Fang's Bites

College Football Viewing Picks For Week 5, 09/29/2012, All Times Eastern

Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Pregame & Studio Shows
College GameDay live from East Lansing, MI — ESPNU, 9 a.m./ESPN, 10 a.m.
BTN Football Pregame — Big Ten Network, 11 a.m.
ACC Blitz — ACC Network, noon
College Football Countdown — ABC, 3 p.m.
BTN Football Gamebreak 2012 — Big Ten Network, 3 p.m.
College Football Today — CBS, 3 p.m.
College Football Scoreboard — ESPN2, 3 p.m.
College Football Scoreboard — ESPN2, 6;30 p.m.
SEC Tonight — CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.
Inside College Football — CBS Sports Network, 11:30 p.m.
The Final Drive — Big Ten Network, midnight
College Football Final — ESPN2, 1:30 a.m. (Saturday)

noon
Buffalo at UConn — Big East Network (Eamon McAnaney/David Diaz-Infante/Paul Carcaterra)

Indiana at Northwestern — Big Ten Network (Kevin Kugler/Chris Martin/Jon Janesen)

Stony Brook at Army — CBS Sports Network (Ben Holden/Randy Cross/Cadet Linc Bradham)

Penn State at Illinois — ESPN/ESPN3D (Dave Pasch/Brian Griese/Jenn Brown)
Minnesota at Iowa — ESPN2 (Beth Mowins/Joey Galloway/Lewis Johnson)
NC State at Miami (Florida) — ESPNU (Tom Hart/John Congemi)
Ball State at Kent State — ESPN Plus/CSS (Michael Reghi/Doug Graber)

Baylor at West Virginia — FX (Justin Kutcher/Eric Crouch/Darius Walker)
Missouri at Central Florida — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Central/WLVI/KICU (Ron Thulin/Shaun King/Desmond Purnell)
Middle Tennessee State at Georgia Tech — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Mike Hogewood/Riley Skinner/Elizabeth Moreau)
Central Connecticut Stat at Sacred Heart — Fox College Sports Atlantic (Paul Dottino/Steve Levy)
Eastern Kentucky at Tennessee-Martin — Fox College Sports Pacific (Kevin Ingram/Bob Belvin)

Penn at Dartmouth — NBC Sports Network (Randy Moss/Ross Tucker/Carolyn Manno)

Arkansas at Texas A&M — SEC Network, 12:21 p.m. kickoff (Dave Neal/Andre Ware/Cara Capuano)

12:30 p.m.
Duke at Wake Forest — ACC Network

2 p.m.
Nevada at Texas State — Longhorn Network (Dave Armstrong/Kelly Stouffer)

3:15 p.m.
Marshall at Purdue — Big Ten Network (Eric Collins/Derek Rackley/J Leman)

3:30 p.m.
Ohio State at Michigan State — ABC (Brent Musburger/Kirk Herbstreit/Heather Cox)

Tennessee at Georgia — CBS (Verne Lundquist/Gary Danielson/Tracy Wolfson)
San Jose State at Navy — CBS Sports Network (Grant Boone/Todd Christensen/Sheehan Stanwick Burch)

Clemson at Boston College — ESPN2 (Bob Wischusen/Danny Kanell/Maria Taylor)
Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati at Landover, MD — ESPNU (Anish Shroff/Dan Hawkins)
URI at Bowling Green — ESPN3 (Greg Franke/Tom Cole)

Houston vs. Rice (at Reliant Stadium) — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Atlantic/WMCN/WDCA/KICU (Mike Morgan/JC Pearson/Laura McKeeman)
Idaho at North Carolina — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Paul Kennedy/Keith Jones/Jenn Hildreth)
West Chester at California (PA) — Fox College Sports Pacific (Stan Savern/John Sanders)

Atlanta Football Classic
Florida A&M vs. Southern — NBC Sports Network (James Verrett/Anthony Herron/Rashan Ali)

Montana State at Southern Utah — Root Sports (Northwest/Rocky Mountain)/Audience Network (DirecTV)

4 p.m.
Arizona State at Cal — FX (Craig Bolerjack/Joel Klatt/Petros Papadakis)

6 p.m.
Florida State at South Florida — ESPN (Sean McDonough/Chris Spielman/Quint Kessenich)

UCLA at Colorado — Pac-12 Network (Ted Robinson/Adam Archuleta/Yogi Roth)

7 p.m.
Georgia State at William & Mary — Comcast SportsNet (Bay Area/Chicago/Mid-Atlantic/Northwest)/CSS

South Carolina at Kentucky — ESPN2 (Mike Patrick/Ed Cunningham/Jeannine Edwards)
Towson at LSU — ESPNU (Clay Matvick/Matt Stinchcomb/Allison Williams)

TCU at SMU — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Atlantic (Joel Myers/Brian Baldinger/Jim Knox)
Texas Tech at Iowa State — Fox College Sports Central (Mike Gleason/Dave Lapham/Lesley McCaslin)

Montana at Eastern Washington — Root Sports (Northwest/Rocky Mountain)/Audience Network (DirecTV)

7:50 p.m.
Texas at Oklahoma State — Fox (Gus Johnson/Charles Davis/Julie Alexandria)

8 p.m.
Wisconsin at Nebraska — ABC (Brad Nessler/Todd Blackledge/Holly Rowe)

Louisville at Southern Mississippi — CBS Sports Network (James Bates/Aaron Taylor/Lauren Gardner)

9:15 p.m.
Mississippi at Alabama — ESPN (Joe Tessitore/Matt Millen/Jessica Mendoza)

10 p.m.
Oregon State at Arizona — Pac-12 Network (Kevin Calabro/Glenn Parker/Ryan Nece)

10:30 p.m.
Oregon vs. Washington State at Seattle, WA — ESPN2 (Mark Jones/Brock Huard/Shelley Smith)
Grambling State at Alabama A&M — ESPNU (Joe Davis/Jay Walker) (same night coverage)

College Football Viewing Picks For Week 4, 09/22/2012, All Times Eastern

Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Pregame & Studio Shows
College GameDay live from Tallahassee, FL — ESPNU, 9 a.m./ESPN, 10 a.m.
BTN Football Pregame — Big Ten Network, 11 a.m.
ACC Blitz — ACC Network, noon
College Football Countdown — ABC, 3 p.m.
College Football Today — CBS, 3 p.m.
College Football Scoreboard — ESPN/ESPN2, 3 p.m.
BTN Football Postgame — Big Ten Network, 6:30 p.m.
SEC Tonight — CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.
College Football Scoreboard — ESPN2, 7 p.m.
BTN Football Postgame — Big Ten Network, 11 p.m.
Inside College Football — CBS Sports Network, 11:30 p.m.
The Final Drive — Big Ten Network, midnight
College Football Final — ESPN2, 1:30 a.m. (Sunday)

noon
Central Michigan at Iowa — Big Ten Network (Kevin Kugler/Danan Hughes/Tom Helmer)
UAB at Ohio State — Big Ten Network (Eric Collins/Derek Rackley/Lisa Byington)

Lafayette at Bucknell — CBS Sports Network (Dave Ryan/Ron Zook)

New Hampshire at Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic/New England/Philadelphia)
Furman at Presbyterian — CSS

Virginia at TCU — ESPN/ESPN 3D (Dave Pasch/Brian Griese/Jenn Brown)
UTEP at Wisconsin — ESPN2 (Beth Mowins/Joey Galloway/Lewis Johnson)
Bowling Green at Virginia Tech — ESPNU (Tom Hart/John Congemi)
UMass at Miami (OH) — ESPN Plus (Michael Reghi/Doug Graber)

Maryland at West Virginia — FX (Justin Kutcher/Eric Crouch/Darius Walker)
Mississippi at Tulane — Fox Sports Net/Fox College Sports Central/WLVI/KICU (Ron Thulin/Shaun King/Desmond Purnell)

Kentucky at Florida — SEC Network, 12:21 p.m. kickoff (Dave Neal/Andre Ware/Cara Capuano)

12:30 p.m.
Army at Wake Forest — ACC Network

1 p.m.
Yale at Cornell — NBC Sports Network (Todd Harris/Blaine Fowler/Kelli Johnson)

3 p.m.
Miami at Georgia Tech — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Paul Kennedy/Keith Jones/Jenn Hildreth)

3:30 p.m.
Oregon State at UCLA — ABC/ESPN2 (Sean McDonough/Chris Spielman/Quint Kessenich)
Temple at Penn State — ABC/ESPN2 (Mike Patrick/Ed Cunningham/Jeannine Edwards)

Eastern Michigan at Michigan State — Big Ten Network (Matt Devlin/Glen Mason/Rebecca Haarlow)
Idaho State at Nebraska — Big Ten Network (Tom Werme/Kelly Stouffer/Damon Benning)
South Dakota at Northwestern — Big Ten Network (Wayne Larrivee/Jon Jansen/Evan Fitzgerald)

Missouri at South Carolina — CBS (Verne Lundquist/Gary Danielson/Tracy Wolfson)
VMI at Navy — CBS Sports Network (Grant Boone/Todd Christensen/Sheehan Stanwick Burch)

Villanova at Penn — Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
Marshall at Rice — CSS/Comcast SportsNet (Bay Area/Mid-Atlantic Plus)

East Carolina at North Carolina — ESPNU (Anish Shroff/Dan Hawkins)

Indiana (PA) at California (PA) — Fox College Sports Pacific (Stan Savern/John Sanders)

4 p.m.
Colorado at Washington State — FX (Craig Bolerjack/Joel Klatt/Petros Papadakis)

4:30 p.m.
Harvard at Brown — NBC Sports Network (Randy Moss/Ross Tucker/Carolyn Manno)

South Florida at Ball State — Big East Network (Eamon McAnaney/David Diaz/Infante)

6 p.m.
Cal at USC — Pac-12 Network (Ted Robinson/Glenn Parker/Ryan Nece)

7 p.m.
Delaware at William & Mary — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic/Philadelphia)

LSU at Auburn — ESPN (Brad Nessler/Todd Blackledge/Holly Rowe)
Rutgers at Arkansas — ESPNU (Clay Matvick/Matt Stinchcomb/Allison Williams)

Lehigh at Liberty — Fox College Sports Atlantic (Steve Degler/Mike Yadush)
Wagner at Central Connecticut State — Fox College Sports Pacific (Paul Dottino/Steve Levy)
South Carolina State at Texas A&M — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Bob Rathbun/Tim Couch/Elizabeth Moreau)

7:30 p.m.
Akron at Tennessee — CSS (Matt Stewart/Chris Doering/Angela Mallen)

Kansas State at Oklahoma — Fox (Gus Johnson/Charles Davis/Julie Alexandria)

Michigan at Notre Dame — NBC (Tom Hammond/Mike Mayock/Alex Flanagan)

7:45 p.m.
Vanderbilt at Georgia — ESPN2 (Mark Jones/Brock Huard/Maria Taylor)

8 p.m.
Clemson at Florida State — ABC (Brent Musburger/Kirk Herbstreit/Heather Cox)

Louisiana Tech at Illinois — Big Ten Network (Chris Denari/J Leman/Tony Banks)
Syracuse at Minnesota — Big Ten Network (Matt Shephard/Chris Martin/Jay Wilson)

Fresno State at Tulsa — CBS Sports Network (James Bates/Aaron Taylor/Lauren Gardner)

10 p.m.
Utah at Arizona State — Pac-12 Network (Kevin Calabro/Adam Archuleta/Yogi Roth)

10:30 p.m.
Arizona at Oregon State — ESPN (Joe Tessitore/Matt Millen/Shelley Smith)

Nevada at Hawai’i — NBC Sports Network (Paul Burmeister/Rod Woodson/Anthony Herron)

Going For Some Monday Linkage

Doing some linkage for you on this return to the work week.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand notes the NHL Lockout will hurt any ratings momentum NBC Sports Network had from the summer.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report talks with The Professor, new-found Slayer fan, John Clayton of ESPN.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans, writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, is concerned about the increasing amount of partnerships between the sports TV networks and colleges.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter says hockey fans are wondering if they’ll be watching the NHL when the season supposedly starts next month.

Allison Keene of the Reporter reviews Fox’s new documentary series, “Being: Liverpool.”

In Examiner.com, Evan Weiner explores how politicians play a role in sports labor disputes.

The SEC has announced its TV schedule for September 29.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at “Being: Liverpool.”

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette explains why the Pittsburgh-New York Jets game was not joined at the beginning of the contest in the Capital Region.

Ken notes that the ESPN Family of Networks will air five Siena men’s basketball games.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says Marist gets multiple appearances on ESPN’s networks.

The Buffalo News reports that the Bills are about to play more games in Toronto over the next five seasons.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun continues to hate CBS’ Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com talks about a new Baltimore Ravens beat writer.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner notes SportsCenter’s influence.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times talks with Fox Sports’ Joe Buck.

Coley Harvey of the Orlando Sentinel says ESPN’s College GameDay is heading to the Sunshine State this week.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says a Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic mainstay will be uprooting and heading to Houston.

Mel Bracht in The Oklahoman catches up with Screamin’ Gus Johnson.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has Fox’s Terry Bradshaw giving some advice to quarterbacks Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers.

Duane Dudek of the Journal Sentinel notes the launch of new show hosted by four wives of Green Bay Packers players.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says the Broncos are veterans of Monday Night Football.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your SoCal sports calendar for the week.

Tom has five things he learned from the weekend.

Sports Media Watch says the overnight numbers for CBS’ NFL doubleheader were down from a year ago.

SMW says Fox’s numbers were down for its NFL regional coverage as well.

Those are the links for today.

Picking Out Some Sunday Links For You

Let’s do some Sunday linkage on this first NFL regular season Sunday of 2012.

We’ll begin with Pat Eaton-Robb of the Associated Press with an interesting story on how Connecticut is fast becoming home of major sports media companies.

Candace Jackson of the Wall Street talks about her visit to Rich Eisen and his wife, Suzy Shuster’s home in beautiful Beverly Hills.

Jon Gold from CBSSports.com has statements from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott on getting the conference’s networks on Dish Network.

Also from CBSSports.com, Dennis Dodd says the SEC expects to have new TV deals in place including the super secret SEC Network, not the one run by ESPN.

Media Rantz solves the mystery of what happened to NFL Network’s Kara Henderson.

Liana Baker of Reuters reports that an NHL lockout could hurt ratings momentum for NBC Sports Network.

John Gaudiosi of Forbes.com tells us that Sony Playstation 3 gamers get a discounted price for  DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel says Dish Network has beaten DirecTV to the punch and made a deal with Pac 12 Networks in time for yesterday’s college football games.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter writes that movie director James Cameron will be assisting UK’s Sky Sports in producing a 3-D production of this month’s Ryder Cup.

Tim Nudd of Adweek looks at ESPN’s very funny SportsCenter promo featuring John Clayton that has already gone viral.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek notes that NBC broke even on the 2012 Olympics.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has your NFL Broadcasting Guide for the 2012 season.

Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times, writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center has a theory as to why some NFL teams fail to sell out their games.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report has former ESPN’er Charley Steiner recalling two of the funniest “This is SportsCenter” ads ever.

Ed also has some videos from the early days of Monday Night Football. Make that very early days.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell wonders if CBS is selling Super Bowl ads on the cheap.

Evan Weiner of Examiner.com says the late Art Modell deserves better from Cleveland fans. I hate to tell you, Evan, but as a Browns fan, Modell made his bed and has to lie in it.

On the other hand, Newsday’s Bob Glauber says he can’t reconcile Modell’s pulling the Browns from Cleveland with the other parts of his legacy.

Rachel Margolis at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog says College GameDay heads to Tennessee for Week 3.

