Six Pack Wrote:Wait a second Loboblast...

I just noticed that you used the words "OWN" and "HATER" in your post. But you forgot to throw in a couple of ROTFLMAOs and a few LOLs.

Please try harder next time. Thank you. Otherwise we'll be forced to give you a drink from the hater-aid and send you down the path on the esca-hater.

WoW, you're very observant
"esca-hater".....did you just come up with that yourself??

The deeper breakdown goes as follows.

MWC
Thursday
August 30 - UNLV at Utah State (the lone non TV game on a weeknight) and Utah at Oregon State is on FSN NORTHWEST ONLY. I do not know whether or not FSN Utah will pick the game up.
September 13 - TCU at Air Force - CSTV
October 18 - Utah at TCU - Versus
October 25 - Air Force at New Mexico - Versus
November 8 - TCU at BYU - Versus

Friday
October 5 - Utah at Louisville - ESPN
November 23 - Wyoming at Colorado State - The mtn.

One good thing that will happen to the MWC this year TV wise is that ALL 3 games where 2 of the 3 championship contenders go up vs. each other are on Versus so most of the country will get access.

However, where the MWC TV deal screwed things up is how are these games going to be televised along with getting access in SLC for the Utah-Oregon State game on August 30 and how will the Wyoming-Ohio be broadcast in Wyoming without having to get ESPN GamePlan.

September 8 - San Diego State vs. Washington State at Seattle
September 15 - San Diego State at Arizona State and New Mexico at Arizona
September 22 - Sacramento State at New Mexico
September 29 - UNLV at Nevada
October 13 - San Diego State at Utah and TCU at Stanford
October 20 - Colorado State at UNLV
November 17 - Georgia Southern at Colorado State and UNLV at TCU

Those games I listed should've been released to local affiliates of the respective MWC schools. But, stupid pride would not allow it.

One correction the MWC site has not made is that the Utah-BYU game on November 24 will be on Versus. (Good news as mentioned earlier.)

WAC
Thursday
August 30 - SE Louisiana at NMSU along with the earlier mentioned UNLV-Utah State game is not televised. Weber State-Boise State is on KTVB in Boise.
September 27 - Southern Miss-Boise State is on ESPN. Pending on how USM fares vs. Tennessee, this could be a BIG game.

Friday
October 12 - Hawaii at San Jose State - ESPN
October 26 - Boise State at Fresno State - ESPN2
November 2 - Nevada at New Mexico State - ESPN2
November 16 - Hawaii at Nevada - ESPN2 (late kick, 11 p.m. Eastern)
November 23 - Boise State at Hawaii - ESPN2 (conference championship at stake many would say)
November 30 - Fresno State at New Mexico State - ESPN2

Sunday
October 7 - New Mexico State at Boise State - ESPN (this goes up vs. Bears-Packers on NBC and maybe a Divisional Series game in the MLB Playoffs on FOX)
October 14 - Nevada at Boise State - ESPN (this goes up vs. Saints-Seahawks on NBC and maybe a League Championship Series game on FOX)

The 2 Sunday night game cannot bode well for ratings, especially the 1st one going up vs. one of the storied rivalries in all of sports.

C-USA
Thursday
August 30 - Tulsa at UL Monroe - ESPN2 (This game officially kicks off the 2007 season.)
September 27 - USM-Boise State mentioned earlier.

Friday
September 21 - Oklahoma-Tulsa - ESPN2

Sunday
October 21 - Southern Miss at Marshall - ESPN (goes up vs. Steelers-Broncos on NBC.)
October 28 - UCF at Southern Miss - ESPN (I believe this will go up vs. the World Series on FOX.)
November 4 - SMU at Houston - ESPN (SMU has to be very unhappy about this as this goes up vs. Cowboys-Eagles on NBC.)

Monday
September 3 - Texas Tech at SMU - ESPN (Cut C-USA some slack on this one, this is on Labor Day.)

Tuesday
October 2 - Marshall at Memphis

Wednesday
October 3 - Rice at Southern Miss

MAC
Thursday
August 30 - Miami (Ohio) at Ball State is on Comcast Local. Kent State at Iowa State and Buffalo at Rutgers are not televised.

Friday
August 31 - Navy at Temple - ESPNU
October 19 - Northwestern vs. Eastern Michigan at Detroit - ESPNU
November 2 - Akron at Bowling Green - ESPNU; Temple at Ohio - not televised.
November 9 - Bowling Green at Eastern Michigan - ESPNU
November 16 - Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan - Comcast Local
November 23 - Central Michigan at Akron and Toledo at Bowling Green are both on ESPNU.

Tuesday
November 6 - Central Michigan at Western Michigan - ESPN2
November 13 - Toledo at Ball State - ESPN2

Wednesday
November 7 - Ohio at Akron - ESPN2
November 14 - Akron at Miami (Ohio) - ESPN2

Sun Belt
Thursday
August 30 - Tulsa at UL Monroe - ESPN2
September 6 - Middle Tennessee at Louisville - ESPN2
September 20 - Western Kentucky at Middle Tennessee - ESPN+Plus
November 15 - North Texas at Arkansas State - ESPN+Plus

Friday
September 14 - Oklahoma State at Troy - ESPN2

Tuesday
November 20 - Middle Tennessee at Troy - ESPN2

Here is the difference, between the WAC, MAC, and C-USA non-Saturday games versus the MWC non-Saturday games: Ratings. People will still watch these ESPN games a lot more than you think. These non-Saturday games get decent ratings on ESPN and ESPN 2 because people like to see a college football game if its on. They don't really care to search for a game, but if the game is on ESPN, they will watch it. Most sports fans know their ESPN and ESPN 2 channel numbers by heart, and will watch whatever is on there if they like the sport. Almost every single hotel in this country carries both ESPN and ESPN 2 among their channel lists. We won't get humongous ratings like the other big conferences, but we do get people to watch the games. I watch weekday games on ESPN because I can and I like the quality of the ESPN games. Plus, most are in HD, so they look awesome on my TV, I am not alone in this.

