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BYU Football 2015 Television Predictions

Week 8

Saturday, October 24, 2015
Wagner College at BYU
Prediction: 3:00 PM Eastern, BYUtv
Justification: Does anyone really need justification?
Option 2: There isn’t an option 2.

Week 9

Saturday, October 31, 2015
BYE

Week 10

Friday, November 6, 2015
BYU at San Jose State University
Prediction: 11:30 PM Eastern, CBS College Sports Network
Justification: Announced and confirmed. It’s going to be an early Saturday out here in the Eastern Time Zone. In case anyone was wondering, this is the latest Friday night start time for any MWC game in the 2015 season. The love from Hair Thompson continues to flow.

Week 11

Saturday, November 14, 2015
BYU vs. University of Missouri (Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO)
Prediction: 7:00 PM Eastern, ESPN2
Justification: The top games of the day will be: Oklahoma at Baylor, Oregon at Stanford, Georgia at Auburn, Arkansas at LSU, Alabama at MSU, and Florida at South Carolina. Fox Network should have their hands all over the Big 12 and Pac-12 matchups while CBS, ESPN, and ABC primetime should snatch up three of the SEC matchups. The SEC Network has plenty to choose from among the North Texas at Tennessee, West Carolina at Texas A&M, and Kentucky at Vanderbilt games thus leaving BYU vs. Missouri as a good candidate for the primetime ESPN2 slot.
Option 2: 3:30 PM Eastern on ESPN or ESPN2/ABC mirror.

Week 12

Saturday, November 21, 2015
Fresno State University at BYU
Prediction: 7:00 PM Eastern, ESPNU
Justification: There is still some debate among BYU fans about whether there is a one game minimum appearance on ESPNU. Tom Holmoe was good enough to try to offer clarification last year that there isn’t a mandated minimum if ESPN wants all our games to appear on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2. I’m predicting an ESPNU slot here—not because of a rumor mandating a one-game minimum, but because of all of the prime matchups this week: Mississippi State at Arkansas, Tennessee at Missouri, LSU at Ole Miss, Georgia Tech at Miami (FL), Arizona at Arizona State, USC at Oregon, Cal at Stanford, TCU at Oklahoma, Baylor at Oklahoma State, Michigan State at Ohio State, and Michigan at Penn State. There is just not enough airtime to go around for a slot on ESPN or ESPN2 when all of these games tied to ESPN contracts are on the docket.
Option 2: 10:15 PM Eastern.

Week 13

Saturday, November 28, 2015
BYU at Utah State University
Prediction: 10:15 PM Eastern, ESPNU
Justification: Rivalry week options are helped by the fact that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are all filled with games. However, it is still rivalry week. There are a ton of quality pairings, making the late-night ESPNU slot the best that can be hoped for. BYU would have to be undefeated (not happening) or seeking a playoff spot for there to be enough national interest to push this game to a better channel and time slot.
Option 2: 4:00 PM Eastern on CBS College Sports.

SUMMARY

ABC/ESPN/2 Games: 7-8
ESPNU Games: 1-2
Fox Sports 1 Games: 0-1
CBS Sports Network Games: 1-2
BYUtv Games: 1

All in all, if the chips fall as I’ve predicted, 2015 probably ends up being the best TV coverage year in BYU football history.

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4 Comments

  1. Jim

    April 20, 2015 at 3:41 pm

    Awfully optimistic there buddy. Never have they had that many good spots on TV and it’s not happening this year either..

    • Greg

      April 20, 2015 at 4:23 pm

      Looks very similar to last year.8 games on ESPN/ESPN 2 last year.

      • yerlin

        April 21, 2015 at 9:38 pm

        well that may be the case, but they were mostly thursday and friday slots last year..essentially what the mountain west, mac, and other g5’s have always been doing, just added independent byu by espn. that’s why its optimistic with a lot of these games saturday this year, with a decent amount of fridays as well.

        • Jared Goulding

          April 22, 2015 at 10:51 am

          There is a difference in this year’s schedule that leads to one fewer weeknight game prediction for 2015 over 2014: the road games. In 2014, BYU had five Thursday/Friday games on the schedule–two of which were home games tied to BYU’s TV contract with ESPN. One was the Friday of General Conference weekend, which is a surprise to no one, and the other was the Houston game.

          Three of the five weeknight tilts were road games: UConn, UCF, and Boise State. All G5 conference teams. This is where there will be an obvious difference in 2015: Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan, and Missouri. Those games are not going to be played on a weeknight.

          The prediction actually indicates a higher number of weeknight home games than were played in 2014 so I don’t see how it is more optimistic. It very closely mirrors 2014 with the proper accommodations for the four P5 road matchups.