Admin: Site Changes

A few changes have been implemented on the site.  Without getting too technical, here's the changes

1) Most of the site has been changed to use a single shared set of code.  You'll notice that each week's link is formed slightly differently.  Same with the text schedule links. I may look to refactor even further in the future.  Right now, the entire football side is switched over and last year's basketball schedule.  I'm still on converting over the rest of the basketball side.

You should see faster page response time as the core code, compared to the previous code base, is 50% smaller.  For me, it is easier to maintain.

2) On the main weekly page for football, the page will now load with all games showing.  The option is now for you to hide the web games if you don't want to see them.  I may do the same for the text-based page as well, or just elect to show all games there since you have the ability to customize the list as you see fit..

On the basketball side, the ESPN3 games are listed just like any other game already.  No change there.

What didn't change?
-The conference specific pages.
-Basketball pages from 2005-06 to 2011-12, though they will be as soon as I can get around to it.

If you do see a page that is not functioning correctly, please email me using the site's main email address.  Thanks.

A look at the FOX CFB schedule announcement

* Why are there less games on FOX's broadcast network?  Allegedly some of FOX's east coast affiliates wanted the ability to have a local newscast in the early evening.  Looks like they won with ten of the games at 7pm ET.

The three mid-October games not at 7pm ET are due to FOX's MLB playoff commitments.

* And why didn't FOX take a game for Labor Day weekend?  They aren't televising MLB on August 31st either.  Could be a lack of games they felt were worthy to carry.  They clearly wanted to carry college football that day on FOX Sports 1 and still ended up with a pair of FCS vs. FBS games.  Maybe they felt the Georgia-Clemson game on ABC that night was going to draw a lot of attention so they backed away.  I really don't know.

* FOX's broadcast window on 10/19, assuming it remains at 12pm, virtually locks in the Big 12 into that time slot.

* Assuming the remaining four late night windows on FOX Sports 1 belong to the Pac-12, FOX will have accounted for fifteen of their 22 Pac-12 selections:

8/29 8pm: Utah St. at Utah (FS1)
8/31 4pm: Nicholls at Oregon (FS1)
8/31 10pm: Boise St. at Washington (FS1)
9/7 10:30pm: Washington St. at USC (FS1)
9/14 7pm: Ohio St. at California (FOX)
9/14 10pm: Oregon St. at Utah (FS1)
10/5 10pm: UCLA at Utah (FS1)
10/7 10pm: TBA (FS1)
10/12 10:30pm: Arizona at USC (FS1)
10/21 10pm: TBA (FS1)
10/28 11pm: TBA (FS1)
11/16 10pm: TBA (FS1)
11/29 3:30pm: Washington St. at Washington (FOX)
11/29 7pm: Oregon St. at Oregon (FS1)
11/30 TBA: Notre Dame at Stanford (FOX or FS1)

FOX broadcast network is supposed to carry at least eight Pac-12 games per season, which would lead you to believe that FOX Sports 1 can carry no more than fourteen Pac-12 games per year.  Again, assuming the late evening windows belong to the Pac-12, twelve of those fourteen windows have been accounted for.

* The Big 12 also has a minimum of six FOX broadcast windows per season with the WVU-Oklahoma game accounting for one of those windows.  As pointed out earlier, the noon window on 10/19 should account for a 2nd selection.  The Big 12 is also the only conference that FOX is currently contracted to that can fill the 3:30pm slot on December 7th, so the count is presumably up to three.

There is also a minimum of six games on a national FOX cable outlet.  Previously that was F/X, now its FOX Sports 1.  The cable minimum has been reached through early season selections and Thursday night games.

* I noticed that the FOX cable windows on September 28th did not line up with the selection of Army vs. Louisiana Tech, which also had a kickoff time of 3:30pm ET assigned to it.  I'm not sure that its something to get worked up over yet.  There is a FOX Sports 1 window that day of 4pm and I haven't found a network yet that stuck exactly to their scripted time slots, so the FSN window that day at 12pm could move too.  Entirely possible that FOX, Conference USA and the Heart of Dallas Classic organizers are looking to change the kickoff time too.  Keep an eye on it.

