Thursday night college football on FS1 might go bye bye if this comes through.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-foot...ge-by-2015

Would be a huge win for Fox Sports 1.

Without Thursday Night Football, I wonder if the NFL would even keep the NFL Network? For example, if the NFL sold it to Fox, Fox could bring back Speed or Fuel, start a football-centric (Fox Football Plus?), or make it a general-purpose Fox Sports 3.

Even a reduced Thursday night package on the NFL Network would probably make the NFL's life miserable at the next major round of cable negotiations. It might be easier just to offload it entirely - make more preseason games nationally televised, let someone else show the Senior Bowl and other all start games (which should be good for some TV rights money), quit competing with ESPN for the Draft, and loosen up the replay restrictions for CBS, Fox, and NBC - a Sunday night football game on NBC could then have encore presentations on NBCSN, while Fox Sports 2 (or 3) spends the next week doing the encore presentations of all the Fox games from that Sunday.

(10-25-2013 10:23 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(10-24-2013 07:22 PM)He1nousOne Wrote:  Ok, fine I will give in that it is possible that FOX gets SOME of the Big Ten games. My major opposition is to the folks who very simplistically start labeling the Big Ten as a FOX property and that the Conference would be willing to leave behind ESPN just because FOX might offer more money.

Honestly, I think they would. Fox and FS1 might not be ESPN, but the Big Ten is egotistical enough to think that them simply being on that channel will draw viewers, so they don't care. If they get more money, they will do. Truth be told, and I am not joking in any way whatsoever when I say this, if NBC offered them the most money to put games on NBC Network and a combination of NBC Sports and USA Network, despite all of the problems NBC has, I bet they would do it.

Honestly, I think this just shows you have a slanted view on the Big Ten. All you talk about is their ego and nothing about the fact that they ARE intelligent and forward thinking when it comes to the business side of things. Yes, they went into business with FOX. That doesn't mean they aren't close business partners with ESPN. The Big Ten was smart enough to do business with BOTH because it gives them better negotiating leverage in the future. That is something the ACC has never been able to do.

So go ahead with your negative slant on the Big Ten but it would be stupid of them to drop ESPN. The Big Ten isn't stupid. I can say that perhaps they will work a deal so that Fox gets some games but NO WAY they drop ESPN all together.


Also, FOX is not NBC. You switched brands. We were talking FOX and ESPN. NBC is a completely different discussion.