Postscript on 10/6 CFB TV selections

Confirmations for 10/6

This one is light.  Couldn't think of enough to write about.  Sorry.

* FOX deviated with a pair of selections from listings on their RSN sites and from leaked schedules

• UCLA at Cal - Leaked schedules had it as the early game of the FOX broadcast doubleheader.  Instead its the late game on Pac-12 Network.  Closer inspection notes that the other three games available in the Pac-12 all have ranked teams and this one no longer does thanks to UCLA's loss to Oregon St.
• Boise St. at Southern Miss - FOX RSN schedules had a listing for "Conference USA on FOX / FX Replay" for 10/6 and also listed a pair of Big 12 games at 12pm & 3:30pm on FSN.  What changed? Boise St.'s play has been inconsistent & Southern Miss is 0-3 right now.  Now tack on Kansas St.'s upset of Oklahoma and the Sunflower State matchup with Kansas has a top ten team.

* I'm scratching my head on how Arkansas at Auburn is on ESPN or ESPN2 at 12pm.  Granted, SEC fans don't like the early starts when they can be avoided, plus they tend to have the connotation that the early game is the game no TV partner wants.  I suppose that ESPN has to fill their extra SEC games and this is one way to do it.  If it were me, I'd swap UConn at Rutgers or Mississippi St. at Kentucky with this one. At least you'd have a ranked team, with both Rutgers and Mississippi St. on bye next week.

* I think we'll see ABC and ESPN play around with the 3:30pm slot when they have the flexibility to do so.  NASCAR Nationwide Series is off on 10/6 so ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 were in play.  It sounds like their will be a reverse mirror of either Oklahoma at Texas Tech or Georgia Tech at Clemson.

* It would not surprise me if the ABC 8pm window ends up being a reverse mirror between Ohio St. at Nebraska & Florida St. at NC State.  Sounds like ABC is covering its bases in the event of any of the teams losing, particularly Florida St.

TV Confirmations for 10/6 CFB Games

Will just plug them in here as needed.  All times Eastern

What I thought would happen and will be proven incorrect

12pm F/X: Kansas at Kansas St.
12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Northwestern at Penn St.
12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Arkansas at Auburn
12pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Connecticut at Rutgers
12pm FSN: Boise St. at Southern Miss
12pm BTN & BTN2Go: Michigan St. at Indiana
12pm SEC Net & ESPN3: Mississippi St. at Kentucky
12pm Big East Net & ESPN3: USF at Temple
12:30pm ACC Net & ESPN3: Virginia Tech at North Carolina
3pm FOX: Arizona at Stanford
3pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3: Virginia at Duke
3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com: LSU at Florida
3:30pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN : Oklahoma at Texas Tech
3:30pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Illinois at Wisconsin
3:30pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Georgia Tech at Clemson
3:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Maryland at Wake Forest
3:30pm FSN: Iowa St. at TCU
6pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: Washington St. at Oregon St.
7pm FOX: West Virginia at Texas
7pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Georgia at South Carolina
7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN: Texas A&M at Ole Miss
7pm SEC/FOX RSNs & ESPN3: Vanderbilt at Missouri
8pm ABC: Nebraska at Ohio St. or Florida St. at NC State
8pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN: Nebraska at Ohio St. or Florida St. at NC State
10pm Pac-12 Network & Pac-12.com: UCLA at California
10:30pm ESPN & WatchESPN: Washington at Oregon

Week Six (10/6) CFB 12 day TV Predictions

* If ESPN elects to use its 2nd and final priority pick for the season with the SEC and jump CBS, they might do it and use a six-day hold, only to see if Tennessee upsets Georgia.  If it happens, I could see ESPN taking LSU-Florida away from CBS, flip-flopping with Georgia-South Carolina.
* Could also see the entire SEC go to six day pick after ESPN selecting Georgia-South Carolina & Mississippi St.-Kentucky, waiting to place the SEC Network, ESPNU 7pm and FOX RSN games.
* Big 12 might have a six day pick between Iowa St.-TCU and Oklahoma-Texas Tech.  One to ABC
* Several FOX RSN advance listings have an F/X replay of a C-USA game on 10/6 & also list two Big 12 windows at 12pm & 3:30pm.  Boise St.-Southern Miss was selected to air on FSN on 10/6, so slide it over to F/X.
* NASCAR Nationwide Series has the week off, so there are national windows available on ESPN/ESPN2 if one of those isn't reverse mirrored with ABC.
* Pac-12 is another place you could see six day picks, even if FOX doesn't elect to deviate from the script and take a game different from UCLA-Cal since it would appear that the other Saturday Pac-12 games would have ranked teams (Oregon, Stanford, Oregon St.) while UCLA could drop from the top 25.
* FOX starts doubleheaders on its broadcast this week

Boise St. at Southern Miss, 12pm F/X
Mississippi St. at Kentucky, 12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN
Northwestern at Penn St., 12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN
Georgia Tech at Clemson, 12pm ESPNU & WatchESPN
Michigan St. at Indiana, 12pm BTN & BTN2Go
Iowa St. at TCU, 12pm FSN
Texas A&M at Ole Miss, 12pm SEC Net & ESPN3
USF at Temple, 12pm Big East Net & ESPN3
Virginia Tech at North Carolina, 12:30pm ACCNet & ESPN3
UCLA at Cal, 3pm FOX
Virginia at Duke, 3pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3
LSU at Florida, 3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com
Illinois at Wisconsin, 3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror
Florida St. at NC State, 3:30pm ABC with Reverse Mirror
Oklahoma at Texas Tech, 3:30pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN
Connecticut at Rutgers, 3:30pm ESPNU & WatchESPN
Kansas at Kansas St., 3:30pm FSN
West Virginia at Texas, 7pm FOX
Georgia at South Carolina, 7pm ESPN & WatchESPN
Arkansas at Auburn, 7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN
Vanderbilt at Missouri, 7pm SEC/FOX RSNs & ESPN3
Washington St. at Oregon St., 7pm Pac-12 Network
Washington at Oregon, 7:45pm ESPN2 & WatchESPN
Nebraska at Ohio St., 8pm ABC
Arizona at Stanford, 10:30pm ESPN & WatchESPN

ESPN3
Wake Forest at Maryland, time TBA

Postscript on 9/29 CFB TV selections

* Was surprised that TCU-SMU was slotted on FSN at the same time as a Rangers game airing on FOX Sports Southwest.  They do have an alternate channel available to air the football game and the SEC doesn't have a regional game to compete with.  The Rangers are hosting the Angels that day and while the Rangers have a lead in the AL West and the Angels are still in the wild card hunt, though behind by a few games, the game could have some meaning where FOX would pull it for a regional telecast.

* After this weekend's results in the ACC & the Big East, it made sense to run with a six day pick.  Several of the teams lost and left several of the games without a clear difference re: their pecking order in the television selection list.

* Don't know the exact reason why the Pac-12 selections came out on Sunday instead of Monday.  Can only speculate that if anyone involved in the selections observes Rosh Hashanah, they would not have been available on Monday to participate and did them on Sunday instead.

* I expect more Big 12 selections for ABC & ESPN over the next few weeks.  They'll probably have a game on 10/6.  Assuming the WVU-Texas game remains a FOX telecast, FSN is listing two Big 12 telecast windows.  The F/X window, per advance FOX RSN listings, show a C-USA telecast on F/X with Boise St.-Southern Miss likely moving over.

So Big 12 fans (particularly some WVU fans who don't like 12pm kickoffs), please take a deep breath.  Please.

* ESPN did not specify where any of their games would air when it came to ESPN/ESPN2 selections.  Consider the 12pm kickoffs independent of the rest of the games, but the as for the rest of them, consider them as the following groups:

• ABC Reverse Mirror (3:30pm), South Carolina-Kentucky (7pm), Oregon-Washington St. (10:30pm)
• ACC or Big East (6pm) & Ole Miss-Alabama (9:15pm)

* It does appear that if FOX is not doing a Pac-12 game in primetime, the Pac-12 Network will try to do a game starting at 6pm ET.  I believe that when ABC or FOX is televising a Pac-12 game, they have some exclusivity in their window.  I'm aware that it wasn't the case on 9/8 when Fresno St.-Oregon and Nebraska-UCLA aired concurrently, but when you have nine games to try to slot, sometimes you have to compromise

* 9/29 is the last week of F/X doubleheaders.  Starting 10/6, there's only a single game at 12pm on the networks most weeks.  Conversely, this is when FOX will also start with doubleheaders most weeks with 3pm and 7pm start times.

