When the Big 10 announced that the inaugural conference matchup between Nebraska & Iowa was moving to Black Friday, most assumed the game would be televised on ABC and when ABC previously announced that Boston College @ Miami would be in the 2:30 (CT) window on ABC, the consensus was that Nebraska/Iowa would be 11am (CT) on ABC.
Well, borrowing a line from Lee Corso, "not so fast my friend". Couple of interesting nuggets that I saw on a message board last night. For three weeks during the college football season, the Big 10 Network ("BTN") gets to make the second selection in choosing telecasts behind ABC (it's normally ABC, ESPN/ESPN2 and BTN in the picking process). In addition, Mark Rudner from the Big 10 office, whom I follow on Twitter, tweeted late in the week that an additional 34 Saturday games will be shown on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, Friday games were not mentioned.
No doubt that regionally, the Nebraska/Iowa matchup will be an instant rivalry, but it will take time to build a national following. This is why on Black Friday, I could see ABC going with The Backyard Brawl (Pitt vs West Virgina) for the 11am (CT) window and the BTN going with Nebraska/Iowa matchup on BTN in a possible 2:30 (CT) window. This game would certainly be a ratings boom for the BTN and if the Gus Johnson/Charles Davis team will call two games this year for BTN, imagine a little Johnson "rise and fire" from Lincoln on Black Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment