ESPN SEC TV contract can't start fast enough

It will just shift to 2:30 games on ABC though

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It will just shift to 2:30 games on ABC though

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Nah brah ABC's window is 7pm for their best slot

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When is the last time LSU played Bama during the day in Tiger Stadium?

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2010

Probably gonna catch downvotes but I’ve enjoyed all the Joe Tess/McElroy games this year. ESPN has at least four crews that are preferable to Gary and 2 hours of commercials.

What are all of the scheduling/channel assignment terms of the other conferences that have new contracts with ESPN?
There's only so many ESPN channels + 1 ABC channel & time slots for games on their entire slate of channels.
We can't expect a whole lot of ABC or ESPN(1) games. There's going to be A LOT of ESPN2/U/Ocho/SECN/SECNA in everyone's future.

CBS has the best overall presentation of games. The cameras, the sound mixing all are top notch. However I thought Chris and Herbie were great for that game and much better to listen to than the CBS crew.

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Nah brah ABC's window is 7pm for their best slot

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This is true. What also may be true is that the #2 or #3 game will be at 11:00 am under the new contract.

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For tv ratings 2:30 on a Saturday is primetime.

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i just don't believe that. Primetime is whatever time you put two great teams together on network television.
10-15M viewers on network television is easy to achieve. It's difficult to get over 5M on ESPN, but we'll see what this LSU/Bama game was b/c i'd have to imagine it's going to be more than the usual 4-5M ESPN top games get. Most ESPN games get about 2M at best.

Anything on ABC/CBS/Fox is going to beat out anything on ESPN.
If Ohio State/Michigan is at 11, 230, or 7, it's going to garner about the same rating no matter what, same goes for LSU/Bama. College football is a different animal. The fans of major schools will watch their team no matter when they play, and the fans of opposing teams that have an interest in what other top teams do will watch it as well.
There are 3 games with 10-11M viewers so far this year.
Tex/AL at noon on Fox
AL/Tenn at 230 on CBS
Notre Dame/OSU at 630 on ABC
Most watched game last year was Michigan/OSU on Fox at 11am.
Most watched game in 2020 was Clemson Notre Dame on NBC at 630.
Most watched game in 2019 was LSU/Bama on CBS at 230.

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Joe Tess

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He yells too much.... Its like a 3rd and 4 and they pick up 3 and he's yelling like its a big play!

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What are all of the scheduling/channel assignment terms of the other conferences that have new contracts with ESPN?

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I think this is something a lot of people are neglecting to consider.

Conferences with ESPN TV contracts that run through at least next year:
- AAC (through 2032)
- ACC (through 2036)
- Big 12 (through 2025, split with Fox)
- Pac-12 (through 2024, split with Fox)
- SEC
- Sun Belt (through 2031)

That’s a lot of games. While the Big 10 and Big 12 deals are split between ESPN and Fox, the rest are exclusive as I understand it.

I don’t know the terms of all those deals, but I do know that some of them include provisions for specific network commitments. For example, the AAC deal includes a minimum of 40 broadcasts per year with at least 20 of those broadcasts on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2. However the AAC deal also allows for Thursday and Friday night games.

The SEC deal is reported to be “flexible,” allowing ESPN to use different time windows and networks as needed. They have said they aren’t prioritizing the afternoon window, but that doesn’t mean they won’t utilize it.

It’s entirely possible that, at least some years, there are a lot more afternoon games than before - simply because it’s no longer an exclusive window for CBS.

If we go to a 9 game schedule after we add UT and OU, that’s 72 games over 12 weeks (unless we start having week 1 conference games. That means an average of 6 games per week. At least one will likely be on SECN. The other 5 will be split between ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and SECN+.

I could see a scenario where one week there’s:
- 11:00 AM (ESPN)
- 2:30 PM (ESPN2)
- 6:00 PM (ESPN)
- 6:00 PM (ESPN2)
- 7:00 PM (SECN)
- 7:00 PM (SECN+)

…and then the next week, it’s:
- 11:00 AM (ESPN)
- 11:00 AM (ESPN2)
- 2:30 PM (ESPN)
- 2:30 PM (ESPN2)
- 6:00 PM (ABC)
- 7:00 PM (SECN)

It’s just going to depend on their overall inventory for the week, and where they think they can maximize revenue. But I wouldn’t assume those 2:30 games are going away at all.