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College Football TV Universe: Greatness Unfulfilled

+2 HS
Run_Fido_Run's picture
August 17, 2023 at 2:12pm
22 Comments

I don't mean to complain . . . the full spectrum of cfb tv offerings is far better than most other sports. Nevertheless cfb on tv could be even better!

Take the upcoming "Week 0," for example. Between Saturday, Aug. 26 and Friday, Sept. 2 - before most teams kickoff on Sept. 3 - there are 24 total games involving FBS teams - almost all of them televised. Although many games will overlap, they kickoff at 15 different times. Not surprisingly with "Week 0," only two games IMO are "watchable" . . . (I) Florida at Utah on ESPN and (II) Nebraska at Minnesota on Fox. Lo and behold, these two games air at the exact same time, Thursday, Aug. 31 at 7 pm EST. 

To be fair, that TH 7 pm EST is arguably the best timeslot of all three "Week 0" days/evenings. So, it's not unreasonable for ESPN and Fox to run their two best games at the same time, but it still sucks nonetheless.       

And we see this same pattern throughout the season. I won't even get into the Peacock factor or the problems with west coast games.  

I fully understand that market competition causes a lot of these issues, as well as the need to schedule events X-days in advance. The competition aspect is a two-edged blade . . . on the one hand, we get 14 games airing at the same time - which is awesome! - on the other hand, rarely do the best games get evenly distributed across the day. One week, two of the best games of the week, along with a nice "sleeper game" are all at 12 noon; the next week, they're clustered around 3:30/4 pm; and the next week, we have two "Games of the Century!!!" both airing at 7:30/8 pm. 

I want to believe that a little common sense could fix this, but I am also wary of the cure being worse than the disease.

Am I overblowing this issue? 

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