The same holds true for the October 12th windows.  FSN only lists a 12pm window and FOX selected Tulsa at UTEP, which would have a 10am local time kickoff if it aired on FSN.  FOX could always elect to move their FSN window later to accommodate the local of the game.

* FSN lives on as a regular outlet for college football with 18 games scheduled on the FOX owned and affiliated RSNs.  Of the four Big 12 institutionally controlled games on FSN, I'm not how many of them will be delivered to all FOX RSNs.  For example, the Wofford-Baylor game could get cleared on a lot of alternate channels, if it does at all in many regions, because many RSNs will have local MLB commitments that evening.

With the remaining ten FSN windows being set six to twelve days in advance, C-USA could have as anywhere from the currently listed two games to up to ten games on the regional nets and the Big 12 at least ten games (up to sixteen possible games), with six games currently set.

* FOX College Sports also lives on, carrying nine C-USA games plus one game involving future C-USA football members Charlotte and Old Dominion.  Neither future member is playing a C-USA schedule this year, though Old Dominion will face exiting C-USA member East Carolina in one of the FOX CS telecasts.

* FOX did guarantee that at least ten of the C-USA games they selected would air on FOX Sports 1 and they've hit that benchmark with seven Thursday night games, two Saturday games and the Black Friday game between FIU and FAU.

Remaining early portion of CFB TV selections

Recapping the additions to the early season college football TV selections...

* The Big Ten selections should come out any day now.  Anything that wasn't selected by ESPN should be picked up by BTN.   When the Big Ten tweeted out that its early season kickoff times and TV would be set last Friday, I assumed it was the entire schedule.   It does make some sense as to why the schools and BTN didn't set things right away.  With BTN having the flexibility of coexisting with virtually any game that airs on ABC or ESPN, the Big Ten schools can now control the kickoff time for those games and make the best decision for them to maximize viewers and ticket sales.

* The SEC is a little harder to predict when its selections, or a portion of them, will show up.  Previous to the 2011 season when the conference was at 12 teams, the CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 selections showed up by mid-June at the latest, with ESPNU and regionally televised games appearing at SEC media day in July.  Last year, presumably with both TV partners and the conference in discussions about various items (a future SEC Network, compensation for acquired rights for adding Texas A&M and Missouri, etc.), nothing appeared until media day in July.

This year, with the SEC Network announcement in the recent past and acknowledgement that CBS and the conference have adjusted their rights agreement, we have the CBS selection for 9/14 of Alabama-Texas A&M, but nothing else.  ESPN's portion of figuring out the early season is more tricky because they need to figure out which games will be given back to schools to air as PPV or local telecasts, plus work with regional partners like FOX Sports South and Comcast's CSS to determine their availability to show SEC football.  

I'd like to believe that the ESPN/ESPN2 portion of the schedule is relatively easy to decide at this point.  Based on the available slots, I suppose would look at the SEC selections like this (and I don't think I'm exactly going out on a limb here):

8/31

12pm ESPN: Rice at Texas A&M (you could make a good argument for Washington St.-Auburn, but I think you want to showcase the reigning Heisman Trophy winner)

9/7

Mid afternoon ESPN: South Carolina at Georgia

9/14

12pm ESPN or ESPN2: Vanderbilt at South Carolina

Evening ESPN or ESPN2: Louisville at Kentucky

Evening ESPN or ESPN2: Mississippi St. at Auburn 

One of the evening slots would be tied to the network airing the Wisconsin at Arizona St. game, so it would probably air at 7pm ET.

* Next up, somewhere, is the American Athletic Conference.  Based on the available games, the Purdue at Cincinnati game seems to be the most desirable one to air nationally and it probably ends up in the 12pm slot on ESPNU.  Maryland at Connecticut and Houston at Temple have a good chance of showing up on TV too, possibly on ESPNU or in the Big East Network syndication slot.   I'm under the impression that the Big East Network will remain intact for 2013.

