CFB TV Guesses for 2017 Week Five (9/30/17)

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

* BTN listings did not have a schedule of telecast windows available, so I am assuming two telecast windows at 12pm & 3:30pm ET.
* I'm looking at FOX to take a Big Ten game in primetime, thinking that they'll have the top pick of Big Ten games, but not another selection since they have Nebraska at Illinois on Friday night.  Also think they'll have the top pick of Big 12 games where ESPN should have the top Pac-12 pick.
* Also, I believe FOX will take both available Big 12 games with ESPN carrying Texas at Iowa St. on Thursday night.
* I could see FOX waiting for the result of Penn St at Iowa before deciding their choice. For now, I went with higher ranked Penn St.  Because of that, you might see both that game and Iowa at Michigan St. held as night game with one on FOX and the other on ESPN2, or maybe even ESPN if they flip the 6pm & 9pm window combo over to ESPN.
* Ohio St. at Rutgers would clear the Buckeyes of all required BTN appearances if chosen (two games on BTN with one of those appearances being an intraconference game).
* Initial listings indicate two ACC RSN games at 12pm & 3:30pm ET.
* I had to play with the available games for the ACC Network and ACC RSN windows as I wanted to give the ACCN slot a intraconference game, plus I had to consider who might not be available due to MLB for each of the ACC RSN windows.  NESN, for example, may have a 4pm Red Sox game and has a UMass game at 3:30pm on NESN+.  Meanwhile, the Pirates have a 7pm game on AT&T SportsNet and the RSNs typically do not like to give up their pregame shows.  With BC already playing a conference game on ACC Network Extra, Rice-Pittsburgh was the odd game out.
* If ESPN isn't interested in televising San Jose St. at UNLV, they could place it on ESPN3 and ditch the late ESPNU window.

All times Eastern.

12pm ABC: Florida St. at Wake Forest
12pm ESPN: Vanderbilt at Florida
12pm ESPN2: North Carolina at Georgia Tech
12pm FS1: Baylor at Kansas St.
12pm ESPNU: Navy at Tulsa
12pm ESPNEWS: Connecticut at SMU
12pm CBSSN: USF at East Carolina
12pm SECN: Eastern Michigan at Kentucky
12pm BTN: Ohio St. at Rutgers
12pm ACC RSNs: Central Michigan at Boston College
12:20pm ACC Network: Syracuse at NC State
3:30pm CBS: Georgia at Tennessee
3:30pm ABC: Northwestern at Wisconsin
3:30pm ESPN2: Houston at Temple
3:30pm ESPNU: Memphis at UCF
3:30pm BTN: Maryland at Minnesota
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Murray St. at Louisville
4pm FOX: Oklahoma St. at Texas Tech
4pm SECN: New Mexico St. at Arkansas
4pm Pac-12: Washington at Oregon St.
6pm ESPN: Ole Miss at Alabama
7pm ESPN2: Iowa at Michigan St.
7pm ESPNU: South Carolina at Texas A&M
7:30pm SECN: Troy at LSU
8pm ABC: Clemson at Virginia Tech
8pm FOX: Indiana at Penn St.
8pm Pac-12: Arizona St. at Stanford
9pm ESPN: Mississippi St. at Auburn
10:15pm ESPNU: San Jose St. at UNLV
10:30pm ESPN2: California at Oregon

10:30pm FS1: Colorado at UCLA

Online only (ESPN3, ACC Network Extra or other) or no video

Marshall at Cincinnati
Rice at Pittsburgh
Charlotte at FIU
North Texas at Southern Miss
Akron at Bowling Green
Buffalo at Kent St.
Ball St. at Western Michigan

CFB TV Confirmations for 2017 Week 4 (9/23/17)

This post will be updated as announcements come out for start times for 9/23 from the twelve day selection process that most TV networks adhere to.  Please understand that games can be held until next Sunday if a broadcaster wants to wait on the results of the Week Three games.  Most conferences have the possibility of having all or part of their games held for a six day hold of the start time.

The list of available TV windows are based on media websites, TV listings and press releases.  They can change based on the needs of the broadcaster or the conference.

Here's what I guessed based on the available openings (they'll prove to be incorrect) and here is the current schedule for the week as several FBS games do have their time & television/webcast assignments already accounted for.  

All times Eastern.

SEC (7pm ESPN2 or 7:30pm ESPNU/SEC Network)
Florida at Kentucky, Syracuse at LSU & Auburn at Missouri

