CFB TV Guesses for 2017 Week Four (9/23/17)

Here are the games already set for television and/or webcast.  Here are the known available telecast windows.

* The 7:30pm ET ABC window indicates a Big Ten game will air at this time.  Also indicates that FOX and ABC can show Big Ten games concurrently.
* BTN does not have a night game window.  They are carrying women's volleyball instead.
* Listings indicate two ACC RSN windows at 12pm & 3:30pm ET.
* FS1 listings provided to Screener/Zap2It had UCF at Maryland (3pm) & TCU at Oklahoma St. (6:30pm) in the first two FS1 windows.  The Pac-12 game at 10pm did not have any game attached to it.
* Rutgers at Nebraska & Michigan at Purdue are homecoming games and are slotted to air at 3:30pm or 4pm ET.
* ESPNU does not have a late evening window.
* ESPNEWS has no game windows scheduled.
* I could be talked into taking Alabama at Vanderbilt on CBS instead of Mississippi St. at Georgia.
* I'm under the assumption that FOX is selecting first for the Big Ten & used it on the previously announced Notre Dame at Michigan St. game.  With FS1 listings indicating they have UCF at Maryland, that pushed both Michigan at Purdue and Penn St. at Iowa over to ESPN.
* If ESPN has the top pick of Big 12 games (I have the top Big 12 pick with FOX), slide Oklahoma at Baylor over to the slot occupied by USC at California and move that one over to FOX.  I believe ESPN had the top Pac-12 choice for this week.

All times Eastern.

12pm ABC: Boston College at Clemson
12pm ESPN: Florida at Kentucky
12pm ESPN2: NC State at Florida St.
12pm ESPNU: Georgia Southern at Indiana
12pm CBSSN: Texas Tech at Houston
12pm SECN: Louisiana Tech at South Carolina
12pm ACC RSNs: Kent St. at Louisville
12pm BTN: UNLV at Ohio St.
12:20pm ACC Network: Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech
3pm FS1: UCF at Maryland
3:30pm CBS: Mississippi St. at Georgia
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: Michigan at Purdue
3:30pm ABC/ESPN2: USC at California
3:30pm ESPN: Duke at North Carolina
3:30pm ESPNU: West Virginia at Kansas
3:30pm BTN: Rutgers at Nebraska
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Old Dominion at Virginia Tech
4pm FOX: Oklahoma at Baylor
4pm SECN: Texas A&M vs. Arkansas
4pm Pac-12: UCLA at Stanford
6:30pm FS1: TCU at Oklahoma St.
7pm ESPN: Alabama at Vanderbilt
7pm ESPN2: Auburn at Missouri
7pm ESPNU: Massachusetts at Tennessee
7:30pm ABC: Penn St. at Iowa
7:30pm SECN: Syracuse at LSU
8pm Pac-12: Nevada at Washington St.
10pm FS1: Washington at Colorado
10:15pm ESPN2: Hawai'i at Wyoming
10:30pm ESPN: Oregon at Arizona St.

ESPN3 or local TV
Toledo at Miami (FL)
Army at Tulane
New Mexico at Tulsa
Miami (OH) at Central Michigan
Ohio at Eastern Michigan
FAU at Buffalo
Wagner at Western Michigan
UTEP at New Mexico St. (AggieVision ??)
UTSA at Texas St. (local TV in San Antonio & Austin ??)
Wake Forest at Appalachian St.
Idaho at South Alabama
Western Illinois at Coastal Carolina
Akron at Troy

Notes on ACC, A-10. Big Ten & MAC MBK TV Schedule Releases

Some random stuff I picked out while combing through the TV schedules.

ACC
Atlantic 10
Big Ten
MAC

* Call this a bit of homerism, but I'm slightly surprised that FOX allowed CBS to take Syracuse at Georgetown, regardless of how big a rebuild the Hoyas are in for.  I don't know if CBS gets the ability to pick games off the top from FOX and FOX pushed them this one instead of, say, Duke at St. John's as Duke is much more of a national draw.

Per Jon Rothstein, the Big East schedule should be out next week, so we'll see at that time the other Big East games they've received to air on CBS & CBS Sports Network.

* NBCSN went in on four Atlantic 10 non-conference games after not selecting any last year.  With that said, I'm checking on the counts for ESPN and CBS Sports Network as they don't match the number of games announced.

You'll notice that Stadium was not announced as a TV partner, but that the conference talked about additional regional & local TV announcements forthcoming.  When this round of TV partners were set in 2012, it was noted that NBC Sports regional networks would have some level of commitment to carry games from member schools.  Nine schools reside in areas covered by NBC Sports RSNs.