Drew Drawbaugh of Engadget reports that Google Fiber subscribers will get access to NFL Network and NFL RedZone starting tomorrow.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says former Celtic and Chicago Bull Brian Scalabrine will join Comcast SportsNet New England as an analyst.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says two former American Basketball Association team owners who get to collect part of the NBA’s TV revenue in perpetuity, want even more and are suing to get it.

Tanzina Vega of the Times says ESPN Deportes Radio NY will be broadcasting Jets games in Spanish this season.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty has NFL Commish Roger Goodell disappointed that the league doesn’t have a deal with Time Warner Cable to carry NFL Network.

David Zurawik from the Baltimore Sun says ratings for the Grand Prix of Baltimore fell by almost 60% from the year before. However, last year’s race was on ABC while this year’s edition was on NBC Sports Network.

David speaks with Amber Theoharis who has left MASN for NFL Network and will replace the aforementioned Kara Henderson.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Fox Sports college football analyst Charles Davis.

Coley Harvey at the Orlando Sentinel asks if ESPN’s College GameDay will pay a visit to Tallahassee later this month.

Jimmy Burch in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that the new Big 12 deal with ESPN and Fox will allow for more national broadcasts.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle has the college football media guide for this season.

Mel Bracht in The Oklahoman says yesterday’s PPV production of the Florida A&M-Oklahoma game was network quality.

Tim Feran of the Columbus (OH) Dispatch says NFL Network and Time Warner Cable are no closer to an agreement than when the channel debuted.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wonders how long DirecTV can hold out not carrying the Pac 12 Networks.

Tom says Fox tapped the right man to lead its World Cup coverage.

Sports Media Watch notes that last week’s PGA Deutsche Bank Championship hit a five year ratings high.

Dann Stupp and John Morgan of MMA Junkie write that NBC Sports Network will hire some familiar names for an upcoming World Series of Fighting telecast.

And that will do it. The NFL pregame show quotage is coming up next.

College Football Viewing Picks for 09/08/12, All Times Eastern

Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Pregame & Studio Shows
College GameDay live from College Station, TX — ESPNU, 9 a.m./ESPN, 10 a.m.
BTN Football Pregame — Big Ten Network, 11 a.m.
Inside College Football — CBS Sports Network, 2:30 p.m.
College Football Scoreboard — ESPN/ESPN2, 3 p.m.
College Football Scoreboard — ESPN2, 7 p.m.
SEC Tonight — CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.
Fox College Saturday — Fox, 7 p.m.
The Final Drive — Big Ten Network, 11 p.m.
College Football Final — ESPN2, 1:30 a.m. (Sunday)

noon
Penn State at Virginia — ABC (Mike Patrick/Ed Cunningham/George Smith)

NC State at UConn — Big East Network (Eamon McAnaney/David Diaz-Infante/Paul Carcaterra)

New Hampshire at Minnesota — Big Ten Network (Matt Devlin/Glen Mason/J Leman)

Auburn at Mississippi State — ESPN/ESPN 3D (Dave Pasch/Brian Griese/Jenn Brown)
Central Florida at Ohio State — ESPN 2 (Beth Mowins/Joey Galloway/Lewis Johnson)
Maryland at Temple — ESPNU (Tom Hart/John Congemi)

Miami at Kansas State — FX (Justin Kutcher/Eric Crouch/Darius Walker)
Tulane at Tulsa — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Atlantic/WLVI/KICU (Rod Thulin/Shaun King/Desmond Purnell)

East Carolina at South Carolina — SEC Network, 12:21 p.m. (Dave Neal/Andre Ware/Cara Capuano)

12:30 p.m.
Ball State at Clemson — ACC Network

3 p.m.
Weber State at BYU — BYU TV

North Carolina at Wake Forest — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Paul Kennedy/Keith Jones/Jenn Hildreth)

Eastern Washington at Washington State — Pac 12 Network (Oregon & Washington) (Dwayne Ballen/Kelly Stouffer)
Sacramento State at Colorado — Pac 12 Network (Mountain) (Matt Smith/Jeremy Bloom)
Southern Utah at Cal — Pac 12 Network (National) (Rich Cellini/Gary Plummer/Erin Coscarelli)

3:30 p.m.
Air Force at Michigan — ABC/ESPN (Bob Wischusen/Danny Kanell/Maria Taylor)
USC vs. Syracuse at East Rutherford, NJ — ABC/ESPN (Sean McDonough/Chris Spielman/Shelley Smith)

Howard at Rutgers — Big East Network (Mike Corey/Rene Ingoglia)
Missouri State at Louisville — Big East Network

Iowa State at Iowa — Big Ten Network (Kevin Kugler/Chris Martin/Chuck Long/Jon Jansen)

South Florida at Nevada — CBS Sports Network (James Bates/Aaron Taylor/Lauren Gardner)

Florida at Texas A&M — ESPN (Brent Musburger/Kirk Herbstreit/Heather Cox)
Michigan State at Central Michigan — ESPNU (Anish Shroff/Dan Hawkins)

Rice at Kansas — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Central/WLVI/KICU/WDCA (Joel Meyers/Brian Baldinger/Jim Knox)
Carnegie Mellon at Allegheny College — Fox College Sports Atlantic (John Sanders/Ellis Cannon/Amanda McCall)

Purdue at Notre Dame — NBC (Tom Hammond/Mike Mayock/Alex Flanagan)
Delaware State at Delaware — NBC Sports Network (Todd Harris/Ross Tucker/Carolyn Manno)

Western Kentucky at Alabama — SEC Network (Mike Morgan/Chris Doering/Jill Montgomery)

4 p.m.
Wisconsin at Oregon State — FX (Craig Bolerjack/Joel Klatt/Petros Papadakis)

6:30 p.m.
Fresno State at Oregon — Pac 12 Network (National) (Ted Robinson/Adam Archuleta/Yogi Roth)

7 p.m.
Washington at LSU — ESPN (Brad Nessler/Todd Blackledge/Holly Rowe)
Louisiana-Monroe at Arkansas — ESPNU (Clay Matvick/Matt Stinchcomb/Allison Williams)

UTEP at Mississippi — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Bob Rathbun/Tim Couch/Elizabeth Moreau)
Western Carolina at Marshall — Fox College Sports Atlantic (Mike Gleason/Gary Reasons/Lesley McCaslin)
Grambling State at TCU — Fox Sports Southwest Plus/Fox College Sports Pacific (Mark Followill/JC Pearson/Emily Jones)

7:30 p.m.
Kent State at Kentucky — CSS (Matt Stewart/Cole Cubelic/Angela Mallen)

Nebraska at UCLA — Fox (Gus Johnson/Charles Davis/Julie Alexandria)

Army at San Diego State — NBC Sports Network (Paul Burmeister/Rod Woodson/Anthony Herron)

7:45 p.m.
Georgia at Missouri — ESPN2 (Joe Tessitore/Matt Millen/Quint Kussenich)

8 p.m.
Vanderbilt at Northwestern — Big Ten Network (Eric Collins/Derek Rackley/Lisa Byington)

Louisiana Tech at Houston — CBS Sports Network (Dave Ryan/Ron Zook/Evan Washburn)

New Mexico at Texas — Longhorn Network (Mark Neely/Ray Bentley/Kaylee Hartung)

10:30 p.m.
Illinois at Arizona State — ESPN (Mark Jones/Brock Huard/Jessica Mendoza)

Duke at Stanford — Pac 12 Network (Bay Area) (Dave Flemming/Coy Wire/Brooke Olzendam)
Oklahoma State at Arizona — Pac 12 Network (National) (Kevin Calabro/Glenn Parker/Ryan Nece)

A Rare Sunday Linkage Post!

I wanted to do a piece of site business before doing some rare Sunday linkage and rare linkage in general. Thanks to you, August was the best month ever as far as site visits are concerned. Whether it was due to you visiting over the Olympics schedules or wanting to see who Nicole Zaloumis was all about, Fang’s Bites had over 102,000 unique hits. While this is not in Deadspin or Big Lead range, both get way over 100,000 hits on a bad day, it’s a big deal for me. And this was even during a stretch when I couldn’t post due to the Office Move From Hell, so I thank you for visiting and returning during August. I hope you continue to visit during the fall months.

And because of that office move, I wasn’t able to do what is the bread and butter of this site, the links. I haven’t been able to provide them in several weeks. Let’s start September anew and provide good links to you as I used to.

Let’s begin.

One of the bigger stories from Saturday was the pre-emption in most of the country of the debut of the Fox College Saturday pregame show hosted by Erin Andrews, Joey Harrington and Eddie George. Because two Fox Saturday Baseball games ran long, it wiped out Erin’s Fox  debut. Only 10% of the country saw the pregame show in its entirety.

Media Rantz looks at why this happened.

Sports Media Watch says it wasn’t the start that Fox wanted in its first season of covering college football full-time.

Former USA Today sports media and business writer Mike McCarthy writes in his new $ports Biz USA site that Alabama coach Nick Saban came off as a jerk (what else is new?) in a halftime interview with ESPN’s Heather Cox.

Nicole Auerbach at USA Today at the Campus Rivalry blog asks readers about the debut of Samantha Steele on ESPN’s College GameDay.

Karl Taro Greenfeld at Bloomberg Businessweek takes a look at ESPN’s business model.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable says the embattled Longhorn Network got a big pickup before yesterday’s Texas season opener.

Multichannel News reports that the Athletic Director of the University of California-Berkeley ceremoniously dumped her DirecTV subscription over the satellite provider’s refusal to pick up Pac-12 Network.

Adweek looks at an unexpected shakeup at ESPN The Magazine.

Christopher Heine of Adweek notes that the Mohegan Sun casino has pulled ads from Penn State’s Beaver Stadium.

Adweek’s Anthony Crupi looks at this year’s crop of Nissan Heisman House spots that will air before each and every ABC Saturday Night Football game.

And Emma Bazilian of Adweek notes that USA Today is rolling out a new high school football magazine in 11 markets.

Dylan Murphy at SportsGrid noticed that ESPN’s Bottom Line obscured key sideline replays in two  college football games yesterday.

Joe Lucia at Awful Announcing says DirecTV is slashing prices of its UFC pay per views.

That will do us for now. I may add more links later.

ESPN College GameDay Unveils New Promo

You may have seen it online already, College GameDay’s new promo featuring the new castmate Samantha Steele along with stalwarts Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Lee Corso and Tom Rinaldi plus Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin. They’re highlighting Texas A&M’s great tradition, the Midnight Yell which dates back to 1913.

The promo will be officially unveiled on the ESPN Family of Networks starting on Labor Day.

In a contest that was titled “Bring GameDay To Your Campus”, there was a countrywide vote to determine where ESPN’s college football pregame show would film its newest promo and the Texas A&M campus won out.

The ESPN press release explains the Midnight Yell tradition plus we have the promo following that.

ESPN College GameDay Debuts Midnight Yell Spot Filmed at Texas A&M University

Texas A&M Won GameDay Vote Contest in April

As part of the kick-off to the college football season, ESPN has unveiled a new College GameDay Built by the Home Depot commercial featuring the time-honored Midnight Yell tradition at Texas A&M University. The commercial was posted online, and will make its TV debut on Monday, Sept. 3, across all ESPN networks.

Filmed at Texas A&M’s historic Kyle Field with students earlier this summer, the spot brings Midnight Yell to life in an inspiring, but comedic way. First-year Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin, mascot Reveille and thousands of Aggie students and alumni – known as former students – star in the spot along with GameDay’s Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Tom Rinaldi and Samantha Steele.

The Midnight Yell tradition dates back to 1913 and attracts more than 25,000 fans to Kyle Field the night before every home game. At midnight, yell leaders lead Texas A&M students and fans – known as the 12th Man – through “yells,” not cheers, and various songs in preparation for the following day’s game.

“We are looking forward to sharing one of college football’s most unique traditions with ESPN’s national audience throughout the upcoming season,” said Jason Cook, Texas A&M’s vice president for marketing and communications. “With Texas A&M’s transition into the SEC this year, the excitement level in Aggieland is at a feverish pitch as the 12^th Man is preparing to welcome the Florida Gators to Kyle Field Sept. 8 on ESPN.”

The spot follows a nationwide voting contest, “Bring GameDay To Your Campus,” that allowed fans of 124 FBS schools to vote to bring a College GameDay commercial shoot to their campus. Fans could vote via gamedayvote.com (online or mobile) or on the ESPN College GameDay Facebook page. Celebrities rallied their Twitter fans to vote as the contest came down to the University of Nebraska and Texas A&M. Nearly a million votes were tabulated during the 10-day contest, with Texas A&M emerging as the victor. ESPN filmed the Midnight Yell spot at in College Station in late July.

Added Scott Parker, vice president, ESPN marketing, “The GameDay Vote contest and the Midnight Yell GameDay spot are a really big step for this iconic franchise. From fans selecting  the location of the shoot to thousands of A&M students participating in the spot, the campaign really captures the unique, interactive, on-campus experience of College Gameday in a brand new way.”

And here’s the promo.

That’s it.

ESPN’s College Football Studio Shows

We know about College GameDay which is ESPN’s signature pregame show for college football. ESPN has provided its studio show lineup for this season. It includes College Football Live and CFB Daily.

We also have the nightly studio crews for the live games from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ABC. Scott Van Pelt is the new host on Thursday nights joined by stalwarts Lou Holtz and Mark May plus studio newbie Brian Griese.

Take a look at the ESPN lineup.

College GameDay Headlines ESPN College Football Studio Show Lineup
CFB Daily Added to ESPNU’s Schedule

ESPN’s College GameDay – coming off its most-watched season ever – will return Saturday, Sept. 1, live from the Cowboys Classic as part of Kickoff Week at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, beginning at 9 a.m. ET on ESPNU and 10 a.m. on ESPN. On display will be top-10 teams Alabama and Michigan battling as part of the weekly Saturday Night Football series at 8 p.m. on ABC. The GameDay set, with an enhanced look for its 26^th season, will be located outside the state-of-the-art facility.

Hosted by Chris Fowler, GameDay will once again feature Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack during the 10 a.m. – noon hours on ESPN. Samantha Steele joins the first hour on ESPNU with Pollack, and will also contribute reports, interviews and features throughout the final two hours with reporter Tom Rinaldi.

SportsCenter anchor and ESPN Radio host Scott Van Pelt will make several on-site College GameDay appearances throughout the season, including the first weekend in Arlington. In addition, the Scott Van Pelt Show will make a stop at the Cowboys Classic on Friday, Aug. 31, on the East Plaza Lawn from the College GameDay on ESPN Radio set from 1-4 p.m. on ESPN Radio and ESPNRadio.com (except 2-2:30 p.m. when it will originate from the adjacent ESPN College GameDay set and be simulcast on ESPNEWS).

College GameDay on ESPN Radio airs noon-7 p.m. each Saturday with host Ryen Russillo and analysts Trevor Matich and Brad Edwards. The weekly radio show broadcasts live from its Bristol, Conn., studios when not traveling to the top matchups.

Prior to this season’s kickoff, the one-hour special College GameDay Preview Show will air Saturday, Aug. 25, at noon on ESPN with Fowler, Corso, Herbstreit and Howard.

Additional Studio Shows

College Football Live continues to be the daily destination for college football news and updates at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN and 4 p.m. on ESPNU. The show will primarily utilize three hosts – Joe Tessitore (Monday & Wednesday), Fowler (Tuesday & Friday) and John Saunders (Thursday), and will originate from the site of College GameDay most Fridays. Included in the rotation of expert analysts are Howard (Monday) and Herbstreit (Tuesday), who will be available via satellite weekly.

As the ESPN DIRECTV Mobile Studio travels the country visiting sites of top college games, interviews with ESPN analysts, along with coaches and players from each stop, will be incorporated into College Football Live.

