Interesting TV news this morning out of the Big 10 Conference. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that the Big 10 Conference is looking to reduce the number of games that start at 11am.
With Nebraska officially becoming a member of the Big 10 on July 1, the Big 10 renegotiated it's TV contract with ABC/ESPN. Part of the re-worked TV contact was the elimination of ABC exclusivity for the 2:30pm (CT) window. This means that BTN will now be able to air games at 2:30pm, going head to head with ABC.
As long as ESPN & ESPN2 continues to air Big 10 games in the 11am window and the no night game policy after November 1 remaining in place, it will be next to impossible to completely eliminate the 11am start. However, though, with the BTN being able to "co-exist" with ABC at 2:30pm, you could see Big 10 teams in the Eastern time zone kickoff at 12pm local time on BTN and for those schools that are in the Central time zone, BTN airing games starting at 2:30pm.
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