: Louisville at Boston College
8pm CBS: Alabama at LSU
8pm Pac-12: Colorado at Arizona
10pm ESPN: Oregon at Utah
10pm ESPN: Oregon at Utah
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Week Eleven CFB TV Guesses (11/4 - 11/8)
Games currently set for kickoff
Available TV Windows
* I believe that ESPN has to honor CBS exclusivity for both 3:30pm & 8pm for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, but not SEC Network. ESPN has been regularly sticking in conference games during CBS's 3:30pm window, so the "least desirable" game opposite CBS's SEC game isn't happening and probably isn't going to happen here. Florida at Vanderbilt will likely be competing with one of CBS's games.
* Two flex windows for the MAC. Weeknight #MACtion is back.
* Almost felt like doing two or three versions of this schedule. One where ESPN has the top Big 12 choice & FOX has top for the Pac-12, and vice versa. Right now I'm assuming FOX preselected the Notre Dame at Arizona St. game before the season started. My logic behind this is that ESPN and FOX would split the two available games in the Pac-12 with Notre Dame as the road team. The other game, at USC on 11/29, is typically at 8pm ET. FOX doesn't have a broadcast window on 11/29 in the evening, just a FS1 window.
* I believe that Ohio St. at Michigan St. will be full national on ABC. Could consider a reverse mirror at 8pm, if they were to move the 7pm ESPN window back one hour. If they could air the Oregon at Utah on ABC as a reverse mirror, it might count for their required Pac-12 primetime game, though I think you'll see one in a couple weeks, plus the possibility of Notre Dame at USC in primetime too. I'm also unsure if that Pac-12 primetime game has to air exclusively on a broadcast network or can be split between broadcast and cable outlets depending on where you live. Might have to be 100% on a broadcast network.
* The Big Ten Network only listed one window at 12pm so I think the Big Ten is going to have a 3:30pm game on ESPNU.
* There are a couple Sun Belt games that could have teams with winning records matched against each other, but I believe they'll be ESPN3 exclusives and not on ESPNEWS. Because I have Hawai'i at Colorado St. at 7pm on ESPNU, I removed both the 4pm ESPNEWS & 10:30pm ESPNU telecast windows.
Tuesday 11/4 at 8pm ET
Bowling Green at Akron, ESPN2
Toledo at Kent St., ESPNU
Wednesday 11/5 at 8pm ET
Northern Illinois at Ball St., ESPN2
Buffalo at Ohio, ESPNU
Saturday
12pm ESPN: Kansas St. at TCU
12pm ESPN2: Georgia at Kentucky
Available TV Windows
* I believe that ESPN has to honor CBS exclusivity for both 3:30pm & 8pm for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, but not SEC Network. ESPN has been regularly sticking in conference games during CBS's 3:30pm window, so the "least desirable" game opposite CBS's SEC game isn't happening and probably isn't going to happen here. Florida at Vanderbilt will likely be competing with one of CBS's games.
* Two flex windows for the MAC. Weeknight #MACtion is back.
* Almost felt like doing two or three versions of this schedule. One where ESPN has the top Big 12 choice & FOX has top for the Pac-12, and vice versa. Right now I'm assuming FOX preselected the Notre Dame at Arizona St. game before the season started. My logic behind this is that ESPN and FOX would split the two available games in the Pac-12 with Notre Dame as the road team. The other game, at USC on 11/29, is typically at 8pm ET. FOX doesn't have a broadcast window on 11/29 in the evening, just a FS1 window.
- If the Pac-12 Networks window at 8pm could be moved to 10pm or 10:30pm ET and Pac-12's top choice went to FOX, I think you would see Notre Dame at Arizona St. on FOX at 7:30pm and Baylor at Oklahoma on FS1 at 3:30pm.
- If ESPN has the top Pac-12 choice, I think the game remains at 3:30pm ET and airs nationally on ABC. I believe ESPN will only have one Pac-12 Saturday game this week, so I believe they would lose out on Oregon at Utah to do so and that game moves over to FOX to air. Virginia at Florida St. could move to 7pm on ESPN and Iowa at Minnesota at 3:30pm on ESPN2. If ESPN carries two Pac-12 games and keeps Oregon at Utah, Kansas St. at TCU could slide over to FOX with Virginia at FSU at 12pm on ESPN & Iowa at Minnesota on ESPN2 at 3:30pm.