ESPNU is joining the daily college football news and update genre with CFB Daily. Hosted by Dari Nowkhah, the new three-hour program beginning at 1 p.m. will have all the latest in college football action as well as in-depth analysis from a variety of guests. CFB Daily will also include a unique look at the top plays, the best hits and the most outstanding catches by incorporating popular video clips from that week. Regular contributors will include sports business reporter Darren Rovell, NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper, Jr., college football analysts Pollack and Jesse Palmer, plus additional ESPN experts.

Studio Commentators

Van Pelt will also host the ESPN College Football Primetime studio coverage with analysts Mark May and Brian Griese, a first-time role for the former Super Bowl champion. In addition, Griese will join returning commentator Dave Pasch on ESPN’s Saturday noon game. Last season, Griese was the analyst on the ESPNU Saturday night telecast.

This season’s Saturday studio coverage sees the return of John Saunders and Jesse Palmer on ABC, Rece Davis, Lou Holtz and May on ESPN and Wendi Nix, Todd McShay and Robert Smith on ESPN2.

Weekly ESPN Game & Wraps Studio Crew (subject to change)

Studio	Commentators
ESPN Thursday	Scott Van Pelt, Mark May & Brian Griese
ESPN Friday	Chris Cotter, Lou Holtz & May
College GameDay	Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack, Tom Rinaldi & Samantha Steele
ABC Saturday	John Saunders & Jesse Palmer
ESPN Saturday	Rece Davis, Holtz & May
ESPN2 Saturday	Wendi Nix, Todd McShay & Robert Smith
ESPNU Saturday Morning	Dari Nowkhah & Kevin Carter
ESPNU Saturday Evening	Matt Schick & Tom Luginbill, Jason Sehorn or Charles Arbuckle

That will do it.

College Football Viewing Picks for 09/01/2012, All Times Eastern

Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Pregame & Studio Shows: 
Inside College Football: Notre Dame-Navy Kickoff — CBS Sports Network, 7 a.m.
College GameDay live from Arlington, TX (season premiere) — ESPNU, 9 a.m./ESPN, 10 a.m.
BTN Football Pregame — Big Ten Network, 11 a.m.
College Football Countdown — ABC, 3 p.m.
College Football Scoreboard — ESPN, 6:30 p.m.
Inside College Football — CBS Sports Network, 6 p.m.
SEC Tonight — CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.
Fox College Saturday (series premiere) — Fox, 7 p.m.
College Football Final — ESPN2, 1:30 a.m. (Sunday)

9 a.m.
Notre Dame vs. Navy at Dublin, Ireland — CBS (Verne Lundquist/Gary Danielson/Tracy Wolfson/David Feherty)

noon
Miami (OH) at Ohio State — Big Ten Network (Eric Collins/Derek Rackley/Lisa Byington)

Ohio at Penn State — ESPN (Dave Pasch/Brian Griese/Tom Rinaldi/Mark Schwartz)
Northwestern at Syracuse — ESPN2 (Beth Mowins/Joey Galloway/Jenn Brown)
Western Michigan at Illinois — ESPNU (Anish Shroff/Dan Hawkins)

Marshall at West Virginia — FX (Justin Kutcher/Eric Crouch/Darius Walker)
Appalachian State at East Carolina — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Central (Rod Thulin/Shaun King/Desmond Purnell)
Troy at UAB — Fox College Sports Pacific (Mike Gleason/Ben Leber/Lesley McCaslin)

Buffalo at Georgia — SEC Network, 12:21 p.m. (Dave Neal/Andre Ware/Cara Capuano)

12:30 p.m.
Elon at North Carolina — ACC Network

3 p.m.
Richmond at Virginia — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Paul Kennedy/Keith Jones/Jenn Hildreth)

Nevada at Cal — Pac 12 Network (Dave Flemming/Coy Wire/Brooke Olzendam)

3:30 p.m.
Miami (FL) at Boston College — ABC/ESPN2 (Bob Wischusen/Danny Kanell/Maria Taylor)
Southern Mississippi at Nebraska — ABC/ESPN2 (Mike Patrick/Ed Cunningham/Jeannine Edwards)

Eastern Kentucky at Purdue — Big Ten Network (Matt Devlin/Glen Mason/J Leman)
Northern Iowa at Wisconsin — Big Ten Network (Kevin Kugler/Chris Martin/Jay Wilson)

Bowling Green at Florida — ESPN (Mark Jones/Brock Huard/Jessica Mendoza)
Iowa vs. Northern Illinois at Chicago, IL — ESPNU (Tom Hart/John Congemi)

Tulsa at Iowa State — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Atlantic (Mark Followill/Gary Reasons)

4 p.m.
Furman at Samford — CSS

Colorado State vs. Colorado at Denver, CO — FX (Craig Bolerjack/Joel Klatt/Petros Papadakis)

7 p.m.
Clemson vs. Auburn at Atlanta, GA — ESPN (Brad Nessler/Todd Blackledge/Holly Rowe)
North Texas at LSU — ESPNU (Clay Matvick/Matt Stinchcomb/Allison Williams)

Jackson State at Mississippi State — Fox Sports Net (regional) (Bob Rathbun/Tim Couch/Elizabeth Moreau)
Savannah State at Oklahoma State — Fox College Sports Central (Kevin Eschenfelder/ND Kalu/Erin Bajackson)
Northwestern State at Texas Tech — Fox College Sports Pacific (Bill Land/Dave Lapham/Emily Jones)

7:30 p.m.
Hawai’i at USC — Fox (Gus Johnson/Charles Davis/Julie Alexandria)

8 p.m.
Alabama vs. Michigan at Arlington, TX — ABC (Brent Musburger/Kirk Herbstreit/Heather Cox)

Indiana State at Indiana — Big Ten Network (Wayne Larrivee/Jon Jansen/Antwaan Randle El)

Rutgers at Tulane — CBS Sports Network (Brad Johansen/Doug Chapman/Tammy Blackburn)

Texas State at Houston — CSS

Wyoming at Texas — Longhorn Network (Mark Neely/Ray Bentley/Kaylee Hartung)

10:30 p.m.
Arkansas State at Oregon — ESPN (Joe Tessitore/Matt Millen/ Shelley Smith)
Toledo at Arizona — ESPNU (oe Davis/Mike Bellotti)

Oklahoma at UTEP — Fox Sports Net (national)/Fox College Sports Atlantic (Mike Morgan/JC Pearson/Laura McKeeman)

San Diego State at Washington — Pac 12 Network (Kevin Calabro/Adam Archuleta/Yogi Roth)

Doing Our Friday Megalinks

Haven’t been able to provide the Friday megalinks in a while. Let’s do an edition today.

Normally I include a link to the Weekend Viewing Picks, but I’ll be doing that tonight so you can find it on my site when it’s posted. If you follow me on Twitter or have an RSS feed, you’ll be updated as soon as it posts. If not, you can find it later.

Let’s do the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand wonders what effect the gold medal win by the US Women’s Soccer National Team will have on the sport in the long run.

Michael also live blogged Thursday’s Olympic Primetime on NBC.

Jeffrey Martin of USA Today looks at the grand experiment that’s known as the Pac-12 Networks.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus about the NBCUniversal’s handling of the 2012 Olympics.

At the Sports on Earth blog, Joe Posnanski chronicles his day in covering the Olympics.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily says with NFL preseason games airing in many local markets on Thursday, NBC Olympic overnight ratings took a hit.

Bill King of SBD says CBS Sports is forging ahead with a show featuring the professional debut of several US Olympic boxers despite their poor performance in London.

Ryan Baucom of SBD writes that several Olympic athletes are getting a boost in Twitter followers after their success in the London Games.

Tripp Mickle of SBD says Universal Sports broke out an ad on NBC Thursday trying to promote its Olympic sports programming. Good luck with that.

Eric Fisher of SBD says Yahoo is declaring victory over NBCOlympics.com for unique pageviews.

Sohrab Amari of the Wall Street Journal reviews an NBC News documentary fronted by Tom Brokaw which will air on NBC’s Olympic coverage on Saturday.

Sarah Kwak of Sports Illustrated talks with Lolo Jones about the media firestorm that swelled just before she ran her 100 meters hurdles race.

In the Sherman Report, Ed Sherman talks with outgoing Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan about his first job. Ryan will be missed in the pages of the Globe.

Sports Media Journal’s Keith Thibault and I have an Olympic-themed podcast with Richard Sandomir of the New York Times and Bruce Beck of WNBC-TV.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Today Show host Matt Lauer had an icy reunion with former co-host Ann Curry on NBC’s London Olympics set.

John Eggerton at Broadcasting & Cable writes that the FCC has already denied a Comcast request to stay its decision requiring the cable provider to give space to the Tennis Channel.

Christopher Heine of Adweek says Olympic marketers have failed to medal in their social media campaigns.

But Simon Dumenco of Advertising Age looks at the Olympic sponsors that managed to get a boost through social media.

Michael Learmonth of Advertising Age says NBC and the International Olympic Committee have to fix the Olympic business model before it breaks down.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life notes that NBC’s ratings for Wednesday Olympic Primetime show drew better viewership numbers than Atlanta in 1996.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group says CBS Sports is preparing for all type of weather conditions for this weekend’s PGA Championship.

Karen Hogan of SVG looks at NBC New York Olympic operations.

Ken Kerschbaumer at SVG says Denmark TV has a floating barge studio for the London Olympics. Now that’s pretty cool.

And Birgit Heidsiek of SVG says Eurosport TV is producing the Olympics in 3-D.

Jason Fry of the Poynter Institute and writing as the ESPN Ombudsman investigates a plagiarism incident at the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Ronnie Ramos at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center writes that the Pac-12 Conference is readying an aggressive digital strategy that will go along with its television distribution.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead goes after former NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol for being out of touch in defending the tape delayed Olympics.

The Big Lead looks at the Pac-12 being in the forefront of digital distribution after being marred for years of being behind the curve.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says the Miami Dolphins will take advantage of the NFL’s relaxed TV blackout policy this weekend.

Emmett Jones of Sports Business Digest notes that Buffalo Wild Wings has purchased naming rights for a college bowl game. Looks like it will be going to overtime every year.

Sports Media Watch says with NBC committed to the Olympics this year, the NFL Hall of Fame preseason game was aired on NFL Network and naturally suffered a big viewer dropoff.

SMW reports that NBC got another ratings increase for the Olympics.

TVNewsCheck says Gannett is declaring victory saying three of its stations are the top-rated local NBC affiliates in key demographics.

Alex Weprin of TVNewser looks at NBC’s Today Show operations in London.

At TVSpy, Alex tours NBC’s operation center for its local affiliates in London.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe talks with Celtics TV voice Mike Gorman who’s been calling Olympic handball off a monitor for NBC.

At SB Nation Boston, Bruce Allen discusses Golf Channel’s meteoric rise and its plans to cover the PGA Championship this weekend.

Jane L. Levere of the New York Times writes about ESPN’s new ad campaign for Monday Night Football.

Verne Gay at Newsday notes that a long-time NBC Sports director is retiring after the Olympics.

Newsday’s Chris Serico wonders if NBC’s Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera will be a bit more subdued during the Olympic Closing Ceremony on Sunday than their talkative performance during the Opening Ceremony two Fridays ago.

Neil Best of Newsday catches up with ESPN’s Ron Jaworski who’s filling a new role at the network after being in the Monday Night Football both.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is in another one of his moods today.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes a local radio station’s high school football schedule.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says Pac-12 Networks will be seen on Time Warner Cable locally.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says despite a lost season, the Philadelphia Phillies TV crew still has plenty to talk about during games.

Tim Richardson in Press Box looks at the business of fantasy football as leagues get ready to hold their drafts soon, if not already.

Sarah Kogod of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that more people were watching the DC NFL Team in area sports bars last night as compared to the Nationals.

Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Bog says the Nationals radio team tried to explain the term “ball bag”.

South

Greg Cote of the Miami Herald reviews HBO’s Hard Knocks on the Dolphins.

Craig Davis of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says the Dolphins have announced their TV blackout policy today.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman says a local high school sports TV show expands to a new market.

Midwest

The Cincinnati Enquirer says ESPN’s College GameDay could be visiting the Queen City in February.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at Dick Ebersol’s latest comments on tape delaying Olympic events.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with a local sports radio host who’s perturbed at a former employer.

Dan notes that the Olympics and the St. Louis Cardinals ratings have been hurt by each other.

West

Patrick Finley of the Arizona Daily Star says the Pac-12 Networks are ready to launch next week, but without a few major cable and satellite providers.

John Maffei of the North County Times talks with a former NBC Olympics analyst who was fired on the spot after calling a race.

To the Ventura County Star where Jim Carlisle talks about the increased spotlight on the Pac-12 through its new TV networks.

Jim says Twitter has become an Olympic event.

Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times has the Irish radio call of boxer Katie Taylor’s victory giving the country its first gold medal of the Olympics.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says this is a critical time for beach volleyball as the sport is in transition now.

Tom has some Olympic TV notes in his blog.

And those are your supersized megalinks for today.

ESPN Announces 2013 Basketball College GameDay Sites

It’s not even college football season, but over the last couple of weeks, ESPN has been sending out college basketball announcements like there’s no tomorrow. I will eventually catch up on these press releases after the Olympics. But I did want to get this out to you.

This is the announcement of the sites for College GameDay’s basketball show this upcoming season. The visits will begin in Indianapolis for Gonzaga-Butler on January 19 and end on March 9 when the show will be at two sites, Washington, DC and Chapel Hill, NC for two big annual rivalry games, Syracuse-Georgetown  and Duke-North Carolina.

Rece Davis will host and will be joined by Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and new addition Jalen Rose. Here’s the schedule for College GameDay, the basketball edition.

Sites Named for 2013 College GameDay Schedule

Saturday Primetime Games Highlight Selected Sites

ESPN’s College GameDay – the eight-week Saturday morning and evening college basketball studio program originating from the site of ESPN’s Saturday Primetime telecast – returns for its ninth season beginning Saturday, Jan. 19 from the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis. The first hour begins at 10 a.m. ET on ESPNU, continuing at 11 a.m. on ESPN with a one-hour edition at 8 p.m. on ESPN (except Jan. 26). The Primetime game-of-the-week series will generally air at 9 p.m. (exceptions noted below).

New to the schedule this year is a split site for the eighth and final week on March 9. College GameDay will begin the morning at 10 a.m. in Washington, D.C., at the site of the Syracuse at Georgetown game (noon, ESPN). The crew will then travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the evening show at 8 p.m., prior to the start of the Duke at North Carolina matchup (9 p.m., ESPN).

For the second straight year, a “flex pick” option is on the schedule for the Feb. 9. College GameDay will stop at a BIG EAST campus – either South Bend, Ind. for the Louisville at Notre Dame game or Cincinnati for the Pittsburgh at Cincinnati matchup. The game selected will be part of the Saturday Primetime schedule, while the other game will air at 6 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2.

Also new this season, Jalen Rose joins the College GameDay crew, replacing Hubert Davis behind the desk. Rose will be a featured analyst on GameDay, as well as additional college basketball studio programming and games. Rose has been ESPN NBA analyst, primarily as part of the network’s studio coverage since 2007, and will continue NBA studio analysis during the Playoffs.

For the ninth year, Rece Davis will serve as host for College GameDay, and will be joined by analysts Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Rose to preview all the day’s action and discuss the biggest storylines in college basketball.