9/29 TV Confirmations

Some confirmations came out on Sunday.  All times Eastern

What I thought would happen (and is already incorrect)
The entire week

Options for those on six day hold
Clemson-Boston College: 12pm ESPNU, 3:30pm ABC w/ESPN or ESPN2 Reverse Mirror, 3:30pm ESPNU or 6pm ESPN/ESPN2
NC State-Miami (FL): 12pm ESPNU, 3:30pm ABC w/ESPN or ESPN2 Reverse Mirror, 3:30pm ESPNU or 6pm ESPN/ESPN2
Florida St.-USF: 3:30pm ABC w/ESPN or ESPN2 Reverse Mirror or 6pm ESPN/ESPN2
Virginia Tech-Cincinnati: 3:30pm ABC w/ESPN or ESPN2 Reverse Mirror, 3:30pm ESPNU or 6pm ESPN/ESPN2
Louisiana Tech-Virginia: 12pm ACC RSNs or TBA ESPN3
Middle Tennessee-Georgia Tech: 12pm ACC RSNs or TBA ESPN3

Confirmations
Baylor-West Virginia, 12pm F/X
Minnesota-Iowa, 12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN
Penn St.-Illinois, 12pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN
Missouri-UCF, 12pm FSN
Indiana-Northwestern, 12pm BTN & BTN2Go
Arkansas-Texas A&M, 12pm SEC Network & ESPN3
Duke-Wake Forest, 12:30pm ACC Network & ESPN3
Nevada at Texas St., 2pm Longhorn Network
Ohio St.-Michigan St., 3:30pm ABC
Tennessee-Georgia, 3:30pm CBS & CBSSports.com
Marshall-Purdue, 3:30pm BTN & BTN2Go
Idaho-North Carolina, 3:30pm ACC RSNs & ESPN3
Arizona St.-Cal, 4pm F/X
UCLA-Colorado, 6pm Pac-12 Net & Pac-12.com
South Carolina at Kentucky, 7pm ESPN/ESPN2
Towson at LSU, 7pm ESPNU & WatchESPN
TCU-SMU, 7pm FSN
Texas Tech-Iowa St., 7pm FCS
Texas-Oklahoma St., 7:30pm FOX
Ole Miss-Alabama, 9:15pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN
Oregon St.-Arizona, 10pm Pac-12 Net & Pac-12.com
Oregon-Washington St., 10:30pm ESPN/ESPN2 & WatchESPN

Kickoff times, the Big 12 and ESPN

My latest set of 12 day predictions for the 9/29 games, and the previous weeks' kick times for West Virginia  has generated some questions on why the Mountaineers have played a pair on 12pm kickoffs on F/X and my guess that they would have another one on 9/29.

Matt Allevato, a writer for WVIllustrated.com,  asked why Towson-LSU would be a night game on ESPNU where Baylor-WVU would get selected for a 12pm kickoff on F/X.

I'll briefly tackle the Towson-LSU item.  The SEC, more or less, owns the 7pm slot on ESPNU.  When the SEC has their primetime doubleheader on CBS (3:30pm & 8pm), ESPN cannot air games the evening window and you'll find the games often airing at 12pm or 12:30pm (yes, Alabama-LSU last year was an exception to the rule).  I can only think of one or two times when the SEC had the ability to air a game in the 7pm ESPNU window and did not since their contract with ESPN started in 2009.  It's extremely rare.  Since the SEC doesn't have any regional cable windows on 9/29, CBS, ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU and the SEC Network syndication package should air all five games.  ESPNU tends to fall at the end of the selection order.

Back to the Big 12.  As a brief refresher, ESPN has 19 games to spread across their networks and has chosen five of them (Virginia-TCU, Oklahoma-Texas, West Virginia-Iowa St., TCU-Texas and one of the Longhorn Network games). So they have 14 left.  FOX has roughly the rest of the games going forward to spend on their broadcast network, F/X, FSN or FOX College Sports.

