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Where Will Ohio State's Biggest Games Be Televised This Fall? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Friday, May twenty fourth. I'm your
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  host, Tom Moore. The Akron game in ninety nine days, the game
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  again to Michigan in one hundred and ninety days. This has been a very
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  busy month in the college football TV world. Lots of news, lots of
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  rumors, lots of interesting stuff coming in a season full of new and exciting
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  things. The TV coverage is going to be new and exciting as well.
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  So this is a show I've been looking forward to for several weeks now as
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  some of this news has started percolating out, bringing on Matt sarsfromatsarasports dot com,
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  the leading expert in terms of all the fun nitty gritty minutia around TV.
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  When we wanted, you know, when we get asked on our board,
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  you know, hey, what time is the ohuse ht Oregon game going
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  to be? We look at what does Matt sarrs say? Because Matt Sars
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  is the leading expert in all of this stuff and some we've had on the
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  show a number of times before. Matt, Welcome back. Let's just start
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  this time with just run through. There's some new new lineups this year in
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  the Big Ten not nearly as big of a change as last year, but
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  just can you run through what we know about which networks are going to be
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  televising Big Ten games this year and you know when those games are going to
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  be on? Sure? And thanks for thanks for having me on again,
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  Tom. The partners are sectually the same as last year, Fox, NBC,
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  CBS, FS one, Peacock, and Big Ten Network. CBS will
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  now have instead of being kind of piecemeal throughout twenty twenty three, they will
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  have a regular window every week at three thirty pm Eastern Time. That's due
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  to their SEC contract ending and that content going to Disney Networks. NBC will
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  be seven thirty nearly each week. There will be a couple weeks that are
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  known that Notre Dame will have a game in prime time. After that,
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  Fox should typically be at noon. A little bit unclear on Week one.
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  I think we'll we'll talk about that a little bit later. Beyond that,
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  FS one, Big Ten Network, Peacock, they're kind of the second tier
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  of partners. And the belief when we look at, for example, what
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  Fox just released yesterday with their Friday night football schedule is that some of the
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  selections that Fox made for those Friday night games came from that second tier.
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  The belief is they these were games that likely Fox wouldn't earmark for big noon
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  on a Saturday. But these are games that they targeted that, hey,
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  are you willing to move for uh some nice exposure on a Friday night?
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  And you know, these these games were picked and moved and giving up you
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  know, some schools some nice needed exposure that they may not get otherwise.
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  And also from what I saw too, they're showcasing a fair amount of the
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  four new editions Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA and getting those schools a
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  game on Fox that they may not otherwise get because of their location. And
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  really they can't host a big noon game at the Bolve Eastern. All right,
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  So now let's I wanted to talk a little bit about the selection process.
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  People may have heard a little bit about the draft that the networks do,
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  and you know, I think everyone, probably most people know, Fox
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  gets the first overall pick in that draft. And this is a draft of
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  the draft weeks. They're not just picking I want this game. They're saying,
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  I want the first pick of this week, of all the games this
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  week, I want the first pick of the Big Ten games that week.
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  So that's an important distinction to draw here. And you know, I have
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  Tony Gerderman and I sat down with one of the executives last year at the
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  Big Ten media Days and tried to come at him from about seventeen different ways,
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  and it was just the two of us sitting with him for about fifteen
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  minutes and trying to get any information we could, and it just wouldn't talk
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  about it. Wouldn't talk about it, can't talk about it, wouldn't talk
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  about it. However, with all that selection on the selection secrets here on
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  the selection process, I think we may be about to learn a lot more
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  about that selection process because, just like the NFL Draft, the networks made
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  a trade and networks traded draft picks during this draft this year, which means
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  I think at some point we might be able to put a lot more of
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  the pieces together. So can you explain a little bit about that trade and
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  then what we might be able to glean from that, whether that's weeks or
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  months down the road. Sure. On a podcast earlier this week, for
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  those who haven't heard it, Fox Sports Joel Clap, their lead analysts for
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  their Big New Game had Mike Mulva Hill, who is one of their vice
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  presidents, really big in analytics and research. Mike revealed that they had chosen
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  Ohio State Michigan well, I should say week thirteen at noon as their first
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  choice, which ends up being Ohio State Michigan. They then chose Texas at
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  Michigan or New Non September seventh, and you could. They also announced Alabama
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  Wisconsin on the fourth, September fourteenth at noon. It appears that wasn't the
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  third choice though. They revealed that they had the third choice and elected to
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  trade with another network, which they did not divulge and instead ended up with
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  what appears to be the first choice on November two, and another first choice
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  somewhere else in what appears to be the top seven. And I believe Mike
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  mentioned that Fox has like five of the first in this draft. Anyways,
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  five of the first seven number one picks, so it looks And they talked
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  about how they looked at Ohio State Oregon heavily and they could not play it
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  at noon Eastern because it's out in Eugene and they would have had to adjust
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  their marketing around the concept of big Noon if it was played at three thirty
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  or potentially later in the day, so they ended up trading the pick.
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  It looks like they've they've earmarked November two, which is Ohio State Penn State.