The massive roadblock is that when the Pac-12 Networks airs a game in east coast primetime, a broadcast network cannot. A cable net can, however, air a concurrent game.
* I believe that Ohio St. at Michigan St. will be full national on ABC. Could consider a reverse mirror at 8pm, if they were to move the 7pm ESPN window back one hour. If they could air the Oregon at Utah on ABC as a reverse mirror, it might count for their required Pac-12 primetime game, though I think you'll see one in a couple weeks, plus the possibility of Notre Dame at USC in primetime too. I'm also unsure if that Pac-12 primetime game has to air exclusively on a broadcast network or can be split between broadcast and cable outlets depending on where you live. Might have to be 100% on a broadcast network.
* The Big Ten Network only listed one window at 12pm so I think the Big Ten is going to have a 3:30pm game on ESPNU.
* There are a couple Sun Belt games that could have teams with winning records matched against each other, but I believe they'll be ESPN3 exclusives and not on ESPNEWS. Because I have Hawai'i at Colorado St. at 7pm on ESPNU, I removed both the 4pm ESPNEWS & 10:30pm ESPNU telecast windows.
Tuesday 11/4 at 8pm ET
Bowling Green at Akron, ESPN2
Toledo at Kent St., ESPNU
Wednesday 11/5 at 8pm ET
Northern Illinois at Ball St., ESPN2
Buffalo at Ohio, ESPNU
Saturday
12pm ESPN: Kansas St. at TCU
12pm ESPN2: Georgia at Kentucky
12pm FS1: West Virginia at Texas
12pm ESPNU: Wisconsin at Purdue
12pm ESPNEWS: Tulane at Houston
12pm ESPNEWS: Tulane at Houston
12pm FSN: Iowa St. at Kansas
12pm CBSSN: SMU at Tulsa
12pm BTN: Penn St. at Indiana
12pm SEC: Presbyterian at Ole Miss
12:30pm ACC Network: Duke at Syracuse
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Georgia Tech at NC State
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Iowa at Minnesota
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Virginia at Florida St.
3:30pm CBS: Texas A&M at Auburn
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Virginia at Florida St.
3:30pm CBS: Texas A&M at Auburn
3:30pm FS1: Notre Dame at Arizona St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Michigan at Northwestern
3:30pm FSN: UTSA at Rice
4pm SEC: UT Martin at Mississippi St.
4pm SEC: UT Martin at Mississippi St.
4pm Pac-12: Colorado at Arizona
7pm ESPN: Oregon at Utah
7pm ESPN2: Louisville at Boston College
7pm FS1: UCLA at Washington
7pm ESPNU: Hawai'i at Colorado St.
7:30pm FOX: Baylor at Oklahoma
7:30pm SEC: Florida at Vanderbilt
8pm CBS: Alabama at LSU
8pm Pac-12: Washington St. at Oregon St.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Six day guesses for 11/1
Since there are enough games to make this worthwhile, here's a guess for 11/1. This assumes the schools in bold win using today's daily lines. Yes, I know WVU-Oklahoma St. is nearly a pick 'em.
12pm ESPN: Wisconsin at Rutgers
12pm ESPN2: Northwestern at Iowa
12pm FS1: Oklahoma at Iowa St.
12pm BTN: Maryland at Penn St.
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: TCU at West Virginia
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Purdue at Nebraska
3:30pm BTN: Indiana at Michigan
7pm ESPN: Auburn at Ole Miss
7:15pm ESPN2: Arkansas at Mississippi St.
7:30pm FS1: Texas at Texas Tech
8pm ABC Regional: Kansas St. at Oklahoma St.
I also realize it is a strange reward for Kansas St. & Oklahoma St. to both win, but get slotted into a time where the game will be shown on ESPN3 or GamePlan to much of the country. I gave TCU the benefit of likely coming out of the 10/25 games ahead of Kansas St., so it gets the reverse mirror "national" treatment.
If ESPN doesn't have the top two Big 12 choices (they might not, I really don't know the order), flip flop Oklahoma-Iowa St. & Kansas St. at Oklahoma St. As for Texas at Texas Tech at 7:30pm, don't assume it is going their because its a more desirable timeslot. Game could get covered up rather easily with other games at the same time.
For the SEC games, assuming all four favorites win, ESPN will pick Auburn-Ole Miss. Shouldn't have that one on ESPN2.
Big Ten is rather muddy. Went with what should be the highest ranked assuming favorites for ABC at 3:30pm. After that, assumed Wisconsin at Rutgers will be the highest win total for two teams.