Highlights:

• Four of the eight sites GameDay visits in 2013 will be first-time hosts: Butler, NC State, Georgetown and Cincinnati (possible flex pick)
• Fifteen schools on the Saturday Primetime schedule are top 25 picks in ESPN.com’s men’s preseason top 25 poll: No. 1 Indiana, No. 2 Louisville, No. 3 Kentucky, No. 4 Kansas, No. 5 Michigan, No. 6 NC State, No. 7 UCLA, No. 10 Syracuse, No. 13 North Carolina, No. 15 Duke, No. 17 Arizona, No. 19 Notre Dame, No. 20 Gonzaga, No. 21 Texas and No. 24 Missouri, plus the addition of sleeper teams Butler, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati
• GameDay returns to Rupp Arena on Feb. 23, home to the show’s largest crowd at 22,144 fans on Feb. 10, 2010, for a showdown between SEC foes – No. 3 Kentucky and No. 24 Missouri
• GameDay will be making a record fifth stop on the campus of Kansas on Feb. 16 and North Carolina will be playing in a game at a GameDay site for a record 10^th time with its two appearances in 2013 – Jan. 26 and March 9
• Indiana (Feb. 2) and UCLA (March 2) will both be hosting GameDay for only the second time and the first since 2008

Scheduled sites for College GameDay and Saturday Primetime:

Date	GameDay Site	Show Times (ET)	Game	Game Time (ET)
Jan 19	Indianapolis, Ind.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	No. 20 Gonzaga at Butler	9 p.m.
Jan 26	Raleigh, N.C.	10 a.m. & 6 p.m.*	No. 13 North Carolina at No. 6 NC State	7 p.m.
Feb 2	Bloomington, Ind.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	No. 5 Michigan at No. 1 Indiana	9 p.m.
Feb 9	South Bend, Ind. or Cincinnati, Ohio^	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	No. 2 Louisville at No. 19 Notre Dame or Pittsburgh at Cincinnati	9 p.m.#
Feb 16	Lawrence, Kan.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	No. 21 Texas at No. 4 Kansas	9 p.m.
Feb 23	Lexington, Ky.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	No. 24 Missouri at No. 3 Kentucky	9 p.m.
Mar 2	Westwood, Calif.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	No. 17 Arizona at No. 7 UCLA	9 p.m.
Mar 9	Washington, D.C. & Chapel Hill, N.C.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	No. 10 Syracuse at Georgetown & No. 15 Duke at No. 13 North Carolina	Noon 9 p.m.

* – ESPN will televise the evening edition each week at 8 p.m., except Jan. 26 when the evening show will begin at 6 p.m.
^ – Site for Feb. 9 will be announced closer to the game
# – Game not selected will air at 6 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2

That will do it.

ESPN Hires Two Former Coaches As College Basketball Analysts; Jalen Rose Replaces Hubert Davis on College GameDay

ESPN has announced that former coaches Seth Greenberg and Bruce Pearl have been hired as college basketball analysts. In addition, Jalen Rose, one of the Fab Five at Michigan in the early 1990′s, will be an analyst on the basketball version of College GameDay this season. He replaces Hubert Davis who became an assistant coach in the offseason.

Let’s look at what ESPN is saying about this.

Bruce Pearl and Seth Greenberg Join ESPN; Jalen Rose to College GameDay

Former college basketball coaches Bruce Pearl and Seth Greenberg have joined ESPN as men’s college basketball analysts and ESPN’s Jalen Rose will be added to the college basketball commentator team, it was announced today by Mark Gross, ESPN Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, Production. Pearl and Greenberg will each serve as studio analysts throughout the season and will call select games from various conferences. Rose will be a featured analyst on the weekly College GameDay as well as other college basketball studio programming, and will work as a game analyst for a series of matchups. Additionally, all three will contribute college basketball commentary to ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and other ESPN outlets.

“Both Seth and Bruce bring a contemporary coaching perspective and a great ability to break down the action in an entertaining style,” Gross said. “Jalen’s NBA analysis has been insightful and engaging and that style will translate to the college game where he’s remained closely connected since the ‘Fab Five’ days.”

Greenberg, who served as a guest ESPN studio analyst during the 2012 NCAA Tournament, most recently coached Virginia Tech for nine seasons (2003-2012). While there, he compiled a 170-123 record. Prior to that, Greenberg had head coaching stints at South Florida (1996-2003) and Long Beach (1990-1996). He was previously an assistant coach at Long Beach, Miami, Virginia, Pittsburgh and Columbia. He is a 1978 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson with a Broadcast Journalism degree.

Greenberg said, “I am excited and honored to be joining ESPN. I look forward to using the relationships I have developed over 35 years of coaching college basketball to bring unique insights to the ESPN viewing audience.”

Pearl has worked as a college basketball commentator for Sirius XM Radio this past season after coaching the University of Tennessee from 2005-2011. While at Tennessee, Pearl led the team to 145-61 record and NCAA Tournament berths each of his six seasons there. Prior to that, Pearl coached at UW-Milwaukee (2001-2005) and Southern Indiana (1992-2001) after working as an assistant at Iowa and Stanford. Pearl is a 1982 Boston College graduate where he served as a student assistant coach and earned a degree in Business.

Pearl said, “I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to bring ESPN the same sort of knowledge, passion and intensity that I tried to have as a basketball coach.  I’m anxious to get started and contribute to ESPN’s great college basketball coverage.”

Rose has been an ESPN NBA analyst, primarily for studio coverage since 2007. He will continue to provide NBA studio analysis during the Playoffs. Rose had a successful 13-year NBA career which included playing with the Indiana Pacers in the 2000 Finals. He was a consensus high school All American and team captain of the University of Michigan’s famed “Fab Five” that played for the National Championship in 1992 and 1993. Rose and his production company Three Tier Entertainment served as executive producer of ESPN’s critically acclaimed documentary about that team.

Rose said, “I’m eager to join College GameDay with Rece, Digger, Jay, and the amazing fans across the country! Calling games courtside feeling the spirit and electricity of the crowd plus hearing the gym squeak will be a treat.”

That’s it.

It’s Official: Scott Van Pelt Signs New ESPN Contract; Adds College Football Duties

Earlier this summer, Scott Van Pelt announced that he was staying at ESPN after overtures from Fox and NBC. Van Pelt has become one of the more popular personalities at the Alleged Worldwide Leader after coming over from Golf Channel. He will continue hosting his ESPN Radio show from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. ET.

In addition, Scott will be in the 11 p.m. rotation for SportsCenter and remain on the golf beat on the major tournaments. He will pick up college football duties especially for College GameDay. Van Pelt will travel to some GameDay sites and he will be part of the network’s BCS Championship Game coverage.

No financial terms of the agreement were disclosed. Here’s the press release.

Van Pelt Signs Extension with ESPN – Adds College GameDay Role

ESPN SportsCenter anchor and ESPN Radio host Scott Van Pelt has signed a multi-year extension which will add several on-site College GameDay appearances throughout the football season. He will travel to some of the GameDaylocations in support of his features, interviews and reports related to the game, teams and players involved. He will also be part of the network’s BCS Championship Game coverage.

Van Pelt, who joined ESPN in spring 2001 as its lead professional golf reporter, will remain among SportsCenter’s 11 p.m. ET anchors, and continue to host ESPN Radio’s Scott Van Pelt Show (M-F 1-4 p.m., simulcast 1-3 p.m. on ESPNEWS). He will also remain as the lead reporter and host of the network’s major golf coverage, including the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship.

“Scott’s versatility makes him a valuable member of the ESPN team and we’re pleased he’s staying with us,” said Mark Gross, senior vice president and executive producer, production. “The GameDay opportunity provides Scott with yet another platform on which to express his enthusiasm, insight and opinion.”

“The things I got to do, and the people I got to do them with, ultimately I couldn’t walk away from,” Van Pelt said in this Front and Center  podcast on ESPNFrontRow.com.

Van Pelt joined ESPN from The Golf Channel where he was an anchor and reporter for the sport-specific network from 1994-2000. Following Tiger Woods’ victory at the 1997 Masters (his first at the tournament), Van Pelt conducted an exclusive half-hour interview with the young Woods for a critically acclaimed network special, Tiger Woods: In His Own Words.  

Van Pelt began his sports broadcasting career at WTTG-TV (FOX) in Washington, D.C., in 1990. He worked in WTTG sports studio production department contributing content for the station’s The 10:00 News, Sunday Night’s Sports Extra and specials on the Washington Redskins.

A native of Brookville, Md., Van Pelt graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in radio/television and film.

More posts are on the way. Keep your feeds updated.

Samantha Steele To Replace Erin Andrews on College GameDay on ESPNU

Give props to The Big Lead for breaking this story last week. ESPN has announced that Samantha Steele, formerly of Fox College Sports, Fox Sports Net and the Longhorn Network, has been promoted to the Mothership. She’ll be the host of the first hour of College GameDay replacing Erin Andrews who as we all know went to Fox Sports.

Steele has been on the fast track at ESPN. She has received a few high profile assignments in her first year under the ESPN umbrella. Besides being buried on the Longhorn Network, Samantha worked some Friday Night College Football games for ESPN and ESPN2 last season and also was on the National Spelling Bee.

She’ll host the first hour of College GameDay mostly from the site of ESPN’s or ABC’s primetime game. Previously, she was announced as the ESPN Thursday Night Football sideline reporter.

Here’s the announcement from ESPN.

Samantha Steele Joins College GameDay on ESPNU

Samantha Steele will join the first hour (9 – 10 a.m. ET) of College GameDay on ESPNU each Saturday this college football season. In addition, she will provide features and updates for the 10 a.m. – noon hours of GameDay on ESPN.

Alongside host Chris Fowler and analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard and David Pollack, Steele will preview the week’s best matchups, teams and storylines from the site of that weekend’s biggest game. She will travel to GameDay at the conclusion of the ESPN Thursday Night Football game, where it was announced earlier this month she will serve as the sideline reporter with the booth of Rece Davis and analysts Jessie Palmer and Pollack, who will also be in his first year with the Thursday night crew.

“In a short time, Samantha has established herself as a credible host and reporter,” said Lee Fitting, ESPN senior coordinating producer. “Her enthusiasm, energy and connections within the college football landscape will be a great addition to our already deep and talented lineup.”

Prior to this role, Steele had been a reporter for Longhorn Network. Her LHN replacement will be announced in the coming weeks.

Back later.

Our Monday Linkage

Let’s do some links on a rainy Monday in Southern New England.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at NFL Network’s new morning show.

Michael says ESPN has not confirmed whether Chris Berman will call a Monday Night Football game on the opening weekend of the season.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports that CBS is about 80% sold for the Super Bowl.

Terry Lefton of Sports Business Journal says Pepsi has signed a deal to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show.

Mike Ozanian of Forbes notes that the Miami Heat is on the verge of getting a huge deal with Fox Sports Florida.

Former ESPN First Take co-host Dana Jacobsen writes in her blog that she was molested as a child. Courageous for her to speak publicly about this.

Scott Roxborough and Stuart Kemp of the Hollywood Reporter note that yesterday’s Italy-England EURO 2012 Quarterfinal game became the highest-rated and most watched game of the tournament in Europe.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News looks at ESPN going all in at Wimbledon.

Rich Thomaselli of Advertising Age wonders now that LeBron James has won a championship, will he reach Michael Jordan levels in marketing?

Staci D. Kramer of paidContent says ESPN’s streaming of the NBA Finals drew a decent audience.

Ed Sherman from the Sherman Report writes that sportswriter Frank Deford will appear on tonight’s Colbert Report.

The Big Lead looks at alleged bias by the HBO Boxing crew from the Manny Pacquaio-Timothy Bradley fight.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing reviews the train wreck that was Charlie Sheen’s guest appearance on Fox Saturday.

Matt analyzes the moves by CBS and NBC to create their own sports radio networks.

Dylan Murphy at SportsGrid says a French soccer player cursed out a reporter after the team’s loss at EURO 2012 last week.

Also from SportsGrid, Dan Fogarty notes that Oprah Winfrey will interview LeBron James and the Miami Heat this weekend which has train wreck potential written all over it.

Evan Weiner at Examiner.com writes that the NFL has a long way to go to get a foothold in Europe.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with some of the people who have worked at WFAN during its past 25 years.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says college presidents’ pleas to pray for the Jerry Sandusky abuse victims ring hollow. Did Phil want them to go to Jerry Sandusky’s jail cell and shoot him dead?

And Phil goes after his favorite target, WFAN’s Mike Francesa.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY talks with WFAN Operations Manager Mark Chernoff about the nation’s oldest radio station turning 25.

Jerry says a 1010 WINS sports anchor wants to go after those who mispronounce “Wimbledon”.

Bob’s Blitz has the WFAN 25th Anniversary lineup for this Sunday.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says a New York-Penn League minor league baseball team won’t have a radio partner this year.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News talks with Jim Rome about his CBS Sports Network show.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner notes that ESPN will be providing a lot of tennis action over the next fortnight.

At Chicago Sports Media Watch, Paul M. Banks talks with Danica Patrick about her transition from IndyCar to NASCAR.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post writes about ESPN’s extensive Wimbledon coverage.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News has the sports calendar for this week.

Brent Schrotenboer of the San Diego Union-Tribune says all of San Diego State’s football games will be seen on TV, the question is where?

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail suggests that the NHL expand Hockey Night in Canada to Sundays.

Raju Mudhar with the Toronto Star writes about technology and sports melding together.

At Frontstretch, Amy Henderson writes that TV is actually hurting NASCAR and turning fans off.

Back to Paul M. Banks at the Sports Bank and he has video of ESPN’s Jenn Brown taking batting practice at the College World Series.

MediaRantz reviews WFAN at 25.

MediaRantz says noted Florida sports radio bad boy Dan Sileo could be headed to the new CBS Sports Radio.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media says NBC’s shuffle of the NHL Draft wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

Sports Media Watch says the NBA Finals’ ratings were down from last year.

SMW writes that MLB on Fox took a hit opposite the U.S. Open.

But SMW says this past weekend, MLB on Fox did significantly better.

Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo’s The Dagger blog writes that ESPN expects to replace analyst Hubert Davis with Jalen Rose on College GameDay.

Paul Magno at Yahoo says boxing may return to network TV as Oscar de la Hoya tries to bring a fight to CBS.

Kris Hughes at Rant Sports asks if Time Warner Cable could purchase the Longhorn Network from ESPN?

Gaslamp Ball talks with the head of Fox Sports San Diego.

And that will do us for today.

Grinding Out The Monday Linkage

Let’s go for some linkage now.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says ESPN and NFL Network have agreed not to show prospects on the phone spoiling the suspense of the NFL Draft.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated goes behind-the-scenes with ESPN and NFL Network as they prepare for their NFL Draft coverage later this week.

Congrats to Jimmy Traina at SI for 10 years of Hot Clicks. The site has been very good to Fang’s Bites since first linking here in 2008.

Patrick Stiegman of ESPN.com writes a guest editorial in Sports Business Journal responding to another guest editorial from last month criticizing the network’s journalism ethics.

Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com says the Big Ten Conference will have a lot of say at the next BCS meetings thanks to its TV network.

In the Sherman Report, Ed Sherman talks with NBC Sports Network programming chief Jon Miller about the channel’s lowly ratings at its outset.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Ronnie Ramos gives praise to MLB’s social media efforts.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says Time Warner Cable has added ESPN and several other sports networks to its mobile and tablet apps.

Sam Laird at Mashable says ESPN is launching a social campaign to determine where the next College GameDay promo will be shot.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine writes that the NHL’s TV ratings are red hot.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing says it appears that the Atlanta Falcons have turned down HBO to go on Hard Knocks this season.

At Pro Sports Communications, Martine Charles stresses that in a crisis, hiding from the media is the worst thing to do.

Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy wonders if parity in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs could hurt the TV ratings in the long run.

The Connecticut Post says ESPN SportsCenter anchor Sara Walsh will host a business breakfast meeting next month.

Tanzina Vega at the New York Times notes that Jeep has become a USA Basketball sponsor in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post labels Yankees radio voice John Sterling a fraud. Wow.

The New York Post points out that Tennis Channel’s Mayleen Ramey is the new host of SNY’s Beer Money quiz show.

Dr. Doom & Gloom at the New York Daily News says the growing feud between the Giants and Jets is the main reason why Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning was pulled from ESPN Radio NY which is the Jets flagship radio station.