12pm ABC/ESPN2: Texas Tech at Houston
12pm ABC/ESPN2:  NC State at Florida St.
12pm ESPN: Arkansas vs. Texas A&M
12pm ESPNU: West Virginia at Kansas
12pm CBSSN: Army at Tulane
12pm SECN: Massachusetts at Tennessee
12pm ACC RSNs: Kent St. at Louisville
12pm BTN: UNLV at Ohio St.
12:20pm ACC Network: Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech
1:30pm ESPN3: New Mexico at Tulsa
2pm ACC Network Extra: Old Dominion at Virginia Tech
2pm ESPN3: Ohio at Eastern Michigan
2pm ESPN3: Idaho at South Alabama
3pm FS1: UCF at Maryland
3:30pm CBS: Alabama at Vanderbilt
3:30pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2: USC at California
3:30pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2: TCU at Oklahoma St.
3:30pm ABC/ESPN/ESPN2: Boston College at Clemson
3:30pm ESPNU: Duke at North Carolina
3:30pm SECN: Louisiana Tech at South Carolina
3:30pm BTN: Georgia Southern at Indiana
3:30pm BTN: Rutgers at Nebraska
3:30pm ACC RSNs: Toledo at Miami (FL)
3:30pm ESPN3: Miami (OH) at Central Michigan
3:30pm ESPN3: Wake Forest at Appalachian St.
4pm FOX: Michigan at Purdue
5pm ESPN3: UL-Monroe at UL-Lafayette
6pm Pac-12: Nevada at Washington St.
6pm ESPN3: Akron at Troy
6:30pm FS1: Oklahoma at Baylor
6:30pm ESPN3: Western Illinois at Coastal Carolina
7pm ESPN: Mississippi St. at Georgia
7pm ESPN3: FAU at Buffalo
7pm ESPN3: Wagner at Western Michigan
7:30pm ABC: Penn St. at Iowa
7:30pm ESPN3: UTSA at Texas St.
8pm ESPN3: UTEP at New Mexico St.
10pm FS1: Washington at Colorado
10pm Pac-12: Oregon at Arizona St.
10:15pm ESPN2: Hawai'i at Wyoming

10:30pm ESPN: UCLA at Stanford

Pre-Schedule Release Notes from the Big East & Pac-12

* With respect to non-conference play for the Pac-12, the following games were found as selected by ESPN in ESPN MediaZone:

• Georgia Tech vs. UCLA (11/10, played in Shanghai, China)
• North Carolina at Stanford (11/20)
• Alabama at Arizona (12/9)
• Kansas St. vs. Washington St. (12/20, played in Spokane)
• Connecticut at Arizona (12/21)
• Kansas vs. Stanford (12/21, played in Sacramento)

In addition, six conference games were selected by ESPN for airing on ESPN or ESPN2:

• Washington St. at USC (12/29)
• Washington St. at UCLA (12/31)
• Arizona at Utah (1/4)
• Utah at UCLA (1/11)
• Oregon at Arizona (1/13)
• UCLA at Oregon (1/20)

If FS1 picks up any Pac-12 games in November or December, and they've stayed away from non-conference Pac-12 games in prior years with a few exceptions, here's some candidates (NOTE: some of these games could end up on ESPNU as their December schedule has not been published. Pac-12 Networks schedules also are awaiting finalization.):

• Missouri at Utah (11/16) - Incoming freshman Michael Porter seems to be driving some TV decisions on ESPN2 for Mizzou in non conference play with games vs. Wagner & Stephen F. Austin to be shown.  Would probably need to be the last game of a tripleheader after Nebraska at St. John's & Xavier at Wisconsin
• Texas A&M at USC (11/26) - No Big East games currently scheduled for that day.  Maybe paired with UC Riverside at Michigan as a doubleheader.
• Gonzaga at Washington (12/10) - Maybe pair it with Philly Big 5 matchup La Salle at Villanova.
• Cincinnati at UCLA (12/16) - ESPN has bowl games this day, while ESPN2 has three MBK games, plus the Division II football championship & NCAA women's volleyball tournament (championship?).
• Vanderbilt at Arizona St. (12/17) - I have nothing for this one.

* The other side of this is the dates where FS2, FSN or CBS Sports Network could end up being used for the Big East due to other commitments for FS1 or FOX.

• 11/10 - All schools openers except for DePaul & Georgetown, though we don't know when Georgetown's opener is.  CBSSN isn't available at all either, so look for FS2 and FSN, plus the possibility of FOX College Sports to be used
• 11/11 - This would be DePaul's opener and the CFB schedule for FS1 only has one game, followed by UFC in the evening, so they could slot this one to tip at around 4pm ET on FS1.
• 11/13 - At least one of Delaware St.-DePaul and Rider-Xavier.  Minnesota-Providence on FS1 already.
• 11/14 - At least one of Central Connecticut-St. John's and Nicholls-Villanova.  Purdue-Marquette on FS1 already.
• 11/17 - Only Lafayette vs. Villanova.  NASCAR on FS1.
• 11/18 - Three games: UMES at Georgetown, Furman at Butler, NJIT at Seton Hall
• 11/25 - Boston College at Providence could end up on FS1 at 8pm ET, but SIU Edwardsville at Creighton probably ends up on FS2.
• 12/2 - Of the five games currently on the schedule (Cincy-Xavier, Saint Louis-Butler, Younsgtown St.-DePaul, Sacred Heart-St. John's & Georgia-Marquette), I'd throw at least the DePaul & St. John's games on secondary outlets.  FS1 should also have UFC PPV prelims in the evening.
• 12/9 - FS1 has a UFC card at night.  Colorado-Xavier & Nebraska-Creighton should be on FS1 and Marquette-Wisconsin is either on FOX or FS1.  Look for NCA&T-Georgetown or Youngstown St.-Butler to slide over.
• 12/16 - FS1 should have UFC prelims before FOX takes over in the evening.  Kansas at Nebraska is on FS1 at 8pm and the Orange Bowl Classic is on FS2 from 2pm to 6:30pm.  
• 11/29, 12/5, 12/6 & 12/21 are weeknights with three Big East games scheduled.  Typically you can only get two games in on FS1 from the conference on an evening.

* Based on FS1 schedules, look for the Big East schedule to start on December 30th.  December 28th has the Holiday Bowl and the 29th has UMBC at Maryland in the evening, possibly paired with a Pac-12 game.  Saturday the 30th has one Big Ten game (Brown at Northwestern) with a TBA start time, so they may be looking to slot Big East games around that one.

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.