On 9/29, there are three Big 12 games: Texas at Oklahoma St., Baylor at West Virginia and Texas Tech at Iowa St.  What has been leaked and is known is the following:

• Multiple leaked schedules from FOX indicate that they've selected Texas at Oklahoma St. for their 7:30pm broadcast network game
• Slots available on F/X include the 12pm and 4pm slots.  As with previous selections, the 4pm slot appears to be for the Pac-12 and the 12pm slot for the Big 12.
• An advance listing for FOX College Sports has a Big 12 game at 7pm ET
• FSN has three Conference USA games scheduled for the day

When I do my guesses, I tend to use what I find as a guideline and those items give me the impression that ESPN would not be selecting a Big 12 game for any of their networks.  ESPN isn't precluded from picking a game that day, but the available listings indicate that they won't.  F/X could move their telecast windows too so that they start later, but they haven't shown a desire to do that yet this year.  In either case, ESPN may have discussed their likely choices for each week with FOX and the conference, deciding that this is a week they would bypass, but elect to choose other games as the season moves on.

In case you were wondering whether moving one of the C-USA games to F/X would help WVU slot into a later time slot, unfortunately it wouldn't.  FSN committed the 12pm, 3:30pm and 7pm slots to C-USA and the Houston-Rice game is at 3:30pm.  ROOT Sports Pittsburgh, the RSN that covers a large portion of West Virginia, isn't picking up any of the C-USA games that day.  They've committed to airing a Penguins preseason game at 3pm (granted, the lockout could make that moot) and a Pirates game at 7pm.  So moving the game to FSN doesn't help WVU either.

On the ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU side of the house, besides three SEC games to slot for those networks, they also have two Big East games to place on their various nets with Florida St.-USF being guaranteed ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 and VT-Cincy likely to be picked as well.  A Big Ten game on ABC at 3:30pm in addition to Wisconsin-Nebraska at 8pm with the late game being a full national game it appears.  Add the ACC in the mix, plus the Pac-12 late in the evening and there's a lot to juggle.  With the Big 12 deal being set so late, it didn't allow for any games to be moved to Thursdays or Fridays except for TCU-Texas and WVU-ISU, but I'd expect some juggling in future seasons.

I do want to make it clear that when I'm doing the selections, they are based on what I know of in terms of available time slots, exclusivity rules (ie. in most cases, SEC games cannot air on CBS and ESPN at the same time) and appearance rules (ie. A single Big 12 team cannot appear on ABC more than six times a year).  I do not make the guesses in a punitive fashion (I know Mr. Allevato didn't take it that way); I just try to place the games where I think they'll go and I'll try to explain any selection that I can.

Week Five (9/29) CFB 12 day TV Predictions

A few notes
* Advance listings for FOX College Sports list a 7pm Big 12 game
* Several of the RSNs carrying the ACC cable package list two game slots: 12/12:30pm & 3:30/4pm
* There is no SEC FOX regional slot this week
* Based on MLB listings, TCU-SMU likely airs at 12pm ET because of a FSSW Rangers telecast at 8pm ET.  That could change if FOX chooses the Rangers for a regional MLB telecast
* A case could be made to swap the Virginia Tech-Cincy and Florida St.-USF games as long as the ABC 3:30pm slot is a two game split.  If for some reason three games were split regionally, VT-Cincy stays at 6pm.

Baylor at West Virginia 12pm F/X
Minnesota at Iowa, 12pm ESPN/ESPN2 (time confirmed)
Indiana at Northwestern, 12pm ESPN/ESPN2
NC State at Miami (FL), 12pm ESPNU
TCU at SMU, 12pm FSN
Marshall at Purdue, 12pm BTN
South Carolina at Kentucky, 12pm SEC Net
Idaho at North Carolina, 12pm ACC RSN
Clemson at Boston College, 12:30pm ACC Net (semi confirmed)
Oregon vs. Washington St., 3pm Pac-12 Net
Tennessee at Georgia, 3:30pm CBS
Ohio St. at Michigan St., 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
Florida St. at USF, 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
Louisiana Tech at Virginia, 3:30pm ESPNU
Penn St. at Illinois, 3:30pm BTN
Duke at Wake Forest, 3:30pm ACC Net
Arizona St. at California, 4pm F/X
Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati, 6pm ESPN2
UCLA at Colorado, 6:30pm Pac-12 Net
Ole Miss at Alabama, 7pm ESPN
Towson at LSU, 7pm ESPNU
Missouri at UCF, 7pm FSN
Texas Tech at Iowa St., 7pm FOX College Sports
Nevada at Texas St., 7pm Longhorn Network
Texas at Oklahoma St., 7:30pm FOX (semi-confirmed)
Arkansas at Texas A&M, 9:15pm ESPN2
Oregon St. at Arizona, 10:30pm ESPN

ESPN3 exclusive
Middle Tennessee at Georgia Tech