Viewers from 2014

[Rage Against the McKee]

We were hurt by our kstatehd.tv game.

[MakeItRain]

The ACC also had 5 games vs Notre Dame.

They also have like 35 schools, increased inventory means increased opportunity for good time slots. ESPN has nearly given them and the SEC exclusive use of their Thursday night slot.

Our tier 1 and 2 rights deals may be giving us lots of cash but it's awful for exposure. The FOX networks are still burgeoning and ESPN is completely screwing the Big 12 with that shitty 11am time slot. That used to be reserved for bad Big 10 games for a reason, now it's the national slot they give us. Gross.

[Panjandrum]

The ACC also had 5 games vs Notre Dame.

They also have like 35 schools, increased inventory means increased opportunity for good time slots. ESPN has nearly given them and the SEC exclusive use of their Thursday night slot.

Our tier 1 and 2 rights deals may be giving us lots of cash but it's awful for exposure. The FOX networks are still burgeoning and ESPN is completely screwing the Big 12 with that shitty 11am time slot. That used to be reserved for bad Big 10 games for a reason, now it's the national slot they give us. Gross.

You're right.  A lot of this is cause/effect from the SEC getting prime spots.  They usually get the primetime game on both ESPN and ESPN2.  Casual fans with your average cable tier gets SEC, SEC, or...well, SEC.

ESPN paid a boatload for that product, and they're protecting it by putting it in the best real estate.  That's not to say that they'd get higher ratings in those spots than any other conference, but their numbers wouldn't look as eye poppingly good if the rest of the conferences weren't buried in less attractive time slots.

I did a similar exercise after the 2013 season.  ESPN had 14 primetime games in 2013 on Saturdays.  SEC teams were involved in 10 of those 14.  They averaged about 3.4 million viewers per game.  In the four games that didn't involve an SEC team, there were nearly 3.9 million viewers.  Their average actually dropped when they had an SEC team on ESPN.  On ESPN2, the impact was the opposite.  ESPN had SEC teams involved in 11 of 14 games.  In the other three games, the matchups were Texas/BYU and two American Conference games.  The Texas/BYU game only drew 1.2 million viewers.  The American Conference games averaged about 600k. 

You might ask why the Texas/BYU game drew such few viewers?  OU vs. WVU was on Fox, and Michigan/ND was on ESPN at the same time.

Regardless, the primetime game on Fox, on average, drew 100k more viewers than the primetime game on ESPN.  Both were dwarfed by ABC, obviously, but if you're looking to pump up your product, putting it on ESPN and ESPN2 for 21 out of a possible 28 spots on your two basic cable TV channels doesn't hurt.

[catzacker]

The ACC also had 5 games vs Notre Dame.

They also have like 35 schools, increased inventory means increased opportunity for good time slots. ESPN has nearly given them and the SEC exclusive use of their Thursday night slot.

Our tier 1 and 2 rights deals may be giving us lots of cash but it's awful for exposure. The FOX networks are still burgeoning and ESPN is completely screwing the Big 12 with that shitty 11am time slot. That used to be reserved for bad Big 10 games for a reason, now it's the national slot they give us. Gross.

Did ESPN even really want the Big 12? I can't remember.  Do we know what their alleged bid (if they even had one) was?  FOX is just not where anyone goes to watch a game to begin with, let alone when something of remotely similar "value" is on ESPN. I mean, I'm glad we have all kinds of money, just not sure how much less we would have had to of taken.  Juice worth the squeeze type of stuff.

[sonofdaxjones]

Fox is relatively new to college sports, and FS1 is still relatively new.   Let's take CBS and the SEC, I completely forget about it and until I look at the scores ticking by and then start hunting around on the guide for that game.

[420seriouscat69]

Oh. I guess their contract says 1 big 12 game. I wasn't thinking about the non con. Good thinking.

[Cartierfor3]

are there really people who can't find channels?

[star seed 7]

are there really people who can't find channels?

dax is very very old

[MakeItRain]

are there really people who can't find channels?

The issue isn't being able to find FOX and FS1 but remembering that they have a game on. Even cfb fans in their 20's are trained to watch ABC, ESPN, and CBS for college football. I mean it was like 3 years ago when FOX's only cfb game in an entire season was the cotton bowl.

[Katpappy]

  CD

are there really people who can't find channels?

The issue isn't being able to find FOX and FS1 but remembering that they have a game on. Even cfb fans in their 20's are trained to watch ABC, ESPN, and CBS for college football. I mean it was like 3 years ago when FOX's only cfb game in an entire season was the cotton bowl.

BULLSHIT! 

[sonofdaxjones]

are there really people who can't find channels?

dax is very very old

So weird.

Sad

[8manpick]

are there really people who can't find channels?

The issue isn't being able to find FOX and FS1 but remembering that they have a game on. Even cfb fans in their 20's are trained to watch ABC, ESPN, and CBS for college football. I mean it was like 3 years ago when FOX's only cfb game in an entire season was the cotton bowl.

CFB fans in their 20's press 'guide' and look for college football and aren't particularly concerned with the channel. Source: a cfb fan in his 20's (me)

[TownieCat]

The problem with the Big 12 is KU, ISU, and TT have to take up time on FS1. Those schools are killing FS1's brand because their games are so unwatchable. The big 10, SEC, and P12 can hide their unwatchable teams on their conference network. Purdue, Kentucky, and Wazzu don't use up as much of the good inventory.

[MakeItRain]

are there really people who can't find channels?

The issue isn't being able to find FOX and FS1 but remembering that they have a game on. Even cfb fans in their 20's are trained to watch ABC, ESPN, and CBS for college football. I mean it was like 3 years ago when FOX's only cfb game in an entire season was the cotton bowl.

CFB fans in their 20's press 'guide' and look for college football and aren't particularly concerned with the channel. Source: a cfb fan in his 20's (me)

Fantastic but that has nothing to do with what I said. I know how to find FOX too it's channel 17 where I live. I know FOX has college football games because I am a fan of the Big 12 Conference. When casual college football fans are turning on a game that doesn't involve their team they aren't watching FOX. Not a real rough ridin' brain buster that FOX appears on the goddamned guide, so do games on CBS College Sports, Fox College Sports, and NESN. Do casual football fans go to those places when there's a million games on or do they go to the ESPN family of networks and the SEC game on CBS? FOX will hopefully eventually be looked at as a place for CFB that is equal to ESPN or hell at least ABC at some point but they aren't there yet. The problem is that college football fans are watching ESPN throughout the week and are getting that integrated promotion of the games. No one watches FOX or really FS1 at this point so when you've been inundated for promos about Clemson vs NC State all week at 6PM on Saturday, if you live in Minnesota you're going to be more apt to watch Clemson vs. NC State than you are TCU vs. West Virginia because you haven't heard a rough ridin' word about it all week. This isn't a controversial point at all and I'm not sure why we're arguing about it.

[sonofdaxjones]

So, only 5 Pac-12 schools were ahead of K-State in viewership.   But no one is going to want K-State.

Oh wait, wait, it's all going to fall apart when Snyder retires again. 

But programs at other schools will be tops forever, no matter who coaches them.

[Big Sam]

are there really people who can't find channels?

The issue isn't being able to find FOX and FS1 but remembering that they have a game on. Even cfb fans in their 20's are trained to watch ABC, ESPN, and CBS for college football. I mean it was like 3 years ago when FOX's only cfb game in an entire season was the cotton bowl.

Theory only works when applied to GPC users.  And even then it is a distinctive slice from that population.