* The Big Ten release did not have any information about TV for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge nor the Gavitt Games vs. the Big East, but the ACC's release did carry the info.  I assume that the Big East's TV release would have Gavitt Games information.  Maybe.  Possibly.

* Also missing from the Big Ten release: Wildcard windows for CBS and BTN.  I don't know if its because of the compressed schedule for 2018, but all games were slotted to a specific date and TV network, with a handful of games awaiting tip times either based on the NFL or other programming.

* Besides a decent number of Monday & Friday Big Ten games during conference play, five Thursday & four Sunday night windows were also secured by FS1.  Those games could being paired with Pac-12 games, particularly the Thursday night games.  One Sunday window will likely be paired against the Phoenix NHRA event (February 25th).

* The MAC release had seven CBS Sports Network and two ESPN telecast windows.   I assume that each network will have a handful of wildcard windows later in the season.

The conference semifinals are once again on CBS Sports Network and it will be interesting to see where the semifinals, along with C-USA's semifinals are slotted in on the network.  Last year, the Mountain West semifinals were moved back an hour, but the 2018 schedule has them returning to their traditional 9pm & 11:30pm ET starts, which could move the MAC or C-USA semis to start at 4:30pm ET & someone (maybe the MAC) to have semifinals start at noon ET on a Friday.  Yuck.

* The first Duke-North Carolina meeting has been scheduled as a Thursday night game for the second consecutive year.  The ACC will again fill ESPN's open NBA Wednesday night in February during the NBA All Star break with the same four schools from 2017 (Duke, Louisville, North Carolina & Syracuse) in diffrerent matchups: North Carolina-Syracuse & Duke-Louisville

* Potentially a side effect of the loss of several Big Ten games to FOX and changes to the SEC schedule appear to have left ESPN with an opening for women's basketball on Thursday nights.  Per ESPN MediaZone, each Thursday night in January there will be a women's basketball game on ESPN.  I can't say whether this will extend to February, but this is in addition to the Big Monday ESPN2 slot.

Brief Notes On 2017-18 Big 12 Men's Basketball Schedule Release

A few notes on the schedule that came out yesterday.

(Side note: there's a lot of games here through January that conferences & TV networks have not yet announced.  Worth a peek)

* The Big 12 appears to be a beneficiary of the move of 30+ Big Ten games over to FOX Sports in two places

• Only six conference games will appear on ESPNEWS, down from fifteen in 2016-17.  It bears watching when the American's schedule comes out if they have less games on ESPNEWS or not.  Right now, I see 4-5 more games on ESPNU compared to last year in the regular season for the Big 12.
• A few more Monday games compared to last year, with a couple ESPN2 Monday games in addition to the ESPN Big Monday game.  Do wonder if this is ESPN counterprogramming against what is rumored to be a package of Big Ten games on Mondays or if they are using a couple men's games to draw additional eyeballs to the women's basketball Big Monday games on ESPN2.  Also wonder if the ACC will join the Monday ESPN2 party.  They had one late season ESPN2 Monday game last season (Miami (FL) at Virginia Tech, 2/27).

* As you can see from the release, six intraconference games were't picked up for national TV & revert back to the home team school for their local/regional packages.  As you've probably picked up from prior years, this allows ESPN to push a few Texas home games vs. Big 12 schools over to Longhorn Network.  Those games are:

12/29: Baylor at Texas Tech 

1/6: Kansas St. at Texas Tech 

1/17: Texas Tech at Texas

2/7: Kansas St. at Texas

2/21: TCU at Iowa St.

2/24: Oklahoma St. at Texas

Iowa St.'s game will be on the Cyclones.TV channel, while I would expect FOX Sports Southwest to take the two Texas Tech games.

* Besides the 84 conference games that were selected for national TV,  18 additional non-conference games will air on ESPN network, five of those belonging to the challenge series with the SEC.  Here's a breakdown by network so far: 

CBS - 3

ESPN - 10

ESPN2 - 23

ESPN or ESPN2 - 18

ESPN2 or ESPNU - 1

ESPNU - 37

ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU - 5 (SEC challenge series)

ESPNEWS - 6

Viewing Changes & Additions for College Football In 2017

With the season starting today, let's take a look at a few of the changes & additions to how you'll consuming college football in 2017:

More networks for the Big Ten

As you've heard by now, FOX Sports is now a Big Ten television partner, taking a portion of the rights.  ESPN remains a Big Ten partner as well, but FOX has become the primary partner, so both FOX and FS1 will be carrying games from the conference.