12pm ESPN: Wisconsin at Rutgers
12pm ESPN2: Northwestern at Iowa
12pm FS1: Oklahoma at Iowa St.
12pm BTN: Maryland at Penn St.
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: TCU at West Virginia
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Purdue at Nebraska
3:30pm BTN: Indiana at Michigan
7pm ESPN: Auburn at Ole Miss
7:15pm ESPN2: Arkansas at Mississippi St.
7:30pm FS1: Texas at Texas Tech
8pm ABC Regional: Kansas St. at Oklahoma St.
I also realize it is a strange reward for Kansas St. & Oklahoma St. to both win, but get slotted into a time where the game will be shown on ESPN3 or GamePlan to much of the country. I gave TCU the benefit of likely coming out of the 10/25 games ahead of Kansas St., so it gets the reverse mirror "national" treatment.
If ESPN doesn't have the top two Big 12 choices (they might not, I really don't know the order), flip flop Oklahoma-Iowa St. & Kansas St. at Oklahoma St. As for Texas at Texas Tech at 7:30pm, don't assume it is going their because its a more desirable timeslot. Game could get covered up rather easily with other games at the same time.
For the SEC games, assuming all four favorites win, ESPN will pick Auburn-Ole Miss. Shouldn't have that one on ESPN2.
Big Ten is rather muddy. Went with what should be the highest ranked assuming favorites for ABC at 3:30pm. After that, assumed Wisconsin at Rutgers will be the highest win total for two teams.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Considerations for the Rest of 2014 CFB on TV
Just going through existing TV windows and announcements, along with future weeks.
* If you were CBS, would you still have your SEC primetime doubleheader on November 8th? Look at your other choices (lets eliminate the two games vs. FCS competition):
Texas A&M at Auburn
Georgia at Kentucky
Florida at Vanderbilt
Its a virtual lock that Alabama-LSU is on CBS, and I suppose they'll make a decision based on the higher ranked school for the other (currently Auburn), but if you had a doubleheader with the Egg Bowl and Iron Bowl on 11/29, would anyone change the channel for anything else?
I imagine CBS has to declare their primetime doubleheader in advance so that ESPN can prepare because I assume they have to put all of their ESPN/2/U selections in a different window.
* Ohio St. at Michigan St. is on ABC on 11/8 and it is assumed to be full national, though Big Ten selections on 11/1 don't guarantee that, so I assume (?) Notre Dame at Arizona St. is on a FOX property. Could air on ABC or ESPN too, but I'm 100% sold on it airing in primetime. I could see it airing on FS1 or ABC in the mid afternoon. Pac-12 Networks say they'll have games on at 4pm & 8pm ET respectively, but we know those can change, so that would seem to indicate that neither ABC nor FOX will have a Pac-12 game in primetime. Pac-12 Networks can air games at the same time as ABC or FOX in the early TV window.
However, Pac-12 Networks will air one more game on 11/1 than tentative windows indicated, so it is possible that they took a window from another week. Maybe from 11/8 to clear the primetime space.
* By FOX airing Stanford at Oregon on 11/1, they will have met the required conditions of eight Pac-12 games on their broadcast network, counting the Black Friday airing of the Territorial Cup along with the requirement of four games in east coast primetime. ABC is required to air one Pac-12 game in primetime before the end of the season.
FOX has five remaining Pac-12 selections with eight games on FOX broadcast & nine games on FOX cable outlets. ESPN has six selections left with three games on ABC (national or reverse mirror) and thirteen on ESPN cable platforms. One Arizona St. game must air on Pac-12 Networks, probably either the Oregon St. or Washington St. game. By Pac-12 Networks selecting USC at Washington St. on 11/1, the rest of USC's schedule is available for both FOX and ESPN.
* FOX Sports 1 is going to try to shoehorn in four games on 11/1 with a Big 12 tripleheader followed by Utah at Arizona St. at 11pm ET. The addition of the four hour TV window at 12pm ET was done, it appears, by taking one of the windows from FSN and moving the NASCAR programming that FS1 was supposed to air over to FS2.
In my opinion, if you have a four hour TV window, that's where the Kansas at Baylor game should have went with Baylor's last two games running over four hours in TV time. Then again, Kansas will probably not score as much as TCU and West Virginia did.