What about sublicensing of American games?  FOX Sports 1 doesn't seem to have the room for them, unless they try to squeeze in a game at 3:15pm ET on 9/14 for Maryland at Connecticut and FOX does have a C-USA game on that date that they have not yet assigned to a network (Ball St. at North Texas).  I don't think this is where FOX Sports 2 could come into play because American commissioner Mike Aresco brought out a number of 74 million households in a recent interview of where games could be sublicensed to other networks.  It leaves NBC Sports Network as an alternative, but they seem to be pushing forward with their Barclays Premier League coverage plus existing commitments to open wheel racing.  CBS Sports Network would not seem to be an option.  Sublicensing to Turner Sports for one of their networks could work, as could holding onto the games and placing them on ESPNEWS, who is considered an available network starting with the new contract in 2014.  

Through negotiation, anything is possible.

* After those three conferences, here's are other items to keep an eye out on, likely in July and early August at conference media days:

• Sun Belt Network
• Mountain West regional airings on ROOT Sports and possibly other RSNs
• Mountain West Digital Network
• Finalized kick times for regional C-USA games, which can be dependent on regional SEC games
• Selections for MAC regional packages 
• ESPN3 and institutional webcast packages for various FBS and FCS conferences
• Television packages for the CAA, Ivy League, MEAC, SWAC, NEC and Southland conferences

A look at spring TV selections after ACC, Big 12 & Pac-12

ACC
Big 12
Pac-12

* The only visible changes to the ACC with the addition of Pittsburgh & Syracuse are 1) YES, MSG and ROOT Sports Pittsburgh will have the ACC RSN package and 2) the package will start the season with telecasts at 12:30pm.

No reason was given for the shift in time from mid-afternoon kick times to the 12:30pm starts.  In September, FOX's MLB windows start at 12:30pm ET, so RSNs carrying local MLB telecasts will not be able to televise any games during the early afternoon, leaving the RSNs free from that obligation.  With FOX Sports 1 taking on football games airing previously on FSN and FX, many of those RSNs could have open programming holes that the ACC package could fill.

* The Big 12 and Pac-12, along with Conference USA fill out a fair portion of the FOX Sports 1 early season.  FS1 for the first three weeks will carry staggered tripleheaders on Saturdays plus Thursday night games, though the two C-USA games set for 9/5 and 9/12 are not yet confirmed to air on FS1.

* FSN lives on as a carrier of national college football games with the Big 12 placing at least two games on the network for all affiliate RSNs, plus at least three other games from the Big 12 which could be carried to multiple RSNs.  And as the C-USA release stated a while back, at least ten games will air on FS1, so the possibility exists that there will be at least a portion of the C-USA telecast schedule on the network

* I've received a few questions about FOX Sports 2 and why it didn't get any games.  If you ask a person from FOX right now about it, they'll tell you that there is no FOX Sports 2.  And while the LA Times' Joe Flint did report that it should appear right alongside FOX Sports 1 on August 17th, he also said it would soft launch.  It will appear without the fanfare of FOX Sports 1.  And no one really knows what its focus is, so to assume it will be carrying college football games or be used as an overflow channel isn't an incorrect assumption, but we really don't know what the plan is, if there is one.

* I was looking over the selection of Tennessee at Oregon for either ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, plus Nevada at Florida St. on either ESPN or ESPN2, plus a NASCAR Nationwide Series race from Chicagoland Speedway on 9/14.  The ESPN website currently lists the Nationwide race on ESPN2 at 3:30pm, so the schedule should look something like this:

ABC - Tennessee at Oregon (full national)
ESPN - Nevada at Florida St.
ESPN2 - Nationwide Race

* As we've also learned with the 9/14 Big 12 selections, there's a good chance we'll see an ABC window at 12pm ET on 9/14 with the selection of the Tulsa-Oklahoma game for that time.  As others have pointed out to me, UCLA-Nebraska seems to be a solid choice for an ABC game and now that there's a good chance of that window being available, it seems likely that UCLA-Nebraska, Tulsa-Oklahoma and either another SEC or Big Ten game would occupy a slot.  They could look to reverse mirror the games at 12pm over two networks.  In my option, just show them on a single channel and be done with it.