Here's information on what each Big Ten TV partner will be carrying.

Stadium goes live

WatchStadium.com went live this past week.  They'll have a schedule of Conference USA, Patriot League and SoCon football games football games.  Right now, the best way to view the channel may be through online/digital means, such as their website or through PlutoTV, as they'll be releasing more info on where to watch on linear TV soon.

In addition to the 24/7 channel, several C-USA and Mountain West games will be shown exclusively on Facebook through a Stadium College Football page.  These 15 games remind me a bit of the Mountain West and C-USA games that would be produced by Campus Insiders to be exclusively shown through that portal.

Verizon's go90 continues to carry events from the conference portals that used to be at Campus Insiders and these events appear to be friendlier compared to prior years with respect to casting to devices, but we'll see if that continues (I think it may).

Speaking of PlutoTV

PlutoTV not only has the 24/7 Stadium feed, they'll carry events from the Big Sky conference.  WatchBigSky.com will continue to carry those events as well.

Eleven Sports

Eleven Sports, formerly in the US known as One World Sports, has jumped into college sports coverage with games from the Big Sky, Ivy League (who had games on the channel as One World Sports), Southland and UMass.

Eleven Sports has coverage on Verizon's go90.  From what I've seen, all of the conferences & schools listed above retained live streaming rights to their games, so check the conference or school streaming pages for info if you can't get Eleven Sports.

beIN Sports Connect

beIN Sports Connect as an app has worked well for their programming, but if you tried viewing from their website, they required Microsoft's Silverlight technology, which is a bit outdated and, frankly, blocked by a lot of modern browsers including Microsoft's own Edge browser.

Anyways, they've remedied that and you won't need any dodgy plugins to view their content through the website.

Hawai'i Football On the Mainland

After a season where Hawai'i home games were only viewable if ESPN or CBS Sports Network picked up the game, Hawai'i home games produced by Spectrum Sports in Hawai'i will be available online through the Mountain West app.

With that said, the Mountain West app hasn't received any new content since late June.  The move of content over to Stadium from Campus Insiders and from SportsLabs over to Sidearm Sports may mean a new app is in process.  Hopefully the situation sorts itself out by next Saturday.

Commentary & Analysis on Big Ten Content Numbers

Read this post first so you'll have some context about this information.

* If you caught me ranting a few days ago about how the numbers didn't add up based on a set of Reddit CFB notes about BTN's football game coverage, its less justified than it was on that evening.  In short, I was ranting that the number of 40 BTN football games and FOX Sports and ESPN Networks splitting 50 football games, 25 games a side, left five games unaccounted for with the conference at 95 games under their control in 2017.  With the  maximum number at 27 each for ESPN and FOX Sports, the BTN game number of 40 is still one game short, but I'm willing to let that go and bet they'll have a 41st game.  By using 27 as the base number with FOX Sports telecast windows instead of 25, it also makes the math work over there (its a long story, I thought FOX Sports had two too many game windows if you read the post & comments).

* Does the requirement for two football appearances from each school, with at least one intraconference game, still stand for BTN?  I believe it does, or lets say I've seen or read nothing to dissuade me of that opinion.  Frankly, I think FOX would want it around, even if it slightly neuters their own package of games since they have majority ownership in BTN.

* By doubling their coverage of the men's basketball tournament, BTN has essentially picked up the games that ESPN previously carried within the men's conference tournament.  This is the same coverage that the SEC Network provides for their conference tournament until the semfinals and final are covered on ESPN.  Looking over the three days that ESPN previously carried games (one on Wednesday mid-afternoon, two on Thursday evening and two on Friday afternoon), my expectation is the following:

• No replacement of the Wednesday game.  There's nothing to move up of equal value.
• On Thursday, the Big 12 evening quarterfinals could move from ESPNU to ESPN2, and the American Athletic First Round could air in full on ESPNU instead of game 1 on ESPNU and the last two on ESPNEWS.
• On Friday, the American Athletic afternoon quarterfinals could move from ESPN2 to ESPN.  If there was a desire to air another conference tournament during the afternoon on ESPN2, the Sun Belt could be moved from an ESPN3 exclusive.  The SEC Network has the SEC's tournament and I struggle with moving their tournament off that network, but it is possible that they could leapfrog the American onto ESPN as a simulcast of sorts.
• I had a hard time believing FS1 would get any portion of the conference tournament after looking over the game times that ESPN had.  FS1 usually will have commitments to NASCAR on Fridays for practice (either Las Vegas or Phoenix based on the schedule) plus the Big East tournament most years.