* ESPN did some TV window juggling as well. I missed that they had dropped the 12pm window on 11/1 before this past weekend's games. Then they dropped one of the available ESPN or ESPN2 windows as they were supposed to have a 6pm & 9pm doubleheader and decided to show Illinois at Ohio St. alongside a Big 12 game to be determined without a reverse mirror.
Regarding the lack of reverse mirror for the Big Ten, this was allowed under their current TV deal as the 3:30pm window was the only place the reverse mirror was required, but it looked like the provision was eliminated once Nebraska came on board as they didn't have a split regional window until now. Now that the conference has fourteen schools, it is possible that a split regional window without reverse mirror had to be put back into use. Maybe the ability to use it never went away either.
Either way, if you want to watch the game not on your ABC affiliate next week, you'll need to use ESPN3 or have ESPN GamePlan.
* With ESPN placing two Big 12 games on ABC on 11/1 (really it doesn't matter where the placed them), ESPN has used up fourteen of their nineteen Big 12 selections, leaving them with five selections, around one per week the rest of the year:
* With Nevada at BYU airing on ESPN2 on 10/18, the UNLV at BYU game should air on ESPNU on 11/15. The only question at this time involves the telecast window. ESPN also has two Mountain West games in hand to place on their networks that weekend (New Mexico at Utah St. & Boise St. at San Diego St.), though ESPNEWS is an option for them.
* For the Mountain West, one of Boise St.'s final three games has to air on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. Each of those Saturdays has a late evening ESPN or ESPN2 window. 11/15 on ESPN and 11/22 & 11/29 on ESPN2. Currently the Broncos are tied with Colorado St. in the MW Mountain Division but own a victory over the Rams.
Wyoming at Fresno St. is the first Mountain West game selected in season for a Saturday broadcast on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 as Colorado St. at Boise St. was picked before the season started. The Mountain West pays a $500K bonus per appearance off the top of their pooled TV money to a school who appears on a major network on Saturdays as part of the games under the control of their TV contract.
* Assuming FOX doesn't play around with its telecast windows on 11/15 (FSN at 2pm ET, FS1 at 3pm & 10pm, FOX at 3:30pm & 7:30pm) or open one up on FOX College Sports, either FOX or FS1 should carry a C-USA game. FOX selected both North Texas at UTEP & Rice at Marshall. The Thundering Herd, if they beat FAU this Saturday, could be available for an upgrade from FSN as they have an off week on 11/1 before the TV selections on 11/3 for 11/15.
* 11/1 will be the first Saturday where a Big Ten game will air on ESPN at 12pm ET. In previous years, that telecast window seemed to be owned by the conference, but since 2012 the window has had more variety with the ACC, Big 12 and SEC appearing at that time. On the other side of that is that 11/1 will be the tenth straight week in 2014 (10 for 10) where the Big Ten has had a game air on ESPN2 at 12pm, at least to a portion of the country as two of those Saturdays were reverse mirrors with ABC.
* FSN matched the ACC RSNs start time for 11/1 with Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech moving from its initial announced time of 12pm ET to 3pm ET. This allows all FOX RSNs, alternate feeds and FSN affiliates, plus non-FOX RSNs carrying the ACC package, to be sent to a game at the same time.
* If you were CBS, would you still have your SEC primetime doubleheader on November 8th? Look at your other choices (lets eliminate the two games vs. FCS competition):
Texas A&M at Auburn
Georgia at Kentucky
Florida at Vanderbilt
Its a virtual lock that Alabama-LSU is on CBS, and I suppose they'll make a decision based on the higher ranked school for the other (currently Auburn), but if you had a doubleheader with the Egg Bowl and Iron Bowl on 11/29, would anyone change the channel for anything else?
I imagine CBS has to declare their primetime doubleheader in advance so that ESPN can prepare because I assume they have to put all of their ESPN/2/U selections in a different window.
* Ohio St. at Michigan St. is on ABC on 11/8 and it is assumed to be full national, though Big Ten selections on 11/1 don't guarantee that, so I assume (?) Notre Dame at Arizona St. is on a FOX property. Could air on ABC or ESPN too, but I'm 100% sold on it airing in primetime. I could see it airing on FS1 or ABC in the mid afternoon. Pac-12 Networks say they'll have games on at 4pm & 8pm ET respectively, but we know those can change, so that would seem to indicate that neither ABC nor FOX will have a Pac-12 game in primetime. Pac-12 Networks can air games at the same time as ABC or FOX in the early TV window.
