Big Ten Announces Five Prime Time Games to Appear on ABC/ESPN

[Madison Hawk]

Thanks for the FSN schedules. It is surprising that they have not yet announced them yet. Can you tell I'm excited for college football to start? :

I think there's a chance Syracuse-Northwestern ends up on ESPN2 at noon. Utah-Michigan is expected to be on ABC at 3:30pm and USC-Virginia has already been noted as a reverse mirror game. The Big Ten is the only conference that ESPN is waiting on for cable telecasts.

You are probably right on Syracuse vs. Northwestern being on ESPN2. The only other realistic possibility is Akron vs. Wisconsin as the other Big Ten games that day are really bad (although you could have said that last year also about Appalachian State vs. Michigan and that turned out to be one of the most exciting games of the year.

September 20th is outside the 1st three weeks of the season, so they haven't made any decisions about that date yet.

I do not believe that ABC/ESPN can use a 12 day selection for a Big Ten night game, which is why they announced the Big Ten prime time schedule over six weeks ago. If either Oregon vs. Purdue or Notre Dame vs. Michigan St. were prime time, it would have been likely to announce that then. However, ABC has not yet released its full prime time schedule so it is possible that one of those games has been selected but not yet announced.

 

[mattsarz]

I do not believe that ABC/ESPN can use a 12 day selection for a Big Ten night game, which is why they announced the Big Ten prime time schedule over six weeks ago. If either Oregon vs. Purdue or Notre Dame vs. Michigan St. were prime time, it would have been likely to announce that then. However, ABC has not yet released its full prime time schedule so it is possible that one of those games has been selected but not yet announced.

Right. The way I read your original post was that weren't picking up any games that day at all.

 

[SideshowBob]

Good predictions. I believe that the BTN will add additional prime time slots in the early weeks to minimize conflicts. Likely candidates include:

Aug 30: Syracuse vs. Northestern
Sept 6: Marshall vs. Wisconsin
Sept 13: Central Michigan vs. Purdue or Florida Atlantic vs. Michigan St.

I'm curious to see if they'll do that. They certainly would be better off taking some games from the 12pm ET window and putting them in the evening one for the sake of separating out the games.

For the BTN evening windows later in the season (specifically 9/20 and 10/18), would additional games be added before the season for those slots? I guess for 10/18 there wouldn't be a need since there is only 5 games that week total. But 9/20 is smack in non-conference game time and they could certainly add another game to the evening window.

Also, I am very surprised that ABC/ESPN is not showing a Big Ten game on September 20. Either Oregon vs. Purdue or Notre Dame vs. Michigan State appear to be great matchups. One game will likely go in the 3:30 ET slot on ABC, but the other is still without a home. ABC is showing Georgia vs. Arizona State. Even if they wanted to have that game as a national game rather than a regional split, ESPN or ESPN2 would be a great prime time slot for either of the Big Ten games.

Good point, but I guess that they'll put one of Oregon-Purdue and ND-MSU on ABC at 3:30 and the other on ESPN sometime.

 

[SideshowBob]

September 20th is outside the 1st three weeks of the season, so they haven't made any decisions about that date yet.

Matt -- as an aside, you have the Oregon-Purdue game listed on your website as an ABC or ESPN game for the wrong week (it's listed on 9/13 when the game is going to be on 9/20).

On that note, I was curious about the 9/13 games. Right now, PSU-Syracuse is set as a 3:30 ABC game. The Georgia Tech-VA Tech game has the ABC/ESPN2 reverse window setup. Is the PSU-Syracuse going to fill the other half of the ESPN2 telecast? Or is it only a Big Ten game that can do so? If so, is there a yet to be announced Big Ten home game planned for 9/13 (Iowa St-Iowa seems like the only one that makes sense to me).

Edit: Nevermind, I see that a schedule I was looking at was incorrect and the Oregon-Purdue game is on 9/13 (and Purdue hosts Central Michigan on 9/20). Madison Hawk must have seen something similar since he indicated that Oregon-Purdue was on 9/20. With that, I'd assume that Purdue-Oregon will indeed be on ABC at 3:30 and will have the reverse mirror on ESPN2, right? And that would leave Notre Dame-Michigan State wide open to be on at 3:30pm on ABC on 9/20.