The MWC has an uphill battle going on right now with their channels. The Versus and CSTV channels are not that well known and get tiny ratings, most often getting "zero" ratings, drawing in thousands of fans, not millions for their Saturday games, imagine what they get for their weekday games...
If you are going to play weekday games, then play them in front of a decent national audience and not just for some hardcore football fans across the country. The mtn isn't even known to 99% of the country, playing a weekday game on there makes absolutely no sense, even if its on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

I remember several MWC people and fans telling everyone that they were moving away from ESPN to get away from the non-Saturday games, and yet they still play them today, without ESPN on their side... Not a good business decision IMO.

I understand why the mtn is not releasing their games to the local affiliates. This move was made so that more people will try and get their mtn channel, but I agree, it is a dumb move and it pisses off a lot of the fans in your conference.

That's another thing that can be argued but is hard to come up with actual facts/numbers concerning ratings.

However, if CUSA averages around 20 to 25K for home football games then it must tell you something about what kind of ratings you can possibly get by playing on Sun, Mon, Tues. even if the channel you are playing on reaches 90+ mill.

Not only that but (serious question here) is it easier to increase the ratings and most importantly attendance by sticking to those dates?

At the very least, VS and CSTV are growing EVERY YEAR, so I'm assuming that would translate to better ratings or more viewers in the years to come right?

I mean VS is totally growing, they are completely different now than when they were OLN. Now VS has WEC (World Extreme Combat) which is THE FASTEST growing sport and picked up Big12/Pac10 games as well.

The way i see it, years to come the MWC will benefit more by going this direction, by playing on mostly on Saturdays helping attendance greatly and on two channels that are growing.

Loboblast-mwc Wrote:That's another thing that can be argued but is hard to come up with actual facts/numbers concerning ratings.

However, if CUSA averages around 20 to 25K for home football games then it must tell you something about what kind of ratings you can possibly get by playing on Sun, Mon, Tues. even if the channel you are playing on reaches 90+ mill.

Not only that but (serious question here) is it easier to increase the ratings and most importantly attendance by sticking to those dates?

At the very least, VS and CSTV are growing EVERY YEAR, so I'm assuming that would translate to better ratings or more viewers in the years to come right?

I mean VS is totally growing, they are completely different now than when they were OLN. Now VS has WEC (World Extreme Combat) which is THE FASTEST growing sport and picked up Big12/Pac10 games as well.

The way i see it, years to come the MWC will benefit more by going this direction, by playing on mostly on Saturdays helping attendance greatly and on two channels that are growing.

I think you're confusing the WEC with the UFC, which is the fastest growing sport.

MWC-CHI Wrote:I think you're confusing the WEC with the UFC, which is the fastest growing sport.

Sorry if i didn't make myself clear, Cage Fighting is the FASTEST growing sport.

UFC, WEC, IFL (International Fighting League) and Pride (bought out by UFC) are all cage fighting leagues. Plus, add to that the many minor circuits throught the country being hosted at Indian Casinos and what not.

MWC-CHI Wrote:One good thing that will happen to the MWC this year TV wise is that ALL 3 games where 2 of the 3 championship contenders go up vs. each other are on Versus so most of the country will get access.

Where in the US is Versus part of a basic package? The few places that I have checked on have it as part of the premium package. That would mean that most of the country doesn't have access, unless they go to a local sports bar and their request is filled.

VS is on the premium package here in Louisville...I don't really think I've ever watched it. You don't stumble on to VS...it's like in the 500s or something.

gaard Wrote:

MWC-CHI Wrote:One good thing that will happen to the MWC this year TV wise is that ALL 3 games where 2 of the 3 championship contenders go up vs. each other are on Versus so most of the country will get access.

Where in the US is Versus part of a basic package? The few places that I have checked on have it as part of the premium package. That would mean that most of the country doesn't have access, unless they go to a local sports bar and their request is filled.

My cable (Comcast/Elmhurst, Illinois) has Versus on Channel 75, which is a basic cable channel.

Many NHL markets put Versus on expanded basic cable because Comcast required it if you wanted to receive NHL content. Buffalo had it added by Adelphia to expanded basic and Time Warner kept it there.

Pretty sure any Comcast served area will have it on expanded basic. Also, most DirecTV customers have it on the basic package, although new customers since early April needed to get a second tier for Versus. Old customers were grandfathered in provided they don't need to modify programming choices on their base package.

mattsarz Wrote:...most DirecTV customers have it on the basic package, although new customers since early April needed to get a second tier for Versus. Old customers were grandfathered in provided they don't need to modify programming choices on their base package.

It wasn't on the basic package when we got DirecTV about 4 years ago. We now have Dish TV, and both Versus and ESPNU are only on the top tier package (America's Top 250).

MWC-CHI Wrote:

gaard Wrote:

MWC-CHI Wrote:One good thing that will happen to the MWC this year TV wise is that ALL 3 games where 2 of the 3 championship contenders go up vs. each other are on Versus so most of the country will get access.

Where in the US is Versus part of a basic package? The few places that I have checked on have it as part of the premium package. That would mean that most of the country doesn't have access, unless they go to a local sports bar and their request is filled.

My cable (Comcast/Elmhurst, Illinois) has Versus on Channel 75, which is a basic cable channel.

Comcast Albquerque has it on channel 37, basic cable also. VSHD is 350 i think.