Richard Huff at the Daily News speaks with MLB Network’s Sam Ryan.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union feels Fox’s coverage of Philip Humber’s perfect game on Saturday was flawed.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News says be prepared for an online Olympic smorgasboard.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that MASN’s Kristina Akra has been doused with Gatorade by the victorious Nationals again. This is three times by my count. In fact, here’s the video of Kristina getting doused with the bucket by Rick Ankiel and Chad Tracy. Good angle from behind the Nats dugout.

Guyism notes the first two Gatorade baths.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with ESPN NFL Draft analyst Bill Polian about former Baylor QB Robert Griffin III.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times looks back at the weekend in sports TV.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel says a local sports anchor who’s been taking heat for his reporting of the Magic’s Dwight Howard story this season responded to criticisms.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle links us to his appearance on NPR over the weekend.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune says a new BCS Championship system will be bandied about this week and get a lot of interest from the networks.

Dan Whitney of the Cherokee (IA) Chronicle Times says thanks to NBC’s blanket coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, he’s a fan of hockey again.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post notes the increasing coverage of the NFL Draft.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your sports calendar for this week.

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin says the ratings show that Blue Jays fans are being patient with the team.

Sports Media Watch says NBA TV will produce its own playoff telecasts which is a departure from the last few years.

SMW says Fox garnered good overnight numbers for its Saturday Baseball broadcast thanks to Philip Humber’s perfect game and the Yankees stunning comeback against the Red Sox.

And SMW says the NHL on NBC drew very good ratings over the weekend.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says a Western Conference Semifinal featuring Nashville and Phoenix may not be as disastrous as some observers think.

Joe Favorito has his weekly sports business roundup.

A.T. Faust III at AppAdvice says ESPN’s iPad website fails to take advantage of the tablet’s strengths.

Bike World News says Fox Sports Net will pick up the Tour of Utah cycling race again this year.

And that’s going to do us for today.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 03/31 & 04/01/12, All Times Eastern

Saturday, March 31

Men’s

College GameDay live from New Orleans — ESPN, noon
Bracket Breakdown — CBS Sports Network, 1 p.m.
The Big Dance in the Big Easy — CBS, 3 p.m.
Human Highlight Reel — CBS, 3:30 p.m.
The Final Four Show — CBS, 4 p.m.

College All-Star Game — truTV, 1 p.m.

NCAA Tournament
National Semifinals
Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA
Announcers: CBS/Turner — Jim Nantz/Clark Kellogg/Steve Kerr/Tracy Wolfson (sidelines); Dial Global Radio — Kevin Kugler/Bill Raftery/John Thompson/Jim Gray (sidelines)/John Tautges & Bill Walton (studio)
#1 Kentucky vs. #4 Louisville — CBS, 6:09 p.m.
#2 Ohio State vs. #2 Kansas — CBS, 8:49 p.m.

Inside March Madness — truTV, 11:30 p.m.
Bracket Breakdown — CBS Sports Network, 11 p.m.
Bracket Breakdown — CBS Sports Network, 11:30 p.m.

Women’s
Women’s National Invitation Tournament
Championship
James Madison at Oklahoma State — CBS Sports Network, 3 p.m.

Sunday, April 1

Men’s
Kings of the Court — CBS, 3:30 p.m.
Bracket Breakdown — CBS Sports Network, 4 p.m.

Women’s

NCAA Women’s Final Four Special — ESPN, 6 p.m.

NCAA Women’s Tournament
National Semifinals
Pepsi Center, Denver, CO
Announcers: ESPN — Dave O’Brien/Doris Burke/Holly Rowe (sidelines)/Rebecca Lobo (sidelines); Dial Global Radio — Dave Ryan/Debbie Antonelli/Krista Blunk (sidelines)
#1 UConn vs. #1 Notre Dame — ESPN, 6:30 p.m.
#1 Baylor vs. #1 Stanford — ESPN, 9 p.m.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 03/24 & 03/25/2012, All Times Eastern

Saturday, March 24

Men’s
NCAA Division II Championship
Bank of Kentucky Center, Highland Heights, KY
Montevallo vs. Western Washington — CBS, 1 p.m.

NCAA Division I Tournament
Elite 8
West Region
US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ
Announcers: CBS/Turner — Kevin Harlan/Len Elmore/Reggie Miller/Marty Snider (sidelines); Dial Global Radio — Dave Sims/Bill Frieder
#4 Florida vs. #7 Louisville — CBS, 4:30 p.m.

East Region
TD Bank Garden, Boston, MA
Announcers: CBS/Turner — Verne Lundquist/Bill Raftery/Lesley Visser (sidelines); Dial Global Radio — Kevin Kugler/Pete Gillen
#1 Syracuse vs. #2 Ohio State — CBS, 7:05 p.m.

College GameDay — ESPN2, 11 a.m.
NCAA Tip-Off — truTV, noon
Road to the Final Four — CBS, 3 p.m.

Women’s
NCAA Tournament
Sweet 16
Des Moines, IA Region
Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, IA
Announcers: Beth Mowins/Stephanie White/Samantha Steele (sidelines)
#2 Tennessee vs. #11 Kansas — ESPN, noon
#1 Baylor vs. #4 Georgia Tech — ESPN, 2:30 p.m.

Fresno, CA Region
Save Mart Center, Fresno, CA
Announcers: Dave Pasch/Debbie Antonelli/Heather Cox (sidelines)
#2 Duke vs. #3 St. John’s — ESPN, 9 p.m.
#1 Stanford vs. #5 South Carolina — ESPN, 11:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 25

Men’s
NCAA Division I Tournament
Elite 8
Midwest Region
Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, MO
Announcers: CBS/Turner — Marv Albert/Steve Kerr/Craig Sager (sidelines); Dial Global Radio — Wayne Larrivee/Fran Fraschilla
CBS, 2:10 p.m.

South Region
Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA
Announcers: CBS/Turner — Jim Nantz/Clark Kellogg/Tracy Wolfson (sidelines); Dial Global Radio — Ian Eagle/John Thompson
CBS, 4:55 p.m.

NCAA Tip-Off — truTV, 1 p.m.
The Best of College Basketball 2012 — CBS, 1 p.m.
Road to the Final Four — CBS, 2 p.m.

Women’s
NCAA Tournament
Sweet Sixteen
Raleigh, NC Region
PNC Arena, Raleigh, NC
Announcers: Pam Ward/Rebecca Lobo/Allison Williams (sidelines)
#2 Maryland vs. #3 Texas A&M — ESPN, noon
#1 Notre Dame vs. #5 St. Bonaventure — ESPN2, 2:30 p.m.

Kingston, RI Region
Ryan Center, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
Announcers: Dave O’Brien/Doris Burke/Holly Rowe
#1 UConn vs. #4 Penn State — ESPN2, 4:30 p.m.
#2 Kentucky vs. #11 Gonzaga — ESPN2, 7 p.m.

33rd Annual Sports Emmy Nominations Announced

We have the nominations, all 170 in 33 different categories, for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards. They just came out today. There are some surprises like massive hockey charlatan Pierre McGuire nominated in the Sports Reporter category and for some really strange reason, Skippy Bayless of ESPN2′s First Take was nominated for Best Studio Analyst. What analysis does he do besides yelling and having massive manlove for Tim Tebow?

There are some of the usual suspects are nominated, Bob Costas for Best Studio Host, Al Michaels in Play-by-Play, Cris Collinsworth for both Studio and Game Analyst.

Some of the nominations I agree with include Mike Mayock for Best Game Analyst, College GameDay and Football Night in America as Best Studio Shows and all of the movies in the Sports Documentary category. Sports documentaries were strong this year and I have trouble picking one although Catching Hell, the ESPN Films effort on Steve Bartman and the Chicago Cubs might be the weakest of the bunch, but the doc was still very good.

Ok, get ready to scroll, the entire list is below. We do need a page break so the list of nominees will after the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences press releases.

THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES ANNOUNCES THE NOMINEES FOR THE 33^RD ANNUAL SPORTS EMMY® AWARDS

Winners to be Honored During the April 30^th Ceremony At Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jack Whitaker to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

New York, NY – March 20, 2012 – The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) today announced the nominees for the 33^rd Annual Sports Emmy® Awards.

More than 170 nominees were announced in 33 categories including outstanding live sports special, live series, sports documentary, studio show, promotional announcements, play-by-play personality and studio analyst.  The Awards will be given out at the prestigious Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center located in the Time Warner Center on April 30^th, 2012 in New York City.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports will go to the Sports Commentator and Essayist, Jack Whitaker.

“This is an outstanding year for the sports community and for The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences,” said Malachy Wienges, Chairman, NATAS. “The entries received in this year’s Sports Emmys resulted in a record 175 nominees, illustrating the quality of these entries.  We are also honoring Jack Whitaker with our Lifetime Achievement Award.  I had the pleasure of working with Jack for eighteen years at CBS, and Jack is a sports icon and a class act.”

In addition to Jack Whitaker, many of the today’s leading sports broadcasters, personalities and television professionals will be in attendance as presenters at the event.

The networks of ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D & espn.com) lead the nomination totals with 55, the NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel & nbcsports.com) garnered 32, CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com) entries received 26 nominations, while Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com & truTV) have 22.

A complete list of all nominees is attached below.

33^rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations by Network Group

ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D, espn.com) – 55
NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel, nbcsports.com) – 32
CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com) – 26
Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com, truTV) – 22
HBO Sports – 19
FOX Sports Media Group (FOX, SPEED) – 16
NFL Network – 12
MLB Network – 8
DIRECTV – 2
MLB Advanced Media (MLB.com, MLBAM) – 2
NFL.com – 2
NCAA.com – 1
PGA.com – 1

33^rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations by Network

ESPN – 36
NBC – 22
HBO Sports – 19
CBS – 15
FOX – 15
TNT – 15
ESPN2 – 14
NFL NETWORK – 12
SHOWTIME – 10
MLB NETWORK – 8
VERSUS – 7  
TBS – 3
ABC – 2   
DIRECTV – 2
ESPN 3D – 2
GOLF CHANNEL – 2
NBA TV – 2
NFL.COM – 2
CBSSPORTS.COM – 1
ESPN.COM – 1
MLB.COM – 1
MLBAM – 1
NBA.COM – 1
NBCSPORTS.COM – 1
NCAA.COM – 1
PGA.COM – 1
SPEED – 1
truTV – 1

BREAKDOWN OF MULTIPLE PROGRAM/SERIES NOMINATIONS

Program/Nominations/Network

24/7: 8 -  HBO
E: 60: 7 – ESPN2
A Game of Honor: 5 – Showtime/CBSSports.com
MLB on FOX: 5 – FOX
NASCAR on FOX: 5 – FOX
NBA on TNT: 4 – TNT
NBC Sunday Night Football: 4 – NBC
FIFA Women’s World Cup: 3 – ESPN/ESPN2
Outside the Lines: 3 – ESPN
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: 3 – HBO
SportsCenter: 3 – ESPN
The Army/Navy Game: 3 – CBS
The Franchise: 3 – Showtime
Winter X Games 15: 3 – ESPN/ESPN3D
2011 Open Championship: 2 – ESPN
2011 Stanley Cup Final: 2 – NBC/Versus
ESPN Monday Night Football: 2 – ESPN
Football Night in America: 2 – NBC
Grand Slam Tennis on ESPN: 2 – ESPN2
Inside the NBA on TNT: 2 – TNT
Joplin: City of Hope: 2 – ESPN2
McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice: 2 – HBO
MLB Tonight: 2 – MLB Network
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: 2 – CBS/TBS/TNT/truTV
NFL Films Presents: 2 – NFL Network
NFL GameDay Morning: 2 – NFL Network
NFL on FOX: 2 – FOX
Sports Science: 2 – ESPN/ESPN.com
Sunday NFL Countdown: 2 – ESPN
Unguarded: 2 – ESPN

And after the page break, all of the nominees for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards which will be handed out April 30 in New York City.

(continue reading…)

College Basketball Viewing Picks for 03/10 & 03/11/12, All Times Eastern

Men’s schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Saturday, March 10

College GameDay — ESPN, noon

Men’s

ACC Tournament, Atlanta, GA
Semifinals
North Carolina State vs. North Carolina — ACC Network/ESPN, 1 p.m.
Florida State vs. Duke — ACC Network/ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

America East Championship, Stony Brook, NY
Vermont at Stony Brook — ESPN, 11 a.m.

Atlantic 10 Tournament, Atlantic City, NJ
Semifinals
UMass vs. St. Bonaventure — CBS Sports Network, 1 p.m.
Dayton vs. St. Louis — CBS Sports Network, 3:30 p.m.

Big East Championship, New York, NY
Cincinnati vs. Louisville — ESPN/ESPN 3D, 9 p.m.

Big Ten Tournament, Indianapolis, IN
Semifinals
Michigan State vs. Wisconsin — CBS, 1 p.m.
Michigan vs. Ohio State — CBS, 3:30 p.m.

Big 12 Championship, Kansas City, MO
Baylor vs. Missouri — ESPN, 6 p.m.

Big West Championship, Anaheim, CA
Long Beach State vs. UC-Santa Barbara — ESPN2, 10 p.m.

Conference USA Championship, Memphis, TN
Marshall vs. Memphis — CBS, 11:30 a.m.

MAC Championship, Cleveland, OH
Akron vs. Ohio — ESPN2, 8 p.m.

MEAC Championship, Winston-Salem, NC
Bethune-Cookman vs. Norfolk State — ESPN2, 1 p.m.

Mountain West Championship, Las Vegas, NV
San Diego State vs. New Mexico — NBC Sports Network, 7 p.m.

Pac-12 Championship, Los Angeles, CA
Arizona vs. Colorado — CBS, 6 p.m.

SEC Tournament, New Orleans, LA
Semifinals
Kentucky vs. Florida — ABC, 1 p.m.
Vanderbilt vs. Mississippi — ABC, 3:30 p.m.

Southland Championship, Katy, TX
Lamar vs. McNeese State — ESPN2, 3 p.m.

SWAC Championship, Garland, TX
Mississippi Valley State vs. Texas Southern — ESPNU, 8 p.m.

WAC Championship, Las Vegas, NV
New Mexico State vs. Louisiana Tech — ESPN2, midnight

Women’s

Big South Tournament, High Point, NC
Liberty vs. Charleston Southern — SportSouth, 1:30 p.m.
High Point vs. Radford — SportSouth, 4 p.m.

Big 12 Championship, Kansas City, MO
Baylor vs. Texas A&M — Fox Sports Net, noon

CAA Tournament, Upper Marlboro, MD
Semifinals
Delaware vs. UNC-Wilmington — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic Plus/New England), CSS, The Comcast Network, noon
James Madison vs. Drexel — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic Plus/New England), CSS, The Comcast Network, 2:30 p.m.

Conference USA Championship, Memphis, TN
UTEP vs. Tulane — CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m.

MAC Championship, Cleveland, OH
Central Michigan vs Eastern Michigan — STO, 1 p.m.

MEAC Championship, Winston-Salem, NC
Howard vs. Hampton — ESPNU, 4 p.m.

Missouri Valley Tournament, St. Charles, MO
Semifinals
Missouri State vs. Creighton — Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest, 2:30 p.m.
Drake vs. Wichita State — Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest, 5 p.m.

Mountain West Championship, Las Vegas, NV
San Diego State vs. New Mexico — NBC Sports Network, 4 p.m.

Pac-12 Championship, Los Angeles, CA
Stanford vs. Cal — Fox Sports Net, 2:30 p.m.

WAC Championship, Las Vegas, NV
Louisiana Tech vs. Fresno State WAC Sports Network, 6 p.m.

Sunday, March 11

Men’s

College GameDay — ESPN2, 11 a.m./ESPN, noon
Bracketology — ESPN, 3 p.m.

ACC Championship, Atlanta, GA
North Carolina vs. Florida State — ACC Network/ESPN, 1 p.m.