* There was some solid PR work done on the statement Ole Miss released about their road game against Texas on Longhorn Network.  ESPN gave them a heads up and said they'll work with the school to help out with distribution, something they didn't do with the New Mexico & Wyoming games (the inaugural Rice game too, though that was an in-state opponent and very few had access to the network).  An article by SBNation national writer Steven Godfrey cites a key clause as the reason to never to do a road game with Texas if you can avoid it:

Per its language, crafted in 2007, the agreement allows host-team Texas to move the broadcast of the game "via any other means of transmission not listed herein which may exist or be developed."

Contracts are a two way street, and yes Ole Miss did get the first home game in this series.  A few thoughts on this clause.

1. If this series was agreed upon with the knowledge that the games would absolutely be on ABC, CBS or ESPN and then the SEC rights changed over to air games on NBC or Spike TV, the clause is in place because the future TV rightsholder of the conference is not known.
2. There's an SEC Network coming up.  And I know that its widely assumed that every cable & satellite company will bow down and pick up the network, no questions asked.  But there's also a chance that someone out there who has a large swath of cable customers will say no, at least for a period of time. Does that mean you shouldn't schedule a game with a SEC school because it means your game could air on the SEC Network?
3. We've already had one series cancelled between Texas and Minnesota where video rights were a major issue, though it may have been on the Minnesota side of the house re: BTN.

I realize that No. 2 is really a forward looking statement, and the reality of the Longhorn Network is that it isn't yet in the number of homes ESPN and Texas would like it to be.  If teams want to play Texas, but don't want the game on LHN, they're going to have to force the issue contractually or move on.

Economics of Sports A-La-Carte: Would You Pay and Does It Tilt The Playing Field?

Consider this post a discussion point.  Something to make you think.

John McCain introduced a bill on Thursday in the Senate and part of the goal of the bill is to allow consumer choice when selecting the programming they desire to pay.  Many other countries, like Canada and the UK, have various versions of a-la-carte offerings with the pay TV providers that serve households.

ESPN is an obvious target of the bill.  Per a Variety article on the bill citing SNL Kagan research, ESPN costs a cable provider $4.69 per subscriber, per month (here's a chart with several sports channels as of 2011).  As you can see from the chart, that's just the main ESPN as ESPN2, ESPNU and other networks have a much lower price.  In the case of ESPN2, it costs a cable provider just 13% of what ESPN costs.

If a-la-carte ever becomes a possibility for consumers, the question then becomes "What am I getting for my money?" on a channel-by-channel basis.  And let's not assume that we'll continue to pay $4.69 for ESPN.  Assume you'll pay more.  Even if 20% of cable subs opt-out of ESPN,the person that wants ESPN is likely paying at least 20% more to cover the loss of customers who don't want ESPN, assuming that Disney wants to maintain a consistent budget level and profit margin.  Let's be honest too.  If you elect not to pay for ESPN, you probably aren't paying for ESPN2, ESPNU, etc. either.  Maybe you are.  Maybe some of the niche items on those channels interest you like some of the action sports coverage, the NHRA or something else.

For all of us, we'd have to make decisions.  College sports is fairly unique because a large majority of the major conferences have their games delivered to us via national means.  Most of us aren't fans of just college sports though.

We luck out with the NFL, because its available on the broadcast networks.  There are out-of-market packages.  If you're in-market for the team playing on Monday or Thursday night, you're in luck because the game is on a local channel because the NFL mandates a local channel carrying those games as long as they aren't under a blackout.  So if you're out of market, you ask yourself  "Can I do without those games".   

MLB you can luck out with because of the alternate distribution means of RSNs for many ESPN games.  The out-of-market fan suffers very little and has multiple choices with MLB.TV and Extra Innings, with the exception of Sunday nights on ESPN...and most of the playoffs.