However, Pac-12 Networks will air one more game on 11/1 than tentative windows indicated, so it is possible that they took a window from another week. Maybe from 11/8 to clear the primetime space.
* By FOX airing Stanford at Oregon on 11/1, they will have met the required conditions of eight Pac-12 games on their broadcast network, counting the Black Friday airing of the Territorial Cup along with the requirement of four games in east coast primetime. ABC is required to air one Pac-12 game in primetime before the end of the season.
FOX has five remaining Pac-12 selections with eight games on FOX broadcast & nine games on FOX cable outlets. ESPN has six selections left with three games on ABC (national or reverse mirror) and thirteen on ESPN cable platforms. One Arizona St. game must air on Pac-12 Networks, probably either the Oregon St. or Washington St. game. By Pac-12 Networks selecting USC at Washington St. on 11/1, the rest of USC's schedule is available for both FOX and ESPN.
* FOX Sports 1 is going to try to shoehorn in four games on 11/1 with a Big 12 tripleheader followed by Utah at Arizona St. at 11pm ET. The addition of the four hour TV window at 12pm ET was done, it appears, by taking one of the windows from FSN and moving the NASCAR programming that FS1 was supposed to air over to FS2.
In my opinion, if you have a four hour TV window, that's where the Kansas at Baylor game should have went with Baylor's last two games running over four hours in TV time. Then again, Kansas will probably not score as much as TCU and West Virginia did.
* ESPN did some TV window juggling as well. I missed that they had dropped the 12pm window on 11/1 before this past weekend's games. Then they dropped one of the available ESPN or ESPN2 windows as they were supposed to have a 6pm & 9pm doubleheader and decided to show Illinois at Ohio St. alongside a Big 12 game to be determined without a reverse mirror.
Regarding the lack of reverse mirror for the Big Ten, this was allowed under their current TV deal as the 3:30pm window was the only place the reverse mirror was required, but it looked like the provision was eliminated once Nebraska came on board as they didn't have a split regional window until now. Now that the conference has fourteen schools, it is possible that a split regional window without reverse mirror had to be put back into use. Maybe the ability to use it never went away either.
Either way, if you want to watch the game not on your ABC affiliate next week, you'll need to use ESPN3 or have ESPN GamePlan.
* With ESPN placing two Big 12 games on ABC on 11/1 (really it doesn't matter where the placed them), ESPN has used up fourteen of their nineteen Big 12 selections, leaving them with five selections, around one per week the rest of the year:
- Seven on ABC (regardless of whether they were reverse mirrored)
- Six on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
- One on Longhorn Network (the Iowa St. game)
* With Nevada at BYU airing on ESPN2 on 10/18, the UNLV at BYU game should air on ESPNU on 11/15. The only question at this time involves the telecast window. ESPN also has two Mountain West games in hand to place on their networks that weekend (New Mexico at Utah St. & Boise St. at San Diego St.), though ESPNEWS is an option for them.
* For the Mountain West, one of Boise St.'s final three games has to air on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. Each of those Saturdays has a late evening ESPN or ESPN2 window. 11/15 on ESPN and 11/22 & 11/29 on ESPN2. Currently the Broncos are tied with Colorado St. in the MW Mountain Division but own a victory over the Rams.
Wyoming at Fresno St. is the first Mountain West game selected in season for a Saturday broadcast on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 as Colorado St. at Boise St. was picked before the season started. The Mountain West pays a $500K bonus per appearance off the top of their pooled TV money to a school who appears on a major network on Saturdays as part of the games under the control of their TV contract.
* Assuming FOX doesn't play around with its telecast windows on 11/15 (FSN at 2pm ET, FS1 at 3pm & 10pm, FOX at 3:30pm & 7:30pm) or open one up on FOX College Sports, either FOX or FS1 should carry a C-USA game. FOX selected both North Texas at UTEP & Rice at Marshall. The Thundering Herd, if they beat FAU this Saturday, could be available for an upgrade from FSN as they have an off week on 11/1 before the TV selections on 11/3 for 11/15.
* 11/1 will be the first Saturday where a Big Ten game will air on ESPN at 12pm ET. In previous years, that telecast window seemed to be owned by the conference, but since 2012 the window has had more variety with the ACC, Big 12 and SEC appearing at that time. On the other side of that is that 11/1 will be the tenth straight week in 2014 (10 for 10) where the Big Ten has had a game air on ESPN2 at 12pm, at least to a portion of the country as two of those Saturdays were reverse mirrors with ABC.