Atlantic 10 Championship, Atlantic City, NJ
St. Bonaventure vs. Xavier — CBS, 1 p.m.

Big Ten Championship, Indianapolis, IN
Michigan State vs. Ohio State — CBS, 3:30 p.m.

SEC Championship, New Orleans, LA
Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt — ABC, 1 p.m.

NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show — CBS, 6 p.m.
Bracketology — ESPN, 7 p.m.
NCAA Hardcore Brackets — truTV, 7 p.m.
Bracket Breakdown — CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m.
Crunch Time — ESPNU, 8 p.m.
Duke ’91 & ’92: Back to Back — truTV, 8 p.m.
Bracketology — ESPN2, 9 p.m.
NIT Selection Show — ESPNU, 9 p.m.
Tournament Countdown: The Experts — ESPNU, 9:30 p.m.

Women’s

Big South Championship, High Point, NC
Liberty vs. High Point — SportSouth, 4 p.m.

CAA Championship, Upper Marlboro, MD
Delaware vs. Drexel — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic/New England/Philadelphia)/CSS, 12:30 p.m.

Horizon League Championship
Green Bay vs. Detroit — ESPNU, 1 p.m.

Missouri Valley Championship, St. Charles, MO
Creighton vs. Drake — Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest, 3 p.m.

Northeast Championship, Fairfield, CT
Monmouth at Sacred Heart — ESPNU, 3 p.m.

ESPN All Over the NCAA Tournament Selections

On Sunday, ESPN will have 13 hours of coverage devoted to college basketball. It will air the ACC Championship at 1 p.m. ET as well as produce the SEC Championship for ABC at the same time. Before and after the games, ESPN will have plenty of discussion over the NCAA Tournament Selections through a special Sunday morning edition of College GameDay on ESPN2 starting on 11 a.m. ET and continuing on ESPN at noon ET.

ESPN will have the Selections on SportsCenter just seconds after CBS makes them official, then a complete Bracketology show will air at 7 p.m. ET. In addition, ESPNU will have the NIT Selections at 9 p.m. ET and plenty of discussion about the NCAA Tournament leading up to the first games on Tuesday.

Here’s the ESPN press release.

More than 13 Hours of Hoops Coverage for Selection Sunday

Top experts: Bilas, Dakich, Davis, Fraschilla, Gottlieb, Lunardi, Phelps, Vitale and more; Magic Johnson Documentary The Announcement Debuts

ESPN’s extensive multiplatform coverage of Selection Sunday, March 11 – the day the 68-team field for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is announced – will be highlighted by more than 13 hours of television programming across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and ESPNU.

Many of the top men’s college basketball experts will contribute throughout the day, including Jay Bilas, Adrian Branch, Dan Dakich, LaPhonso Ellis, Hubert Davis, Jimmy Dykes, Fran Fraschilla, Dino Gaudio, Doug Gottlieb, Andy Katz, Joe Lunardi, Digger Phelps, Miles Simon, Bob Valvano, Dick Vitale, Tim Welsh and Jay Williams.

The day will tip off with a two-hour College GameDay beginning at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN2 and continuing on ESPN at noon. The show will review Championship Week action and provide a preview of the ACC and SEC championship games at 1 p.m. on ESPN and ABC, respectively.

ESPN’s studio coverage will include two Bracketology programs – a three-hour edition at 3 p.m. and a two-hour show at 7 p.m. – as well as a special SportsCenter at 6 p.m. that will give a thorough preview and review of all Tournament-bound teams. ESPNU’s lineup will include a one-hour Crunch Time: Championship Week Special at 8 p.m. followed by the NIT Selection Show at 9 p.m. and a three-hour special Tournament Countdown: The Experts at 9:30 p.m.

Overall, ESPNU will provide more than 60-hours of Tournament Countdown studio programming extending past the last dribble of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Monday, April 2. The network will interview all 68 men’s head coaches, in addition to hosting multiple expert panels, regular SportsCenterU highlight packages and 30-minute features on each final four team. A release with information on every ESPNU Selection Sunday show and the ESPNU Tournament Countdown schedule is posted below.

Details of Selection Sunday studio programming:

Bracketology at 3 p.m. on ESPN
ESPN will provide extensive, in-depth analysis with a three-hour Bracketology at 3 p.m. Host Ryan Burr, analysts Dakich, Fraschilla, Gottlieb and Williams, Lunardi, and reporter Andy Katz will discuss their predictions for No. 1 seeds, the last teams in and out, interview coaches of teams on the bubble and more. In addition, the GameDay crew of host Rece Davis and analysts Bilas, Hubert Davis and Phelps will provide insights from the “war room” where monitors show feeds from all concluding conference championships.

The program will include interviews with coaches and players throughout the three hours.

SportsCenter at 6 p.m. on ESPN
In addition to reporting on the latest sports news, the 6 p.m. SportsCenter will provide up-to-the-minute updates of the Tournament selections with GameDay host Rece Davis and analysts Bilas, Hubert Davis and Phelps evaluating the brackets shortly after they are announced.

Bracketology at 7 p.m. on ESPN
The two-hour special will include extensive, in-depth analysis of the bracket in each region. Host Rece Davis will be joined by Bilas, Hubert Davis, Gottlieb and Phelps in studio with Vitale (via satellite) to discuss multiple Tournament topics and reveal their Elite Eight, Final Four and Championship teams.

A new interactive element to the show will offer fans an opportunity to ask questions that could be answered on air by the analysts. Twitter users can tweet a question or express their bracket concerns with the #ASKBILAS and select posts will be answered or weaved into the discussion.

Tournament Countdown: The Experts
After the selections are announced, ESPNU’s panel of experts will breakdown each first and second round game, providing viewers insight into filling out their own brackets. Anish Shroff will host with analysts Dino Gaudio, Adrian Branch, LaPhonso Ellis, Tim Welsh, Miles Simon and Bob Valvano.

ESPN, ESPNU and ESPN2’s Selection Sunday and Tournament Countdown Schedule

Date	Time (ET)	Show	Network
Sunday, Mar 11	11 a.m.	College GameDay	ESPN2
	noon	College GameDay	ESPN
	1 p.m.	ACC Championship	ESPN
	1 p.m.	SEC Championship	ABC
	3 p.m.	Bracketology	ESPN
	6 p.m.	SportsCenter	ESPN
	7 p.m.	Bracketology	ESPN
	8 p.m.	Crunch Time: Championship Week Special	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	NIT Selection Show	ESPNU
	9:30 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: The Experts	ESPNU

The Announcement
On November 7, 1991, Earvin “Magic” Johnson stunned the world by announcing that he was HIV-Positive. Now, more than 20 years later, acclaimed filmmaker Nelson George gets to the core of Magic’s incredible emotional journey in the new ESPN Films documentary, The Announcement, airing Sunday, March 11, at 9 pm ET on ESPN.

Narrated by Magic himself, The Announcement tells Magic’s story in his own words along with insights from the people closest to him including his wife Cookie, his son Andre, longtime rival and friend Larry Bird, former coach Pat Riley, Los Angeles Lakers teammates James Worthy and Kurt Rambis, former NBA star Karl Malone and close friends Chris Rock and Arsenio Hall.

And ESPNU will have plenty of NCAA Tournament Selection talk over both the men’s and women’s tournament from Sunday leading up to the first games on Tuesday. Then ESPNU gears up for the Tournament with all types of studio programming surrounding the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament.

60 Hours of Tournament Countdown Coverage Surrounding NCAA Basketball Championships on ESPNU

Your homecourt for college hoops, ESPNU will televise more than 60 hours of comprehensive Tournament Countdown studio programming beginning Selection Sunday, March 11 at 8 p.m. and extending past the last dribble of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships on Tuesday, April 3.

On March 11, ESPN platforms will offer more than 13 hours of Selection Sunday programming.

2012 ESPNU Tournament Countdown programming highlights:

• Tournament Countdown: College Basketball Live Special – Seasoned basketball reporter Andy Katz will once again preview the upcoming madness by interviewing all 68 men’s coaches in a five-hour special to tip off the basketball post-season.
• Tournament Countdown: The Experts – After selections are made on Sunday, ESPNU’s panel of experts will breakdown each first and second round game, providing viewers insight into filling out their own brackets. They will also educate fans on the sleepers and the names you need to know. On Monday The Experts will walk through each round of the tournament and explain who viewers should expect to be cutting down the nets in New Orleans.
• Tournament Countdown: Road to the Championship – A look back in separate 30-minute specials at the journey each final four team took to reach the top tier of the national bracket with features and analysis.
• Tournament Countdown: ESPNU College Basketball WhipAround – ESPNU host Dari Nowkhah takes viewers around the country and into the press room to preview and review every second round game of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.
• SportsCenterU – Gets extra playing time at the end of the night to breakdown all of the college basketball action around the county during ESPNU Tournament Countdown coverage.
• Crunch Time: Champ Week Edition – Captures every crucial moment from ESPN’s 137 Championship Week games.
• Tournament Countdown: ESPNU Film Room – ESPNU’s roster of former coaches single out the X’s & O’s viewers need to understand when their team takes to the court in the final four matchups.
• 2012 NIT Selection Show – In advance of the network’s coverage the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), the nation’s oldest post-season college basketball tournament, Nowkhah and analyst Dino Gaudio will announce the 32-team field live on ESPNU.
• Tournament Countdown will once again include extensive NCAA women’s basketball coverage from the court and in the studio. Full details to be released later this week. (ESPNU studio elements included in the schedule below).

Date	Time (ET)	Program
Sunday, Mar 11	8 p.m.	Crunch Time: Champ Week Edition
	9 p.m.	2012 NIT Selection Show
	9:30 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: The Experts
Monday, Mar 12	1 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: College Basketball Live Special
	6 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: College Basketball Live
	8 p.m.	NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Show Extended Coverage
	9 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: The Experts
Tuesday, Mar 13	1 p.m.	College Basketball Live: NCAA Women’s Special
	5 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: College Basketball Live
	11 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Wednesday, Mar 14	1 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: ESPNU College Basketball WhipAround
	11:59 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Thursday, Mar 15	1 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: ESPNU College Basketball WhipAround
	11:59 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Friday, Mar 16	2 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: ESPNU College Basketball WhipAround
	11:59 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Saturday, Mar 17	11:59 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Sunday, Mar 18	11:59 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Monday, Mar 29	1 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: The Experts
Monday, Mar 26	1 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: The Experts
Thursday, Mar 19	11 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: ESPNU Film Room
Friday, Mar 30	11 a.m.	Tournament Countdown: Road to the Championship
	11:30 a.m.	Tournament Countdown: Road to the Championship
	Noon	Tournament Countdown: Road to the Championship
	12:30 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: Road to the Championship
	1 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Saturday, Mar 31	11 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Monday, Apr 2	1 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: The Experts
	4 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: Road to the Championship
	4:30 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: Road to the Championship
	5 p.m.	Tournament Countdown: College Basketball Live
	11:59 p.m.	SportsCenterU
Tuesday, Apr 3	1 p.m.	The Experts
	3 p.m.	Crunch Time: NCAA Women’s Tournament
	5 p.m.	The Experts: NCAA Women’s Championship
	6 p.m.	College Basketball Live: NCAA Women’s Championship

That’s it.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 03/03 & 03/04/12, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Saturday, March 3

Men’s Schedule

College GameDay live from Durham, NC — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m. & 6 p.m.

Atlantic Sun Championship, Macon, GA
Belmont vs. Florida Gulf Coast — ESPN2, 7 p.m.

Big South Championship, Asheville, NC
VMI vs. UNC-Asheville — ESPN, noon

Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, Richmond, VA
Quarterfinals
Drexel vs. UNC-Wilmington — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic & New England)/The Comcast Network, noon
Old Dominion vs. Delaware — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic Plus & New England)/The Comcast Network, 2:30 p.m.
VCU vs. William & Mary — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic Plus & New England)/CSS/The Comcast Network, 6 p.m.
George Mason vs. Georgia State — Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic Plus & New England)/The Comcast Network, 8:30 p.m.

Horizon League Tournament, Valparaiso, IN
Semifinals
Detroit vs. Cleveland State — ESPN3, 6 p.m.
Butler vs. Valparaiso — ESPNU, 8:30 p.m.

Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, St. Louis, MO
Semifinals
Wichita State vs. Illinois State — Fox College Sports Central/Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest, 2:30 p.m.
Creighton vs. Evansville — Fox College Sports Central/Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest, 5 p.m.

Ohio Valley Conference Championship, Nashville, TN
Murray State vs. Tennessee State — ESPN2, 2 p.m.

Patriot League Tournament (Home Sites)
Semifinals
Lafayette at Bucknell — CBS Sports Network, 2 p.m.
American at Lehigh — CBS Sports Network, 4:30 p.m.

Summit League Tournament, Sioux Falls, SD
Quarterfinals
Oral Roberts vs. IPFW — Fox College Sports Central, 7 p.m.
South Dakota State vs. IUPUI — Fox College Sports Central, 9:30 p.m.

West Coast Conference Tournament, Las Vegas, NV
Semifinals
San Francisco vs. St. Mary’s — ESPN2, 9 p.m.
BYU vs. Gonzaga — ESPN2, 11:30 p.m.

noon
Wake Forest at Georgia Tech — ACC Network
West Virginia at South Florida — Big East Network: Bright House/MASN/MSG Network/Root Sports Pittsburgh
Memphis at Tulsa — CBS
George Washington at Dayton — CBS Sports Network
Pittsburgh at UConn — ESPN

12:30 p.m.
Nebraska at Minnesota — Big Ten Network

1:30 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Kansas State — Big 12 Network
South Carolina at Georgia — SEC Network

2 p.m. 
Charlotte at Xavier — A-10 Network: Fox Sports Ohio
Georgetown at Marquette — Big East Network: MASN/SNY
LSU at Auburn — CBS
Washington at UCLA — CBS
Cincinnati at Villanova — ESPN
Southern Mississippi at Marshall — Fox Sports Net (national)

2:30 p.m.
Boston College at Miami — ACC Network
Northwestern at Iowa — Big Ten Network

4 p.m.
URI at UMass — A-10 Network: Comcast SportsNet (New England & Philadelphia)/CSS
Missouri at Texas Tech — Big 12 Network
Texas A&M at Oklahoma — Big 12 Network
Louisville at Syracuse — CBS
Vanderbilt at Tennessee — ESPN
Colorado at Oregon State — Fox Sports Net (national)
Boise State at New Mexico — NBC Sports Network
Alabama at Mississippi — SEC Network
Colorado State at Air Force — the mtn.

5 p.m.
Arkansas at Mississippi State — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports South/Sun Sports

6 p.m.
Seton Hall at DePaul — Big East Network: Altitude/MASN/MSG Network

7 p.m.
North Carolina at Duke — ESPN
San Diego State at TCU — the mtn.

8 p.m.
St. John’s at Rutgers — Big East Network: MASN/MSG Network

9 p.m.
Texas at Kansas — ESPN

10 p.m.
Wyoming at UNLV

Women’s Schedule

ACC Tournament, Greensboro, NC
Semifinals
Georgia Tech vs. North Carolina State — ESPNU, 11 a.m.
Maryland vs. Wake Forest — ESPNU, 1:30 p.m.

Big Ten Tournament, Indianapolis, IN
Semifinals
Ohio State vs. Nebraska — Big Ten Network, 5 p.m.
Penn State vs. Purdue — Big Ten Network, 7:30 p.m.

SEC Tournament, Nashville, TN
Semifinals
Kentucky vs. LSU — ESPNU, 4 p.m.
Tennessee vs. South Carolina — ESPNU, 6:30 p.m.

noon
Iowa State at Baylor — Fox Sports Net (national)

Sunday, March 4

Men’s Schedule

Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, Richmond, VA
Semifinals
Drexel vs. Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus/CSS/The Comcast Network, 2 p.m.
VCU vs. George Mason — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus/CSS/The Comcast Network, 4:30 p.m.

