Dave Brown, Vice President of Programming at ESPN, mentioned during the BYU Media Day festivities that the Cougars would be seen on the ESPN family of networks at least 10 times during the upcoming campaign. With seven (Ole Miss, Texas, Utah, UCF, Utah State, TCU, and Hawaii) being broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN 2. The other three, (San Jose State, Idaho, and New Mexico State) being carried on ESPNU. Idaho State (BYUTV) and Oregon State (TBA) are the other teams on this year’s docket.
Interesingly, Brown also mentioned that the 2012 campaign will have, as of today, a minimum of eight contest on ESPN2. Not ESPN family of networks (see ESPNU) but the two channels carried by the vast majority of distributors. What will those games be?
- September 1 – Oregon State
- September 8 – Hawaii
- September 15 – @ Utah
- September 22 - @Boise State (Doubtful. BSU plays two non-conference home games in 2011. No ESPN broadcast. Oh, that tricky MTN network.)
- October 13 - @ Georgia Tech
- October 20 - @ Notre Dame (Probable. NBC also in the mix. My guess is that Brown knows that this game will be on ESPN. The 2003 and 2005 games were on NBC. 2004 contest on ESPN.)
- Date TBA – @Utah State (Conference Friday. ESPN 2. Mark it down.)
- The other three teams on the docket, Idaho, New Mexico State, and San Jose State did not have their 2011 contests against BYU on ESPN or ESPN2. Doubtful these match-ups will make the jump to ESPN/ESPN2 in 2012.
- There are 10 announced games as of this writing. BYU will announce a minimum of two, a maximum of three remaining games for 2012.
So, this being said, there are a number of scenarios that could be in play:
- Mr. Brown simply misspoke and was referring to ESPN Networks in general, making this entire post meaningless.
- The seven bolded games above will be carried on ESPN/ESPN2 and one the three dumpster fires (NMSU/Idaho/SJSU) will be bumped up to the big-time.
- The seven bolded games above will be carried on ESPN/ESPN2, the dumpster fires will remain on the U, and there is an ESPN provided matchup waiting to be announced.
- No Boise. Yes to ND. No Dumpster Fires. And two ESPN provided matchups in the works.
- Any number of scenarios implied by the above information.
I would guess that the above bolded games, not including Boise State, will be carried on ESPN or ESPN 2. The NMSU/Idaho/SJSU games will remain on ESPNU. There will be two games announced in the next few months that are made-for-TV-ESPN specials.
How do you think it will play out?
Editor’s Note: A 2012 matchup with Idaho was previously unannounced before today. My guess, Idaho will fill the place of Louisiana Tech who was scheduled before a conflict occurred.