Tuesday, May 22, 2007

ESPN to carry 4 or 5 Big XII games in 2007

The rumored deal for ESPN to televise some of the Big XII football games previously carried by TBS was confirmed and announced today. Here are the dates and the games for those dates, with my guesses as to who will televise:

September 15th: Florida State @ Colorado (confirmed)

October 6th: Oklahoma vs. Texas (certainly on ABC), Nebraska @ Missouri (ABC or ESPN), Oklahoma State @ Texas A&M (ESPN or FSN), Kansas @ Kansas State (FSN?), Colorado @ Baylor, Iowa State @ Texas Tech.

October 13th: (ESPN option to carry a game) Missouri @ Oklahoma (likely ABC), Oklahoma State @ Nebraska (ABC or ESPN/FSN), Texas A&M @ Texas Tech (ABC or ESPN/FSN), Texas @ Iowa State (FSN?), Colorado @ Kansas State, Baylor @ Kansas

October 20th: Texas A&M @ Nebraska (likely ABC), Texas Tech @ Missouri (ABC or ESPN/FSN), Kansas State @ Oklahoma State (FSN?), Texas @ Baylor (FSN?), Oklahoma @ Iowa State, Kansas @ Colorado

November 3rd: Texas A&M @ Oklahoma (ABC or ESPN), Texas @ Oklahoma State (ABC or ESPN), Nebraska @ Kansas (FSN?), Missouri @ Colorado (FSN?), Texas Tech @ Baylor (FSN?), Kansas State @ Iowa State

ESPN can place these games on either ESPN or ESPN2...not sure if it's a big deal; either is better than FSN.

I think Missouri vs. Nebraska has a great chance to be an ABC prime time game, as Texas/Oklahoma is a lock for an afternoon ABC telecast since they don't want to play a night game at the Cotton Bowl. If ESPN chooses to carry a Big XII game on October 13th, I think they'll take the Huskers vs. the Cowboys. If the Huskers don't get on ESPN the first couple of weeks of October, no Husker games could end up on ESPN or ESPN2.

Update: Most of these games will end up with 8 pm kickoffs, according to today's World-Herald. That's going to be an issue for Husker fans who have to drive long distances, as games won't conclude until nearly midnight. Good for TV, bad for ticketholders...

2 comments:

A J said...

If that game is at 8pm...which is as it looks now...I cannot imagine a scenario where I live to see the 7th.

If that is the case..look for a juiced up Faurot Field unlike anything ever seen. I hope the CPD has riot gear.

(PS - I'm not kidding)

Husker Mike said...

I think it's a little more likely to be on at 7 pm...but either way, it's going to be juiced. I know how out of hand things got with a 6 pm kickoff 4 years ago. I barely got back to my car before the mob with the goalposts arrived.