Missouri Valley Championship, St. Louis, MO
Creighton vs. Illinois State — CBS, 2 p.m.

Northeast Conference Tournament (Home Sites)
Semifinals
Robert Morris vs. Wagner — Fox College Sports Atlantic/MSG Network, noon
Quinnipiac vs LIU — Fox College Sports Atlantic/MSG Network, 6 p.m.

Summit League Tournament, Sioux Falls, SD
Quarterfinals
Western Illinois vs. North Dakota State — Fox College Sports Central/Fox Sports Detroit, 7 p.m.
Oakland vs. Southern Utah — Fox College Sports Central/Fox Sports Detroit, 9:30 p.m.

noon
Kentucky at Florida — CBS
Clemson at Florida State — ESPN2

1 p.m.
Illinois at Wisconsin — Big Ten Network
Michigan at Penn State — ESPN

2 p.m.
Virginia at Maryland — ACC Network

3:30 p.m.
Arizona at Arizona State — Fox Sports Net (national)

4 p.m.
Ohio State at Michigan State — CBS

5:30 p.m.
Cal at Stanford — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Purdue at Michigan — Big Ten Network
North Carolina State at Virginia Tech — ESPNU

Women’s Schedule

ACC Championship, Greensboro, NC
Maryland vs. Georgia Tech — ESPN2, 2 p.m.

Atlantic 10 Tournament, Philadelphia, PA
Semifinals
St. Bonaventure vs. St. Joseph’s — CBS Sports Network, noon
Temple vs. Dayton — CBS Sports Network, 2:30 p.m.

Big East Tournament, Hartford, CT
Quarterfinals
Georgetown vs. West Virginia — ESPNU, noon
Notre Dame vs. DePaul — ESPNU, 2:30 p.m.
St. John’s vs. Louisville — Big East Network: SNY, 6 p.m.
UConn vs. Rutgers — ESPNU, 8:30 p.m.

Big Ten Championship, Indianapolis, IN
Nebraska vs. Purdue — ESPN2, 4 p.m.

SEC Championship, Nashville, TN
LSU vs. Tennessee — ESPN2, 6 p.m.

1 p.m.
Texas A&M at Texas — Fox Sports Net (national)

Bringing Out The Mid-Week Linkage

Let’s do our linkage for today. It’s going to snow in Southern New England so I’m doing this early in case I have bug out later.

Starting with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand, we learn that ESPN will be streaming its Championship Week games on Facebook, but not everyone will be able to see the games.

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk through John Ourand of Sports Business Journal writes that former Indianapolis Colts GM Bill Polian will join ESPN in a couple of weeks.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Michael Bradley advises NBC Sports Network to stay the course and not panic in the wake of low ratings out of the box.

Eric Fisher at Sports Business Daily has the skinny on MLB Advanced Media’s unveiling of the new At Bat mobile app.

Stephen Galloway at the Hollywood Reporter has a fascinating update on cable television pioneer and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner.

Eriq Gardner from the Reporter writes that former college athletes suing the NCAA over the use of their likenesses in video games and attempting to get information from TV contracts, have been sanctioned by the judge presiding over the case.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says the National Association of Broadcasters has told the FCC to keep the antiquated NFL blackout rule in place.

Tim Baysinger at B&C notes the NFL has moved its regular season opening game back one day to accommodate the Democratic National Convention.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says after some early momentum, TNT saw rating drops for its NBA All-Star Weekend.

Wendy Davis at MediaPost writes that streaming service Justin.TV and YouTube are being sued for illegally showing a boxing pay-per-view fight.

All Access notes that CBS Radio’s WJFK has signed to remain the DC affiliate for Virginia Tech sports.

Greg Doyel of CBS Sports wants to know why ESPN is allowing Bob Knight to show his clear disdain for Kentucky.

The Mansfield (CT) Patch picks up a story from Kenneth Best who went behind the scenes when ESPN’s College GameDay visited the UConn campus last weekend.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at Twitter’s newest darling, NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski.

The Long Island Tennis Magazine says ESPN2 will air the annual BNP Paribas Showdown on tape delay with an MSG Network replay following a day later.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says the NFL regular season opener has been pushed back one day to accommodate President Obama.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that the Nationals’ Bryce Harper has deleted his Twitter account.

The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal remembers a local sports anchor who passed away this week.

Deven Swartz of WGHP-TV also remembers Rich Brenner who was a beloved member of the community.

WGHP also has a special section devoted to Brenner.

Amanda Kelley at the Myrtle Beach (SC) Sun-Times says ESPN Radio is changing stations.

Luther Campbell, formerly of 2 Live Crew, in the Miami New Times accuses ESPN’s Skippy Bayless of race baiting.

Jon Solomon at the Birmingham (AL) News writes that the SEC’s member schools are reluctant to expand to 9 conference football games, but the league’s TV partners are seeking more inventory.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Daytona 500 did well in primetime for Fox, but ratings are down from last year.

Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune says the Padres are wondering why MLB is taking so long to approve its rights deal with Fox Sports.

Brady Green at Awful Announcing has the video of Rich Eisen’s annual 40 yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Andrew Bucholz at AA notes that Captain Blowhard is complaining about something no one cares about.

At the Bleacher Report, Dan Levy looks at the sexism one San Diego sports anchor threw at Danica Patrick and the reaction since.

John Daly of the Daly Planet reviews Fox’s performance at the Daytona 500.

John also explores ESPN’s Brad Daugherty inexplicably coming down hard on driver Brad Keselowski for Tweeting during the Daytona 500.

John Gennaro of the Bolts from the Blue blog looks at how the new Fox Sports San Diego will affect sports fans.

Congratulations to CNBC’s Darren Rovell who now has a baby daughter to take care of. She wasn’t even a day old when Darren signed her up for Twitter.

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/darrenrovell/statuses/174684002865774593"]

And then Darren told us that he signed her up for other social networking services and bought her domain name. Darren? Put down the smartphone and walk away slowly.

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/darrenrovell/statuses/174686172033990656"]

And we’ll end it there for today.

ESPN’s College Basketball Schedule is Highlighted With North Carolina-Duke

This week wraps up the regular season for college basketball. Some conferences are starting their tournaments this week as well, so it’s an eclectic mix of games as we get ready for one of the best parts of sports calendar, March Madness. For me, my three favorite months of the sports calendar are January for the NFL playoffs, March for the conference tournaments and NCAA Tournament and October for the MLB Postseason and World Series.

So we have the beginning of what should be an exciting month of college basketball and it begins with this weekend’s mid-major conference tournaments and the jockeying for positioning for seeding in the “BCS” conferences and we have the 2nd North Carolina-Duke game on Saturday which ESPN will carry.

We have the schedule of games for the ESPN family of networks coming up, but first, ESPN tells us that College GameDay will be live in Durham, NC for Carolina-Duke and for the first time, the show will have a special Friday night presentation on ESPNU.

College GameDay Returns to Duke-UNC Rivalry on Saturday

ESPN’s College GameDay returns to Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University on Saturday, March 3 (10 a.m., ESPNU & ESPN 3D; 11 a.m. & 6 p.m., ESPN & ESPN 3D). Rece Davis serves as the College GameDay host, and is joined by analysts Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Hubert Davis.

The weekly show originates from the site of ESPN’s Saturday Primetime telecast – this week, pitting the top two teams in the ACC – No. 6 North Carolina at No. 3 Duke (7 p.m. on ESPN, ESPN3 & ESPN 3D). Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale and Erin Andrews will call the telecast. GameDay is at the site of the Duke-UNC rivalry for the fourth time since the show’s debut in 2005.

Coverage will begin with a special first-time Friday edition of College GameDay, March 2, at 11 p.m.  The following day, ESPNU will dedicate eight hours of Duke vs. UNC programming, including the recent thriller from February 8 when the Blue Devils stunned the Tar Heels with a last second, three-pointer from freshman Austin Rivers.

Date	Time (ET)	Program	Network
Fri, March 2	11 p.m.	College GameDay: North Carolina vs. Duke Special (Durham, N.C.)	ESPNU
Sat, March 3	3:30 a.m.	Re-air: College GameDay: North Carolina vs. Duke Special (Durham, N.C.)	ESPNU
	4 a.m.	Duke vs. North Carolina (Feb. 5, 1992)	ESPNU
	6 a.m.	North Carolina vs. Duke (Feb. 9, 2005)	ESPNU
	7:30 a.m.	Duke vs. North Carolina (Feb. 8, 2012)	ESPNU
	9 a.m.	Re-air: College GameDay: North Carolina vs. Duke Special (Durham, N.C.)	ESPNU
	9:30 a.m.	First Take: College Basketball	ESPNU
	10 a.m.	College GameDay (Durham, N.C.) Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps & Hubert Davis	ESPNU/ESPN 3D
	11 a.m. & 6 p.m.	College GameDay (Durham, N.C.) Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps & Hubert Davis	ESPN/ESPN 3D
	7 p.m.	Saturday Primetime: No. 6 North Carolina at No. 3 Duke Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale & Erin Andrews	ESPN/ESPN3/ESPN 3D

And here’s that ESPN schedule for the rest of the week.

Men’s College Basketball: No. 6 North Carolina at No. 3 Duke Showdown

ESPN’s men’s college basketball schedule will be highlighted by No. 6 North Carolina at No. 3 Duke in a showdown between the ACC rivals, which have identical 12-2 records in the conference. Duke defeated North Carolina in a thrilling 85-84 last-second victory on February 8.

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	Network
Wed, Feb 29	7 p.m.	Maryland at No. 6 North Carolina John Saunders & Dick Vitale	ESPN/ESPN3
		No. 7 Marquette at Cincinnati Bob Wischusen & Bob Knight	ESPN2/ESPN3
		St. John’s at Pittsburgh Adam Amin & Bob Valvano	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	Oklahoma at Texas Jon Sciambi & Fran Fraschilla	ESPN2/ESPN3
		Iowa at Nebraska Mitch Holthus & Miles Simon	ESPNU
Thu, March 1	7 p.m.	No. 16 Michigan at Illinois Dave O’Brien, Stephen Bardo & Jalen Rose	ESPN/ESPN3
		No. 22 Florida State at Virginia Mike Patrick, Len Elmore & Jeannine Edwards	ESPN2/ESPN3
	9 p.m.	Georgia at No. 1 Kentucky Rece Davis & Hubert Davis	ESPN/ESPN3
		Villanova at Rutgers John Saunders & Tim Welsh	ESPN2/ESPN3
	11 p.m.	New Mexico State at Nevada Dave Flemming & Miles Simon	ESPN2/ESPN3
Fri, March 2	7 p.m.	Akron at Kent State TBD & Dan Dakich	ESPN2/ESPN3
Sat, March 3	Noon	Pittsburgh at Connecticut Dave Pasch & Doris Burke	ESPN/ESPN3
	2 p.m.	Cincinnati at Villanova TBD & TBD	ESPN/ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Vanderbilt at Tennessee Brad Nessler & Jimmy Dykesw	ESPN/ESPN3
	7 p.m.	No. 6 North Carolina at No. 3 Duke Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale & Erin Andrews	ESPN/ESPN3
	9 p.m.	Texas at No. 4 Kansas Brent Musburger & Bob Knight	ESPN/ESPN3
Sun, March 4	Noon	Clemson at No. 22 Florida State Mike Patrick & Len Elmore	ESPN2/ESPN3
	1 p.m.	No. 16 Michigan at Penn State TBD & Dan Dakich	ESPN/ESPN3
	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: N.C. State at Virginia Tech Jon Sciambi, Hubert Davis & Jeannine Edwards	ESPNU

That will do it.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 02/25 & 02/26, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, February 25

College GameDay live from Storrs, CT — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

11 a.m.
Robert Morris at Quinnipiac — ESPNU

noon
Virginia Tech at Duke — ACC Network
Vanderbilt at Kentucky — CBS
Northeastern at Delaware — Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS/The Comcast Network
Notre Dame at St. John’s — ESPN2

Women’s: DePaul at Louisville — Big East Network: MASN/SNY

1 p.m.
Boston College at Wake Forest — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports West/NESN
LaSalle at Fordham — YES

1:30 p.m.
Iowa State at Kansas State — Big 12 Network
Oklahoma at Baylor — Big 12 Network
Drake at Wichita State — Fox College Sports Central/Comcast SportsNet Chicago Plus/Fox Sports Midwest
LSU at Mississippi — SEC Network

2 p.m.
St. Louis at URI — A-10 Network: Comcast SportsNet New England/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia/Cox Sports RI
UCLA at Arizona — CBS
Villanova at Georgetown — CBS
Texas A&M at Oklahoma State — ESPN2
Boise State at Wyoming — the mtn.

2:30 p.m.
Maryland at Georgia Tech — ACC Network
NC State at Clemson — ACC Network

3 p.m.
St. Francis at Sacred Heart — Fox College Sports Atlantic

4 p.m.
Texas at Texas Tech — Big 12 Network
Missouri at Kansas — CBS
Lafayette at American — CBS Sports Network
Drexel at Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet New England/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
North Carolina at Virginia — ESPN
Creighton at Indiana State — ESPN2
Hawaii at Louisiana Tech — ESPN Plus
Memphis at Marshall — Fox Sports Net (national)
Air Force at UNLV — NBC Sports Network
Arkansas at Auburn — SEC Network
Florida at Georgia — SEC Network

5 p.m.
Rutgers at Seton Hall — ESPNU
Houston Baptist at North Dakota — Fox College Sports Central

6 p.m.
Purdue at Michigan — Big Ten Network
Portland at BYU — BYU TV
UMass at Dayton — CBS Sports Network
Mississippi State at Alabama — ESPN
George Mason at Virginia Commonwealth — ESPN2

Women’s: Oklahoma at Texas — Fox Sports Net (national)

7 p.m.
Temple at St. Joseph’s — ESPNU
New Mexico at TCU — the mtn.

8 p.m.
Nebraska at Michigan State — Big Ten Network
UTEP at Central Florida — CBS Sports Network
Richmond at Xavier — ESPN2
Middle Tennessee at Western Kentucky — Fox College Sports Atlantic
USC at Arizona State — Fox College Sports Central/Fox Sports Prime Ticket/Fox Sports Arizona
Washington at Washington State — Fox College Sports Pacific/Root Sports Northwest
Tennessee at South Carolina — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest/Sun Sports

Women’s: Texas Tech at Texas A&M — Fox Sports Net (national)

9 p.m.
Syracuse at UConn — ESPN
Northwestern at Penn State — ESPNU

10 p.m.
Colorado State at San Diego State — the mtn.
Nevada at Fresno State — WAC Sports Network

11 p.m.
Cal Poly at UC-Santa Barbara — ESPNU

Sunday, February 26

noon
Cincinnati at South Florida — Big East Network: Altitude/Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
Maine at Stony Brook — CBS Sports Network

Women’s: Indiana at Purdue — Big Ten Network

1 p.m.
Indiana at Minnesota — ESPN

Women’s: Boston College at Miami — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports South/NESN/Sun Sports Plus
Women’s: Central Florida at Houston — Fox Sports Net (national)

1:30 p.m.
Women’s: Kentucky at Mississippi State — ESPNU

2 p.m.
Pittsburgh at Louisville — CBS

Women’s: Minnesota at Penn State — Big Ten Network
Women’s: UMass at Xavier — CBS Sports Network

3 p.m.
Women’s: Duke at North Carolina — ESPN2
Women’s: Washington State at Washington — Fox Sports Net (national)

3:30 p.m.
Women’s: Old Dominion at James Madison — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic
Women’s: Florida at Tennessee — ESPNU
Women’s: Mississippi at Auburn — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports Southwest Plus/SportSouth/Sun Sports Plus

4 p.m.
Wisconsin at Ohio State — CBS

Women’s: Ohio State at Nebraska — Big Ten Network

5 p.m.
Women’s: LSU at Georgia — ESPN2

5:30 p.m.
Cal at Colorado — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Iowa at Illinois — Big Ten Network
Florida State at Miami (FL) — ESPNU

7:30 p.m.
Oregon at Oregon State — Fox Sports Net

8 p.m.
Akron at Ohio — ESPNU

Saturday Linkage

The last thing I wanted to wake up to this morning was reaction to racist headlines regarding Jeremy Lin, but that’s what we have on this Saturday. I’ve already written a post about it and I’ve given my opinion about the incident already. I’ll give ESPN the benefit of the doubt feeling the headline was unintentional, but let this be a lesson to other news organizations who are trying to be cute with puns or creative.

