(05-17-2017 02:02 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Fox isn't guaranteed the top 2 Big Ten games though. I mean this year, it's VERY possible that Penn St/Michigan is the biggest game of the year. And that looks like it will be on ABC/ESPN.

May be - but recent history doesn't support this assertion. PSU-Michigan has topped out at 6.1M viewers, with an average of 4M - w/ 2 on ABC and 1 on ESPN. Each of the last 4 years has seen at least 4 matchups that perform better - and most years there were 8-9 matchups better. OSU-Michigan, on the other hand, has a floor of 8M (2M more than PSU-Michigan's best) and an "average" somewhere between 9-11M.

(05-17-2017 02:02 PM)stever20 Wrote:  As far as the Big Ten Network scenario that you mention- generally speaking, they would be a hard core Big Ten football fan. So they aren't going to care at all about a USC/Stanford or Texas/WVU game. They would care about the OSU/MSU game- but that would be regardless of where it is at. And casual fans watching a Big Ten game on Fox or FS1 aren't going to watch a dog game on the Big Ten network just because it's advertised there.

Hard core B1G football fans might easily fall within the definition of a casual football fan for non-B1G college football...and some might actually tune in to USC/Stanford or Texas/WVU, especially if there isn't a decent B1G game on at the same time.

I've watched dog games on SEC and PAC networks precisely because of cross-promotion. If it's halftime or a blowout in another game I might be watching, Kentucky-South Carolina or Oregon St.-Arizona is better than Progressive commercials or watching a team run out the clock.