The main ESPN channel gets the prime content.  We can still point to UNC-Duke airing on ESPN2 over 15 years ago as a driving force behind more homes picking up ESPN2, but with the exception of the NHL's tenure on ESPN and concurrent events which necessitates moving an event to ESPN2, pro sports tends to stick on the main channel.   Even the college events that end up on ESPN2 are seen as lesser events when airing there, compared to whatever is on ESPN.  I really can't think of many concurrent college games lately, now that both ESPN and ESPN2 are in roughly the same number of homes, when looking over the games "on paper" (since we know once a game is played it can be a dog or not) and say "Wow, ESPN2 got the better game than ESPN."

The flipside of ESPN getting those prime events: the need for other channels.  Not a fan of any of NBCSN's or CBSSN's properties?  You probably aren't paying for them, and they probably are less willing spending the money to become more widely viewed and gain more television rights.  Even if NBCSN is willing to pay a premium compared to ESPN for a property, someone like MLB or the Big Ten might be less inclined to move because they know that a fan will have to move their TV subscription with them.  Diehards will move, diehards will pay.  Will the alum who isn't versed in the nuances of TV rights but discovers on Saturday morning that they now need to pay for a sports channel for one big property, and at a higher rate than they would today in a bundle, be willing to do so?  

Another way to look at it:  if I'm paying $8-$10 for 1-2 sports channels, and to get one more channel it will push my price to $13-$15 AND I don't intend to drop either of the original two channels because there is still plenty of other content that I find worthy, is it truly worth it?  And how would that compare to today's system if I'm paying $11-$12 for all of the content even if I'm only watching 3-4 of the 10-12 sports channels offered to me?

I can't say that bundling or a-la-carte is the right way to go.  I can find positives and negatives to each based on my personal situation, and so can you.  I can see where the variety of a channel will appeal to more consumers compared to a niche channel.  The goal is to be an educated consumer regardless of the system in use.

Recent TV scheduling updates (B1G/SEC/C-USA)

Some of this may be redundant to things posted on my Twitter timeline.  Consider this a recap of sorts.

SEC Network
Going back to this list of questions in a previous blog post, we have a few answers.

• AT&T U-Verse was announced as the first provider to carry the network
• There will be a specific online component, where content not shown live on the network will air through a dedicated SEC Network online package
• Per the Wall Street Journal, ESPN owns the network 100%.

  The SEC network will be wholly owned by ESPN, source tells @wsj (paywall). w/@mynameisshalini: online.wsj.com/article/SB1000…
  — Rachel Bachman (@Bachscore) May 2, 2013

• Per Sports Business Journal, profits will be split 50-50 between ESPN and the SEC
• A content board will exist of pIeople from both the SEC office and ESPN.  They will determine which games will air on a particular network.  We can probably infer that a game was selected by the SEC Network ahead of ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU, but we probably will never know those games.
• It appears that the national cable properties (ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU) will continue to see the same number of football and men's basketball games
• Alterations were made to the CBS contract.  Their game window is no longer exclusive.  The SEC Network can air a game at the same time as as a game on CBS.  Does not appear that right was afforded to ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU.  In addition, the ESPN contract with the conference now extends out to the 2033-34 athletic year.
• At least the CSS regional cable package is moving to the SEC Network in 2014.  The FOX Sports RSN package will move over in 2015 

  @mattsarz ESPN did not buy back the FSN games. It has to wait for that contract to end.
  — John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) May 6, 2013

What isn't known yet

• If every SEC school has to appear on the network a specific number of times
• If the 12:21pm syndication package is truly going away.  Have heard from multiple people that the SEC schools haven't been explicitly told that, but to maintain a consistent level of coverage on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU and provide the SEC Network with up to 45 games, you would think they would be going away in 2014.

Big Ten

The conference, ABC/ESPN and BTN selected their night games for 2013.  My list differs slightly from the ESPN & Big Ten releases as they list the Notre Dame at Michigan game as possibly airing on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2.  Their NASCAR schedule conflicts with that, but maybe something is brewing on the NASCAR side of the house.  Hasn't been the first time a race on ESPN Networks has switched to a different channel, but that is usually a Nationwide Series race.

The use of a 6pm window on 9/7 and 9/14, along with the 9pm window on 9/14 is something new.  Don't know if that means that the conference will stack the window before the 6pm games, whether its at 12pm or at a later time, with multiple games if ESPN chooses not to take many games for those two weeks.