 

[Madison Hawk]

Edit: Nevermind, I see that a schedule I was looking at was incorrect and the Oregon-Purdue game is on 9/13 (and Purdue hosts Central Michigan on 9/20). Madison Hawk must have seen something similar since he indicated that Oregon-Purdue was on 9/20. With that, I'd assume that Purdue-Oregon will indeed be on ABC at 3:30 and will have the reverse mirror on ESPN2, right? And that would leave Notre Dame-Michigan State wide open to be on at 3:30pm on ABC on 9/20.

My bad. I had "my" Big Ten projected TV schedule a couple of months ago and Purdue must have switched the Oregon and Central Michigan games since then. Good call to maximize television exposure.

 

[mattsarz]

My bad. I had "my" Big Ten projected TV schedule a couple of months ago and Purdue must have switched the Oregon and Central Michigan games since then. Good call to maximize television exposure.

There was a switch for a couple Oregon games and the Boise St. and Purdue games were part of the switch. I think the requests were done by the PAC-10. Originally the Boise St. game was going to be the opener and the Purdue game was on the 20th.

 

[BlackHitachi]

Wow, Penn State gets 4?

Honestly, I don't consider the Mich/Penn State game prime time

Me TOO??

 

[SideshowBob]

I was looking over the schedules on Matt's site and wondering about the yet to be announced Big Ten games (and other stuff for the 1st three weeks...). For the 3:30 ABC slot in week #1, Utah-Michigan is almost certainly going to be there with the reverse mirror (shared with USC-UVa). But there doesn't seem to be any other interesting games to also put in that spot. Would it just be those two? Or might they add a second Big Ten game in Syracuse-Northwestern (to cover the Northeast)? I'm really surprised they put Bama-Clemson, MSU-Cal and Illinois-Missouri all at night instead of using one of those for the afternoon regional coverage.

 

[Madison Hawk]

I was looking over the schedules on Matt's site and wondering about the yet to be announced Big Ten games (and other stuff for the 1st three weeks...). For the 3:30 ABC slot in week #1, Utah-Michigan is almost certainly going to be there with the reverse mirror (shared with USC-UVa). But there doesn't seem to be any other interesting games to also put in that spot. Would it just be those two? Or might they add a second Big Ten game in Syracuse-Northwestern (to cover the Northeast)? I'm really surprised they put Bama-Clemson, MSU-Cal and Illinois-Missouri all at night instead of using one of those for the afternoon regional coverage.

Here are my Big Ten television predictions for the first three weeks:

Week 1

12:00 ET (one open ESPN2 slot)
Syracuse vs. Northwestern (ESPN2)
Youngstown State vs. Ohio State (BTN)
Coastal Carolina vs. Penn State (BTN)
Maine vs. Iowa (BTN)
Western Kentucky vs. Indiana (BTN)

3:30 ET
Utah vs. Michigan (ABC and ESPN2 in outer market)

7:00 ET
Northern Illinois vs. Minnesota (BTN) (confirmed)

8:00 ET
Akron vs. Wisconsin (BTN)

Week 2

12:00 ET (two open ESPN slots)
Ohio vs. Ohio State (ESPN)
Miami (OH) vs. Michigan (ESPN2)
Florida International vs. Iowa (BTN)
Eastern Illinois vs. Illinois (BTN)
Northern Colorado vs. Purdue (BTN)
Eastern Michigan vs. Michigan State (BTN)

3:30 ET
Oregon State vs. Penn State (ABC and ESPN2 in outer markets)

7:00 ET
Murray State vs. Indiana (BTN)(confirmed)

8:00 ET
Marshall vs. Wisconsin (BTN)

Week 3

12:00 ET (one open ESPN slot)
Iowa State vs. Iowa (ESPN2)
UL Lafayette vs. Illinois (BTN)
Montana State vs. Minnesota (BTN)

3:30 ET
Oregon vs. Purdue (ABC and ESPN in outer markets)

7:00 ET
Florida Atlantic vs. Michigan State (BTN)

Hopefully the first three weeks will be announced in the near future; perhaps when they announce the BTN/Comcast agreement.

 

[Jimbo]

Just realized what I said about a month ago, the Ohio State / Mich game will be either at 12:30/ 1 or 3:30 pm, I don't remember it ever being a NIGHT game, although it would be fun, but a huge change for the OSU /Mich fans as they have ALWAYS been a afternoon game and until receintly when it was moved to 3:30.