* It appears that the plan is for the two primary football TV partners to have around 15-18 primetime football games a year.  BTN will continue to have night games too.  I swear I read that the plan was for 30 primetime football games per year among all three entities, with nearly all coming before November, or at least through the first weekend of November.

* Why is FOX's number of football games more elastic where ESPN's is more concrete? I don't know the exact reason, but there's always variability in the number of home non-conference games you may end up scheduling.  If we assume 6.5 home games per school, at 14 schools (at least half the conference has seven home games), you would have 91 regular season games.  With 27 games for ESPN, the low end of 24 for FOX Sports and a base number of 40 for BTN, you end with 91 games.  

FOX could also be  attempting to cover themselves with respect to other programming commitments like MLB, NASCAR, UFC (if renewed).  There's also the matter of whether Friday football games will continue to be in future season schedules.  FS1 is scheduled to air four of the five Friday games in 2017.  The Friday that ESPN is airing a game happens to be one that FS1 also has one.

* I don't have any minimums or maximums around the number of games that will air on any of these networks, with the exception of the ten regular season basketball games on CBS.

* The game counts for both ESPN and FOX Sports in the area of men's basketball are interesting.  The number of conference controlled games that previously aired on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS in the regular season each of the past three seasons was either 70 or 71 games, including the five conference tournament games that will air on BTN in the future.  If you're comparing the number of regular season games that ESPN Networks and FOX Sports will have rights to, the number increases from 65 games last athletic year to anywhere from 77 to 85 games.  It should be noted that 25-26 additional conference controlled games aired on ESPN3 last year, usually non-conference games.  It could be inferred that some of the ESPN3 games are being absorbed by the new TV deals of ESPN and FOX Sports, but some of those could end up with BTN or to beef up the BTN+ subscription package, which I guess is still a thing.

* ESPNU appears to be limited to non-conference football and a handful of men's basketball games.  I don't have any sense around whether FS2 or FSN is involved on the FOX Sports side.  My magic 8 ball says "no" for football & "unlikely" for men's basketball, especially when you consider that FOX doesn't have a RSN that they own or are affiliated with in Illinois, part of Iowa and a large portion of Pennsylvania.  FS2 has distribution issues but will have at least two Big 12 non-conference football games and could have one Big 12 intraconference game depending on the number of games played in the AL Championship Series.  I would expect FS2 to continue airing a select number of Big East men's basketball games too.

* If CBS is limited to Sundays for their regular season basketball windows, expect FOX to roll with Big East-Big Ten doubleheaders on Saturdays on the broadcast network.  Going back to the 2014-15 athletic year, only three of the 25 regular season games on CBS were scheduled for Saturdays and none last season:

• 1/17/15: Michigan St. at Maryland
• CBS had the AFC championship on Sunday
• 12/5/15: Temple at Wisconsin
• Lead-in to SEC football championship pregame show
• 2/6/16: Michigan St. at Michigan
• CBS had Super Bowl 50 on Sunday

* I couldn't get a lot of information about Olympic Sports and women's basketball, other than ESPN's coverage.  I would expect BTN to remain involved in that area.  As for events on FOX or FS1, I'm less certain on that.  They may be willing to let coverage stay with BTN.

A Few Content Parameters for the Big Ten Rights Agreements

A source was able to provide me with more concrete numbers & facts about the Big Ten rights agreements, so lets get some of that information out to you, in alphabetical order of the rightsholder:

I have some thoughts about these items here.

BTN

• As previously announced, the agreement with the conference and FOX Entertainment Group has been extended by five years to 2032.
• The men's basketball tournament will now have ten games air on the network, up from five.  

CBS

• Rights maintained to the semifinals and championship of the men's basketball tournament.
• At least ten regular season games per season.
• Sundays will be the primary day for Big Ten basketball to air on CBS.
• All of these parameters are about the same as the previous agreement.

ESPN Networks

• 27 football games
• All intraconference games on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
• At least six primetime games per season on ABC or ESPN
• 38 men's basketball games
• Most intraconference games on ESPN or ESPN2
• Broad coverage of women's basketball and Olympic sports

FOX Sports

• 24 to 27 football games per year
• Nine games total in primetime on FOX and FS1
• Top pick in the draft of weeks to select first in football
• Football championship game every year
• 39-47 men's basketball games
• Potentially ten of those games on FOX broadcast network

It was stressed to me that CBS, ESPN Networks and FOX Sports will share priority with respect to game selection within men's basketball.  FOX Sports has priority with the respect to choosing first when choosing the weeks they want top choice in football, but ESPN will be choosing first some weeks.  You could also word that as FOX has top overall choice of football games.