* FSN matched the ACC RSNs start time for 11/1 with Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech moving from its initial announced time of 12pm ET to 3pm ET. This allows all FOX RSNs, alternate feeds and FSN affiliates, plus non-FOX RSNs carrying the ACC package, to be sent to a game at the same time.
CFB TV Confirmations for Week 11
Full Schedule
My Guesses
Big Ten is on a six day hold for 12pm & 3:30pm ET.
Big 12 is on six day hold for several timeslots with most games.
12pm FS1 - Texas at Texas Tech, Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
3:30pm ABC w/ESPN2 reverse mirror - Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
7:30pm FS1 - Texas at Texas Tech, Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
8pm ABC - Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
Two SEC games are officially/unofficially on six day holds (kick times are 15 minutes apart) for ESPN at 7pm or ESPN2 at 7:15pm: Arkansas at Mississippi St. & Auburn at Ole Miss
Friday
Saturday
12pm ESPNU: Duke at Pittsburgh
12pm ESPNEWS: East Carolina at Temple
12pm SEC: UL-Monroe at Texas A&M
12pm CBSSN: UCF at Connecticut
12:30pm ACC Net (split): Boston College at Virginia Tech
1pm ESPN3: Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan
2:30pm ESPN3: Western Michigan at Miami (OH)
3pm FSN: Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech
3pm ACC RSNs: NC State at Syracuse
3pm ESPN3: Eastern Kentucky at Tennessee St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Virginia at Georgia Tech
3:30pm ESPN3: Georgia St. at Appalachian St.
4pm FS1: Kansas at Baylor
4pm SEC: Kentucky at Missouri
4pm ESPNEWS: Houston at USF
5pm ESPN3: South Alabama at UL-Lafayette
5pm ESPN3: Arkansas St. at Idaho
4:30pm: USC at Washington St.
7pm ESPNU: Old Dominion at Vanderbilt
8pm ABC: Illinois at Ohio St.
10:30pm ESPN: Arizona at UCLA
10:30pm Pac-12: California at Oregon St.
10:45pm ESPN2: Wyoming at Arizona St.
11pm FS1: Utah at Arizona St.
My Guesses
Big Ten is on a six day hold for 12pm & 3:30pm ET.
Big 12 is on six day hold for several timeslots with most games.
12pm FS1 - Texas at Texas Tech, Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
3:30pm ABC w/ESPN2 reverse mirror - Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
7:30pm FS1 - Texas at Texas Tech, Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
8pm ABC - Oklahoma at Iowa St., Oklahoma St. at Kansas St. OR TCU at West Virginia
Two SEC games are officially/unofficially on six day holds (kick times are 15 minutes apart) for ESPN at 7pm or ESPN2 at 7:15pm: Arkansas at Mississippi St. & Auburn at Ole Miss
8pm ESPN2:
8pm ESPNU:
8pm ESPNU:
Saturday
12pm ESPNU: Duke at Pittsburgh
12pm ESPNEWS: East Carolina at Temple
12pm SEC: UL-Monroe at Texas A&M
12pm CBSSN: UCF at Connecticut
12:30pm ACC Net (split): Boston College at Virginia Tech
12:30pm ACC Net (split): North Carolina at Miami (FL)
1pm Pac-12: Washington at Colorado1pm ESPN3: Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan
2:30pm ESPN3: Western Michigan at Miami (OH)
3pm FSN: Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech
3pm ACC RSNs: NC State at Syracuse
3pm ESPN3: Eastern Kentucky at Tennessee St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Virginia at Georgia Tech
3:30pm ESPN3: Georgia St. at Appalachian St.
4pm FS1: Kansas at Baylor
4pm SEC: Kentucky at Missouri
4pm ESPNEWS: Houston at USF
5pm ESPN3: South Alabama at UL-Lafayette
5pm ESPN3: Arkansas St. at Idaho
4:30pm: USC at Washington St.
7pm ESPNU: Old Dominion at Vanderbilt
7:30pm FOX: Stanford at Oregon
7:30pm SEC: Tennessee at South Carolina8pm ABC: Illinois at Ohio St.
10:30pm ESPN: Arizona at UCLA
10:30pm Pac-12: California at Oregon St.
10:45pm ESPN2: Wyoming at Arizona St.
11pm FS1: Utah at Arizona St.
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