Jimbo

 

[Kogs]

its july 1st any news on the early selections?

 

[mattsarz]

its july 1st any news on the early selections?

Not yet and its starting to really piss me off. I could see if there were imminent rumors of a Time Warner-BTN agreement that would hold things off, but there isn't any rumors about that.

Most of us here could have had these selections done a few weeks ago.

Week 1: Syracuse-Northwestern (12pm ESPN2), Utah-Michigan (3:30 ABC/ESPN2), everybody else to the BTN

Week 2: Oregon St.-Penn St. (3:30pm ABC/ESPN2), two other Big Ten games on ESPN/ESPN2 at 12pm, everybody else on the BTN

Week 3: Oregon at Purdue (3:30pm ABC/ESPN2), Iowa St. at Iowa (12pm ESPN/ESPN2), everyone else on BTN.

 

[SideshowBob]

Week 2: Oregon St.-Penn St. (3:30pm ABC/ESPN2), two other Big Ten games on ESPN/ESPN2 at 12pm, everybody else on the BTN

Really? You mean that two of the following games will end up on ESPN and ESPN2: Eastern Ill-Illinois, Florida International-Iowa, Miami (OH)-Michigan, Eastern Mich-Michigan St, Ohio-Ohio State, Northern Colorado-Purdue, Marshall-Wisconsin. I mean, the two best there would be Marshall-Wisconsin and Ohio-Ohio State, I guess. That's awful.

Couldn't they at least put Northwestern-Duke on (yeah, I know, it's under the ACC TV contract)? I mean, those teams might be bad, but tha's at least likely to be competitive.

Anyhow, I agree, that there's not likely to be much surprises in terms of what games go where. The biggest thing I'm curious about is if any additional games will get shifted to the BTN in the evening or whether it will be just the games they've already announced (they already have at least one night game on 8/30 and 9/6).

 

[mattsarz]

Really? You mean that two of the following games will end up on ESPN and ESPN2: Eastern Ill-Illinois, Florida International-Iowa, Miami (OH)-Michigan, Eastern Mich-Michigan St, Ohio-Ohio State, Northern Colorado-Purdue, Marshall-Wisconsin. I mean, the two best there would be Marshall-Wisconsin and Ohio-Ohio State, I guess. That's awful.

Not saying that it's right, but there is nothing else for ESPN to choose. Those telecast windows are empty and the Big Ten is the only conference they are waiting on.

I'd guess that the EIU-Illinois and UNC-Purdue games aren't really among the choices. The other five games are probably the ones ESPN is looking at.

 

[mccoyrj]

I guess by looking at that schedule that our Hawkeyes are still not good enough to be on national tv. So sad, but it doesn't appear that this year will be any better than last.

At least you'll always have the Orange Bowl and that Hail Mary.

It was the Capital One Bowl.

And notice the offensive holding(s). Just saying.

 

[Madison Hawk]

It was the Capital One Bowl.

And notice the offensive holding(s). Just saying.

I see outstretched arms, but I don't see any jersey being grabbed . That was an amazing game; the coming out party of JaMarcus Russell. With that said, Iowa outplayed LSU for 3 1/2 quarters and deserved to win, even if it was on a fluke play . Besides, Iowa football went downhill after the 2005 Capital One Bowl.

On a related note, it perplexes me why the BTN has not included that Capital One Bowl in its greatest games archive. It was a fantastic game filled with drama (last second hail mary pass), big personalities (Saban's last game prior to going to the Dolphins) and a Big Ten victory.

 

[mccoyrj]

I see outstretched arms, but I don't see any jersey being grabbed . That was an amazing game; the coming out party of JaMarcus Russell. With that said, Iowa outplayed LSU for 3 1/2 quarters and deserved to win, even if it was on a fluke play . Besides, Iowa football went downhill after the 2005 Capital One Bowl.

On a related note, it perplexes me why the BTN has not included that Capital One Bowl in its greatest games archive. It was a fantastic game filled with drama (last second hail mary pass), big personalities (Saban's last game prior to going to the Dolphins) and a Big Ten victory.

I agree with everything you said. I was pacing in anger the first three quarters, jumping with joy for 14 minutes and 10 seconds of the 4th, then hit the floor the last 50 seconds in grief and exhaustion.