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  And also I believe Oregon Michigan as their potential two choices that day with
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  this pick that they've they've chosen, and that whichever network gets Ohio State Oregon
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  is going to get it in a very good window, either three thirty Eastern
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  or seven thirty eastern. And it's something that that network, whenever they decide
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  to announce anything about it, will be able to promote. So all right,
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  you just a tremendous tease there. You just talked about the Ohio State
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  Penn State game and the fact that that's Fox has the first pick, but
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  also that's Michigan Oregon week. So that's depending on how the season plays out,
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  Ohio State Penn State might not be the first game picked that week,
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  but then you also have Ohio State Oregon and you didn't say it. I
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  don't think directly there, but we don't actually know which network traded with Fox
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  to get the Ohio State Oregon week this week seven. So I'm sure people
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  right now are going, well, Okay, what do you think which is
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  Ohio State Oregon going to be on CBS at three thirty? Is it going
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  to be a night game on NBC? Ohio State Penn State? But you
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  know what, that one, I think is even more a little a little
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  more unfair because we're sort of asking you to say, Okay, what are
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  they going to decide to do with all the information that they're going to have
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  after eight weeks of the season. So with the understanding that these are both
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  very unfair questions to ask you, uh, Matt, when is the Ohio
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  State Oregon game in air on week seven? And when is the Ohio State
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  Penn State game Goeta air week ten? Uh? When I did my initial
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  guesses kind of across the season, thinking like what are the top three games
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  that Fox would choose, I actually lumped Alabama Wisconsin into it, and I
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  figured at that point, you know, CBS would look like a really good
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  choice for Ohio State Oregon on in mid October, and then Ohio State Penn
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  State would fit would have fit really well for NBC because Penn State likes their
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  whiteouts and it would have been a night game and it would have fit with
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  what NBC, you know, has for their package. So I kind of
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  leaned into that at the time, knowing now at Ohio State Penn State still
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  could end up on Fox that they owned the top choice, and they went
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  into some details with respect to political advertising. Is why they they went with
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  looking at that week as a top choice. I think that one will be
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  at noon, I you know, provided everything shakes out, you know in
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  Ohio State and Penn State or on that collision course for either being undefeated or
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  maybe one of the teams at all a loss, I think they'll look at
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  you. Fox will look at that as a big noon and I think CBS
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  in the end will be looking at the the Ohio State Oregon game. I
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  think NBC will have some great choices along the way. It's so interesting.
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  A year or two ago when I hedg you on we were talking about some
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  pit game, and you know, the time of the pit game was going
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  to be impacted by the fact that the Pittsburgh pileate It's we're playing a game
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  that day at home as well, and they shared parking grosses. When everything
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  came out, I looked, I remember talking about that, and then I
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  looked, I'm like, they totally went against everything I said. Yeah,
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  well, and but now now you're there. You know, Fox is making
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  this decision decision based on political ads because of course that's the Saturday before the
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  presidential election. And boy, if you have an audience of Penn State and
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  Ohio State people, those are two swing states potentially in the election. So,
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  uh, you may want to buy tickets for that one. Otherwise you're
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  going to see a lot of you know, my name is so and so,
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  and I've endorsed this ad. I prove this ad on your TV.
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  Uh so that so there's Those are both very interesting factors that could play into
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  that and with those with that game, if it doesn't, it doesn't have
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  to get announced immediately. Fox doesn't have to announce that it's big nowon right
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  now, which means you could get into the season with Penn State unsure of
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  is that going to be a white out or is it there? Are they
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  just going to say it's a white out regardless even if it's at noon because
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  they've typically done those just for night games. So another fun little dynamic there.
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  I'm sure James Franklin will be thrilled about that. He was, He
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  had lots of thoughts on the white out thing. When we got to talk
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  about Big ten media days a couple of years ago, when the Ohio State
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  Penn State game was a noon game that year. All right, little peek
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  behind the curtain. This conversation with Matt ended up going way longer than I
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  thought it would because there was a ton of interesting stuff to talk about.
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  So we're actually gonna split this into two shows. You're gonna get this one
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  today kind of focused on the Ohio State side of things. Early next week
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  you're gonna get the one talking kind of more big picture ESPN. Are they
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  going after Fox and the noon window? Is Fox really trying to plant their
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  flag on Friday nights? What's the deal with the college football playoff TNT sub
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  license from ESPN? A whole bunch of that fun stuff. We're talking all
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  about that with Matt on a show early next week, so you'll get to
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  you can look forward to that over the holiday weekend and while you were spending
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  some time grilling and all of the fun stuff you're going to do over the
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  holiday weekend, make sure you check out Mattsars sports dot com as well.
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  That is an incredible resource if you want to try and understand the TV business.
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  He's got all the details in there about the contracts with the leagues and
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  the different networks and the you know, this team has to appear on you
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  know, teams tough to appere on this network. So many times, there
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  is a ton that goes into understanding this. We get a million questions about
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  what time is the kickoff going to be for this game, and the answer
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  is, it's really complicated. But check Matt Sars because he is he is
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  the guy we check. You should check him there too at mattsarssports dot com.
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  Also, make sure you check us out at buckeyehuddle dot com. That'll
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  do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a
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  great day, enjoy the holiday weekend. We'll talk to you next week.