As for "regional coverage" for the Indiana games on 9/7 and 9/14, that may be more relevant to non-satellite subscribers.  I've asked around about those and haven't received an answer from the conference or network.  Could be that BTN2Go is required for those outside of Indiana for systems that only have one alternate BTN game-only channel.

Up next, and probably within the next week or so, should be the Big Ten setting the game times for its homecoming games.  ABC or ESPN may elect to choose one of these games for either 12pm or 3:30pm if it desires, but most of these will not have TV set for them.  With the night game selections, only the homecoming games for Northwestern and Michigan were selected.

Conference USA

A preliminary TV schedule was released for the 2013.  At first was a little surprising to see FOX Sports take nearly all of the Thursday and Black Friday games (CBS Sports Network ended up with one game on Black Friday as part of a C-USA & MWC doubleheader).  But when you look into the C-USA press release and see that, at a minimum, at least 10 of the 20 games currently selected have to air on FOX Sports 1, it makes a little more sense.  

C-USA had nine games scheduled for Thursdays or Black Friday specifically for their TV partners (the Jackson St.-Tulane game was moved by Tulane, not TV).  CBSSN took their Black Friday game, and it leaves FOX Sports with eight games.  There were only one or two Thursdays where a C-USA game also had a competing Big 12 or Pac-12 game.  Assuming they were serious about a weekly Thursday night game, those games should be plugged into the FOX Sports 1 count immediately.  That leaves FOX to pick up a 2-4 C-USA Saturday games for FOX Sports 1 to hit their minimum.

Also, the number of games on FOX Sports and CBSSN didn't increase in proportion to the increase in members from 12 to 14 members.  CBSSN actually decreased their number of national games to 13 while FOX stayed at 20, though FOX could increase their number though games exclusively on FOX College Sports if they desire to add some.  Otherwise, regional partners outside of CSS can start working with individual schools to pick up games.  Maybe FSN would look to back fill games lost to FOX Sports One with some regional games.

CBS Sports Network

Looking over the CBSSN schedule of C-USA, Division II, Mountain West and service academy games and they will have a minimum of 49 games on their network for 2013, at least seven more games than last year.  Some of that can be attributed to the extra week of the season, but the network still have to account for a 2x increase in the number of MW games.  How did they do it?

• There a few more late evening (ie. 10-10:30pm ET) kickoffs specifically to account for the MWC
• A doubleheader of C-USA and the MWC on Black Friday
• Using a pair on Friday night windows outside of Black Friday, specifically one for an Army game
• Filling time on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend with Colorado-Colorado St.

The 9/21 3:30pm window is open, presumably for a Patriot League game.  They have to carry at least one PL game each year.  They could also sublicense an Ivy League game from NBC Sports Network, which they did last year.  

Even if the Air Force-Navy game ends up on CBS instead of CBSSN, the addition of their PL game should put them at 50 games for the year.  Who knows.  Maybe they'll add a couple more CBSSN and MW games too.

Questions I have for SEC Network

"Project X" gets a real name today.  Here's what I'm curious to find out.

• Will there be any announced carriers today?
• Is there an online component to this channel?  I assume so since there is one to Longhorn Network & other ESPN properties.
• Will the channel be a multi-screen operation with alternate feeds when multiple games are ongoing in football or basketball?  Will it be regional like the Pac-12?
• What are the terms of ownership, specifically the conference's stake in the network?
• How many times will the SEC Network jump ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU?
• Will there be less games on the national cable properties?
• Besides the institutional game that is being committed to the network, are there any requirements around the number of times each school must appear on the network?  
• If there is a requirement, will it apply specifically to conference games?  In other words, will a school have to appear on the SEC Network in football for at least one conference game like BTN?
• Have there been any alterations to CBS's contract which allows for games to be spread out throughout the day?  In other words, will CBS's content in football remain non-exclusive with the exception of one window a year, the 12pm window.
• Will all the syndication packages go away?  I've heard two different responses to that question and it may not yet be resolved.

Let's see if any of these questions get answered.