There has been a lot of discussion over the last couple years about what a great opening season match up FSU-Miami is, and how it brings so much $$$ to the ACC TV contract. I guess it's hard for me to argue with, because there's always that storyline about the series (not my thing, since I'm a "How good are you today?" guy, but I digress...).

Point I'm getting at is, why do the replace this Labor Day prime time game with Miami-Maryland? I don't remember this being much discussed on here, but what makes the network think this is such a high profile primetime attraction?

I thought the Miami/FSU thing died out because the team that lost that game was out of the national title hunt. Of course Miami stunk really, really fast and was out tof the top 25 hunt in no time in the ACC.

I guess the ACC contract requires a Labor Day COnference game and UM/ Maryland is just as good (or as bad) as anything they got. I'll probably watch because that's the only thing on, so if enought people feel this same way they sould get good ratings.

I think the ratings still count it if viewers fall alseep with the TV on so Swofford has this Labor Day rankings thing locked up.

The idea with having it so early was they'd probably play again in the CCG a lot. That hasn't happened and I believe both teams wanted it later in the season.

Edit: Ignoring games that gain importance because of importance, this is the biggest game for the ACC of the year. I don't think they want it overwith week 1.

(09-03-2011 08:55 AM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  There has been a lot of discussion over the last couple years about what a great opening season match up FSU-Miami is, and how it brings so much $$$ to the ACC TV contract. I guess it's hard for me to argue with, because there's always that storyline about the series (not my thing, since I'm a "How good are you today?" guy, but I digress...).

Point I'm getting at is, why do the replace this Labor Day prime time game with Miami-Maryland? I don't remember this being much discussed on here, but what makes the network think this is such a high profile primetime attraction?

Its a requirement in the ACC TV contract that they have a game on Labor Day evening, but its up to both FSU & Miami (or whomever the teams are) whether they want to move that game. It comes down to whomever you can get. A few years ago Florida St.-Clemson was the Labor Day evening game. In 2008, the ACC & ESPN couldn't find a suitable game to move, so they reworked several games to get Tennessee-UCLA as the primetime game.

For them to play on Labor Day weekend is a relatively new deal. The traditional date was mid-October and this year's game is in November.