You'll also see some co-branding when it comes to on screen logos.  ESPN started running them in the past year or two with the "Big Ten on ESPN", similar to "SEC/ACC/American on ESPN".  Expect FOX (and CBS?) to do the same.

A (TV) Window Into The Future For 2017 CFB & MBK

* ESPN's telecast schedules were published for October and November for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS and SEC Network.  ESPNU will likely following in the next month or two.  As with anything related to TV, these are subject to change.

A few things I noticed:

• ESPNEWS has a college football window on Thursday, November 16th at 7pm.  My best guess for the game to be potentially shown is Tennessee St. at Jacksonville St.  ESPNEWS has carried Liberty vs. Coastal Carolina on the Thursday before Thanksgiving the past two seasons.
  
• The addition of the PK80 Invitational has had a couple side effects:
  
• ABC (12pm & 3:30pm), ESPN (8pm) and ESPN2 (11am) are the only college football game windows over those three channels on Black Friday.  Based on the available games, I believe they'll be splitting the American & ACC games over those four windows.  Navy at Houston might end up being on ABC at 12pm to keep them away from a 10am local / 11am ET start.
  
  Expect one MAC window on ESPNU on Black Friday since their television schedule note they would have a game on the network that day, probably in the morning.


• ESPNEWS will get used on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Sunday 11/27 to show college basketball that is being pushed off ESPN2 and ESPNU (presumably since we don't know ESPNU's intended schedule) from events such as the Advocare Invitational, Wooden Legacy and NIT Tip Off.  I do not know if ESPN3 will get used for any of the events moving for the PK80.  My assumption is that the PK80 was given priority over other ESPN owned events as I see nearly all their games on ESPN or ESPN2 so far.


• Six games from the Battle 4 Atlantis will again be on ESPN and ESPN2.  The championship is listed as airing on ESPN before the 3rd place game on ESPN2 on Black Friday.  The other six games have been carried by AXS.TV the past couple years and I do not know of any changes to that arrangement.


• More of an administrative thing than anything else, but I've stripped the scheduled matchups off the PK80 telecast windows.  Not because the matchups are in doubt, but because it is not known which matchups will be scheduled for a particular time.

• SEC Network, provided these times hold up, could be playing around with some alternative telecast start times in November.  November 11th and 25th have the 2nd telecast window at 3:30pm ET instead of 4pm, while November 18th has all three windows adjusted with start times of 1pm, 4:30pm and 8pm ET.
  
  The 18th does have five of its nine games being played at sites in the Central Time Zone with one of the five being a game vs. a FCS opponent (Mercer at Alabama), which would seem to be destined for the network along with Wofford at South Carolina.  The 18th will also have two CBS telecast windows (12pm & 3:30pm), which should pick off two of the five intraconference games available.
  
  October 7th only has one game listed for 4pm too, but I bet there's more to be shown on that day besides one game.


• In the overnight hours on Monday 11/13 to Tuesday 11/14, I did not see any scheduled college basketball telecast windows on ESPN or ESPN2, which would normally be the time of the year for ESPN to present their 24 hour tipoff marathon.  While this is subject to change and we should know more in the next few weeks, its possible that the entire event has moved over to ESPNU or that they've elected to not do it.
  
  So far, the only games scheduled for 11/14 are on ESPN.  Those would be the Champions Classic doubleheader.
  
• ESPN2 has a pair of generic listings for "SEC College Basketball" at 9pm ET and "Pac-12 College Basketball" on 11/20 at 11:30pm ET.  Two SEC games are currently available on 11/13, but I expect the 11/20 game to be North Carolina at Stanford.

* Patrick Marshall of White And Blue Review passed along a release from FloHoops that the subscription website would now be the exclusive rightsholder for the Paradise Jam, which previously had about half of the event on CBS Sports Network and the rest on streaming services.  FloHoops happened to be the subscription streaming service for the games that went without TV last year.  For FloHoops, the deal is for all events organized by Basketball Travelers, Inc.

FloHoops costs about $30 a month or about half of that per month if you buy a yearly subscription.  Both Patrick and I are curious to see whether the lack of a linear TV partner will affect the quality of the field in future events. 

For CBSSN, maybe that opens up the possibility of carrying the Cayman Islands Classic, which runs from Monday 11/20 to Wednesday 11/22.