http://www.kentucky.com/283/story/112473.html

For those fans worried about the possibility of no live telecast of the Sept. 15 Louisville-Kentucky game, don't panic just yet. There's still hope.

All the available slots on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU are filled for Sept.15, although ESPN Classic has been mentioned as a possibility.

Southeastern Conference Associate Commissioner Mark Womack said this week that the league is working with the Big East and the television networks to get the widest distribution of the game it possibly can.

Womack said the league's television contract allows for some flexibility, which keeps alive the possibility of the game being shown live in the Lexington and Louisville markets.

"We have some options as far as the local markets go," Womack said. "We're exploring all of those right now."

UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart is optimistic that some sort of live telecast that's accessible to most of the state can be worked out.

"I'm confident that everybody will be able to see the game," he said. "We know that's important to the fans, and we'll work with the league to get it done in the best way possible."

CSS is still a possibility since it carries some SEC games. It's shown over a good bit of the country.

CSS isn't an option. It carries replays and produces PPV telecasts of games of schools it contracts with. Kentucky isn't one of them because it has the Big Blue Sports Network, which does tape delay of football games and some live basketball games.

CSS also isn't available in either team's markets and has very little visibility outside of the southeast. The list CSS has on their site looks like small pockets of Kentucky where the channel is shown.

Bulan KY Charter 54
Calvert City KY Charter 31
Campbellsville KY Comcast 65
Corbin KY Charter 28
Elizabethtown KY Comcast 65
Flatlick KY Charter 28
Greenville KY Comcast 24
Hopkinsville KY Charter 75
Horse Cave KY Comcast 68
Leitchfield KY Comcast 54
Livingston KY Comcast 55
Manchester KY Charter 28
Middlesborough KY Charter 28
Murray KY Charter 31
Paducah KY Comcast 96
Somerset KY Charter 28
Tell City, Ind. KY Comcast 52
Williamsburg KY Charter 28

The first option that they have regarding the local markets is to produce a PPV. The game would be PPV in Kentucky, probably on ESPN Game Plan outside. What they would probably do is take the BBSN replay feed and make it available live for the PPV telecast. That what Florida and Tennessee do with their replay feeds when they games are aired live on PPV.

And one other thing. The item regarding being in discussions with the Big East is interesting. Hopefully they aren't going to ask the Big East to burn one of their ESPN syndicated telecast windows on an SEC game.

make it a monday nite game like the did for miami fsu lol.

um what about abc for real. you usually got like 3 games on abc or even a regional on abc.

animus Wrote:make it a monday nite game like the did for miami fsu lol.

um what about abc for real. you usually got like 3 games on abc or even a regional on abc.

Miami-FSU was Monday night because those Monday nights were Labor Day. This game is being played on 9/15.

ABC isn't an option either. The game is at Kentucky, so it goes under their TV deal. The SEC deals with CBS, ESPN/ESPN2 and their regional syndicator, not ABC.

A primetime ESPN showing for the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend is still available for this series if it is scheduled at that time. That's where you'll see the game again next year when we host and move it back to the season opener. As for this year, ESPN Classic looks like the best hope for free TV.

mattsarz Wrote:

animus Wrote:make it a monday nite game like the did for miami fsu lol.

um what about abc for real. you usually got like 3 games on abc or even a regional on abc.

Miami-FSU was Monday night because those Monday nights were Labor Day. This game is being played on 9/15.

ABC isn't an option either. The game is at Kentucky, so it goes under their TV deal. The SEC deals with CBS, ESPN/ESPN2 and their regional syndicator, not ABC.

yea my fault... i was thinking about the espn on abc games that they do. wasn't too sure if the sec fell in that catagory or not. thx bro

What about JP Sports (or is it Lincoln Sports now)? No mention of this network in the article. They show a SEC Game weekly at 12:30pm Eastern.

LF Sports would have been an option, but they booked an Auburn-Mississippi St. game instead.

CSS does do replay and delay games but they also do live games too.

CSS broadcast live ACC, SEC, Sunbelt, and CUSA games here in Tennessee. I imagine their broadcasts aren't different in other parts of the country. It's not like their broadcasts are local. It's already local - THE SOUTH.

CSS isn't available in other parts of the country. That's what I'm getting at. Look at the list above. Louisville doesn't get CSS, Lexington doesn't get CSS. DirecTV and Dish Network doesn't get CSS.

Yes, Sun Belt and C-USA will have live football games on CSS. SEC and ACC, no. They do have a lot of college baseball and some SEC non-conference basketball, along with games from the SoCon, C-USA and syndicated telecasts coming from ESPN Regional TV.

In the past, when the SEC wanted to do a regional game in an empty TV window, they put the game on FSN South and Sun Sports. They had the Alabama-Vanderbilt game last year and the Georgia Southern-Georgia game in '04 because neither CBS nor ESPN televised in the afternoon telecast window.

Minor details....