Mike McCarthy says ESPN has apologized for the headline.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch reacts to ESPN’s actions following the posting of the headline.

Ben Koo at Awful Announcing says even if the incident was unintentional, it was still inexcusable to allow the headline to get through.

Media Rantz says this is not the first time that an ESPN platform has used “chink in the armor” in a Jeremy Lin story.

Patty Hsieh at Aery’s Sports’ The Pigskin March site sums up the feeling of what many Asians like myself are thinking today.

Sports Media Watch has some context to the ESPN.com Jeremy Lin headline.

The Angry Asian Man blog has its reaction.

Now to other stories.

Tragic story. The son of Fox Sports’ Chris Myers was killed this week in a car accident and it will keep Myers from his NASCAR duties.

Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel says the Pac-12 Conference is hoping its in-house network will break TV barriers.

Todd Cunningham of The Wrap notes that the NBA’s TV partners can’t go crazy and add New York Knicks games this season.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder looks at yesterday’s Twitter feud between CNBC’s Darren Rovell and the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir.

Speaking of Richard, he and Howard Beck team up for a story in the Times about the resolution of the dispute between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable.

Nina Mandell of the New York Daily News says there was intervention among state and NBA officials to end the MSG/Time Warner Cable dispute.

The New York Post’s Claire Atkinson and Andy Soltis write about what brought MSG and Time Warner Cable back to the table.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has MSG’s official statement on the resolution.

Pete has Time Warner’s statement as well.

Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that ESPN’s ratings for college basketball are up.

Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press chronicles College GameDay’s visit to the Michigan campus.

John Daly of the Daly Planet has a recap of some NASCAR media issues going into its first real weekend of the season.

John Singler of the Motor Racing Network talks about the first online streaming of NASCAR this season.

That’s going to be it for today.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 02/18 & 02/19/2011, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, February 18

College GameDay live from Ann Arbor, Michigan — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

BracketBusters
Drexel at Cleveland State — ESPNU, 11 a.m.
Wichita State at Davidson — ESPN2, noon
Buffalo at South Dakota State — ESPNU, 1 p.m.
Akron at Oral Roberts — ESPN2, 2 p.m.
Drake at New Mexico State — ESPNU, 3 p.m.
Nevada at Iona — ESPN2, 4 p.m.
Old Dominion at Missouri State — ESPNU, 5 p.m.
St. Mary’s at Murray State — ESPN, 6 p.m.
UNC-Asheville at Ohio — ESPN3, 7 p.m.
Texas-Arlington at Weber State — ESPN3, 8 p.m.
Long Beach State at Creighton — ESPN2, 10 p.m.

11:30 a.m.
Bryant at St. Francis (NY) — Fox College Sports Atlantic/MSG Network

noon
Louisville at DePaul — Big East Network: Cox Sports Television/CSS/MASN/SNY
Marquette at UConn — ESPN

1 p.m.
Florida State at North Carolina State — ACC Network
Maryland at Virginia — ACC Network
UCLA at St. John’s — CBS
UNLV at New Mexico — CBS
UTEP at Memphis — Fox Sports Net (national)
Wake Forest at Miami (FL) — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports South/NESN

Women’s: Boise State at TCU — the mtn.

1:30 p.m.
Kansas State at Baylor — Big 12 Network
Oklahoma at Iowa State — Big 12 Network
LSU at South Carolina — SEC Network
Tennessee at Alabama — SEC Network

2 p.m.
Duquense at Temple — A-10 Network: CSS/The Comcast Network
Missouri at Texas A&M — ESPN

Women’s: Marquette at Syracuse — Big East Network: MASN/SNY
Women’s: Xavier at St. Bonaventure — CBS Sports Network

2:30 p.m.
Women’s:  Bryant at St. Francis (PA) — Fox College Sports Atlantic

3 p.m.
Arizona at Washington — Fox Sports Net (national)
Georgia Tech at Virgina Tech — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports South/NESN/Sun Sports

Women’s: South Carolina at Alabama — SEC Network

4 p.m.
Seton Hall at Cincinnati — Big East Network: Fox Sports Ohio/MASN/SNY
Texas at Oklahoma State — Big 12 Network
Lafayette at Lehigh — CBS Sports Network
St. Joseph’s at George Washington — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
Clemson at North Carolina — ESPN
San Diego State at Air Force — NBC Sports Network
Mississippi at Kentucky — SEC Network
TCU at Boise State — the mtn.

5 p.m.
Illinois at Nebraska — Big Ten Network
Colorado at Utah — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
LaSalle at UMass — CBS Sports Network
Florida at Arkansas — ESPN2

Women’s: Western Kentucky at South Alabama — Fox College Sports Central

6:30 p.m.
Women’s: New Mexico at UNLV — the mtn.

7 p.m.
Georgetown at Providence — Big East Network: Cox Sports RI/Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
Northwestern at Minnesota — Big Ten Network
BYU at Santa Clara — ESPNU

Women’s: Texas at Kansas State — Fox Sports Net (national)

8 p.m.
Texas Tech at Kansas — Big 12 Network
Dayton at Xavier — CBS Sports Network
Western Kentucky at South Alabama — Fox College Sports Atlantic
Mississippi State at Auburn — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest

9 p.m.
Ohio State at Michigan — ESPN
Notre Dame at Villanova — ESPNU
Wyoming at Colorado State — the mtn.

Sunday, February 19

noon
Women’s: Michigan at Indiana — Big Ten Network
Women’s: Maryland-Baltimore County at Hartford — CBS Sports Network
Women’s: Georgia State at George Mason — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/CSS

1 p.m.
Michigan State at Purdue — CBS
Syracuse at Rutgers — ESPN
Vanderbilt at Georgia — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest/Sun Sports

Women’s: Rice at SMU — Fox Sports Net (national)

1:30 p.m.
Women’s: North Carolina State at North Carolina — ESPNU

2 p.m.
Women’s: Wisconsin at Nebraska — Big Ten Network
Women’s: Tennessee at Mississippi — SEC Network

3 p.m.
Women’s: VCU at Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus
Women’s: Duke at Maryland — ESPN2
Women’s: UCLA at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)
Women’s: South Carolina at Alabama — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South

3:30 p.m.
Women’s: Georgia at Florida — ESPN2
Women’s: Florida State at Miami — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports South/NESN/Sun Sports

4 p.m.
Penn State at Wisconsin — Big Ten Network

5 p.m.
Women’s: Purdue at Michigan State — ESPN2
Women’s: Washington at Arizona — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Indiana at Iowa — Big Ten Network
Duke at Boston College — ESPNU

7 p.m.
South Florida at Pittsburgh — ESPN2
Oregon at Stanford — Fox Sports Net (national)

College Basketball Viewing Picks for 02/11 & 02/12/12, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, February 11

College GameDay live from Nashville, TN — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN,11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

11 a.m.
Butler at Cleveland State — ESPN2
Ball State at Kent State — ESPNU

noon
DePaul at Notre Dame — Big East Network: Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
James Madison at Towson — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/The Comcast Network
Louisville at West Virginia — ESPN
IPFW at Oakland — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Fox Sports Detroit

Women’s: Navy at Army — CBS Sports Network

1 p.m.
Miami at Florida State — ACC Network
Virginia at North Carolina — ACC Network
UConn at Syracuse — CBS
Arkansas-Little Rock at Middle Tennessee — ESPN2
Nebraska at Penn State — ESPNU
Dayton at Fordham — YES

1:30 p.m.
Baylor at Missouri — Big 12 Network
Georgia at Mississippi State — SEC Network
South Carolina at Arkansas — SEC Network

2 p.m.
Virginia Commonwealth at Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS/The Comcast Network
Kansas State at Texas — ESPN
Western Kentucky at Troy — Fox College Sports Central
Utah at Arizona — Fox Sports Net (national)

2:30 p.m.
Navy at Army — CBS Sports Network

3 p.m.
New Mexico State at Utah State — ESPN2
Cincinnati at Marquette — ESPNU

3:30 p.m.
Wyoming at New Mexico — the mtn.

4 p.m.
Duquense at St. Bonaventure — A-10: CSS/The Comcast Network
Oklahoma at Kansas — Big 12 Network
Texas A&M at Iowa State — Big 12 Network
Maryland at Duke — ESPN
Cal at UCLA — Fox Sports Net (national)
Clemson at Wake Forest — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports Arizona Plus/Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/NESN
San Diego State at UNLV — NBC Sports Network
Tennessee at Florida — SEC Network

Women’s: Georgetown at UConn — Big East Network: Comcast SportsNet New England/MASN/SNY

4:30 p.m.
Women’s: Charlotte at Duquense — CBS Sports Network

5 p.m.
Wichita State at Creighton — ESPN2
George Washington at Richmond — ESPNU

6 p.m.
Pepperdine at BYU — BYU TV/Fox Sports West
Michigan State at Ohio State — ESPN

Women’s: Texas A&M at Baylor — Fox Sports Net (national)
Women’s: Air Force at Boise State — the mtn.

6:30 p.m.
Colorado at Arizona State — Fox College Sports Pacific/Root Sports Rocky Mountain/Fox Sports Arizona

Women’s: TCU at Colorado State — CBS Sports Network

7 p.m.
Alabama at LSU — ESPN2
Harvard at Princeton — ESPNU
Auburn at Mississippi — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest/Sun Sports

8 p.m.
Western Illinois at Oral Roberts — Fox College Sports Central

8:30 p.m.
Colorado State at TCU — the mtn.

9 p.m.
Boise State at Air Force — CBS Sports Network
Kentucky at Vanderbilt — ESPN
Xavier at Temple — ESPN2

11 p.m.
Women’s: USC at Cal — Fox Sports Net (national)

Sunday, February 12

noon
Pittsburgh at Seton Hall — Big East Network: Altitude/Bright House/Cox Sports Television/CSS/MASN/SNY
Stony Brook at Vermont — CBS Sports Network

1 p.m.
Illinois at Michigan — CBS
St. John’s at Georgetown — ESPN
Wisconsin-Green Bay at Detroit — Fox Sports Pacific/Fox Sports Detroit

Women’s: Penn State at Northwestern — Big Ten Network
Women’s: Duke at Florida State — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports South/NESN/Sun Sports
Women’s: Kansas at Kansas State — Fox Sports Net (national)

2 p.m.
Women’s: Southern Mississippi at SMU — CBS Sports Network

2:30 p.m.
Play for Kay
ESPN2 Coverage Map
Women’s: Arkansas at Auburn — ESPN2
Women’s: Iowa State at Texas Tech — ESPN2
Women’s: Marquette at DePaul — ESPN2
Women’s: Miami at Maryland — ESPN2

3 p.m.
Bradley at Missouri State — Fox Sports Central/Fox Sports Midwest/Comcast SportsNet Chicago

Women’s: Michigan State at Iowa — Big Ten Network
Women’s: UCLA at Stanford — Fox Sports Net (national)

3:30 p.m.
Women’s: West Virginia at Notre Dame — ESPNU
Women’s: Mississippi at Mississippi State — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports Southwest Plus/SportSouth/Sun Sports

4:30 p.m.
St. Francis (NY) at Long Island University — Fox Sports Atlantic/MSG Network

5 p.m.
Play for Kay
ESPN2 Coverage Map
Women’s: Florida at South Carolina — ESPN2
Women’s: Purdue at Ohio State — ESPN2
Women’s: St. John’s at Rutgers — ESPN2
Women’s: Wake Forest at North Carolina State — ESPN2

5:30 p.m.
Washington at Oregon State — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Northwestern at Purdue — Big Ten Network
Boston College at Virginia Tech — ESPNU

7:30 p.m.
Stanford at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)

8 p.m.
Evansville at Drake — ESPNU

College Basketball Viewing Picks for 02/04 & 02/05/2012, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, February 4

College GameDay live from Columbia, MO — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

11 a.m.
South Florida at Georgetown — ESPNU

noon
LaSalle at St. Joseph – A-10 Network: CSS/The Comcast Network
Seton Hall at UConn — Big East Network: Bright House/MASN/SNY
Syracuse at St. John’s — ESPN
Detroit at Butler — ESPN2

1 p.m.
Virginia at Florida State — ACC Network
Wake Forest at North Carolina State — ACC Network
Marquette at Notre Dame — CBS
Vanderbilt at Florida — CBS
Boston College at Georgia Tech — ESPNU
Xavier at Memphis — Fox Sports Net (national)

Women’s: St. Joseph’s at Richmond — CBS Sports Network

1:30 p.m.
Baylor at Oklahoma State — Big 12 Network
Arkansas at LSU — SEC Network

2 p.m.
Delaware at James Madison — CSS/The Comcast Network
Ohio State at Wisconsin — ESPN
Temple at URI — ESPN2

Women’s: Providence at Villanova — Big East Network: Comcast SportsNet New England/SNY

3 p.m.
Penn State at Iowa — ESPNU
Arizona at Stanford — Fox Sports Net (national)

Women’s: San Diego State at TCU — CBS Sports Network

4 p.m.
Rutgers at Louisville — Big East Network: Bright House/MASN/SNY
Texas A&M at Kansas State — Big 12 Network
Clemson at Virginia Tech — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus/Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/NESN
New Mexico at Boise State — NBC Sports Network
Auburn at Mississippi State — SEC Network
UNLV at Wyoming — the mtn.

5 p.m.
Air Force at Colorado State — CBS Sports Network
Old Dominion at George Mason — ESPNU
UCLA at Washington State — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Root Sports Northwest
Creighton at Northern Iowa — Fox College Sports Central/Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest

Women’s: Central Florida at Memphis — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Kentucky at South Carolina — ESPN
Iowa at Oklahoma — ESPN2

7 p.m.
DePaul at Cincinnati — Big East Network: Bright House/MASN/SNY
Indiana at Purdue — Big Ten Network
Northeastern at VCU — Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS/The Comcast Network
Richmond at Duquense — ESPNU
Texas Tech at Texas — Longhorn Network

Women’s: Wyoming at UNLV — the mtn.

8 p.m.
Mississippi at Alabama — ESPN2
South Alabama at Western Kentucky — Fox College Sports Atlantic
Georgia at Tennessee — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest

8:30 p.m.
Portland State at Northern Arizona — Fox College Sports Pacific

9 p.m.
Kansas at Missouri — ESPN
Cal-Santa Barbara at Cal State-Fullerton — ESPNU
Oregon at Cal — Fox College Sports Central/Root Sports Northwest

10 p.m.
BYU at Portland — BYU TV
Indiana State at Wichita State — ESPN2
TCU at San Diego State — the mtn.

11 p.m.
USC at Washington — Fox Sports Net (national)

Sunday, February 5

11 a.m.
Women’s: Dayton at Xavier — ESPNU

noon
West Virginia at Providence — Big East Network: Altitude/Bright House/Cox Sports RI/Cox Sports Television/CSS/MASN/SNY

Women’s: UTEP at Rice — Fox Sports Net (national)

1 p.m.
Minnesota at Nebraska — Big Ten Network
Michigan at Michigan State — CBS

Women’s: DePaul at Notre Dame — ESPNU
Women’s: Wake Forest at Boston College — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports South/NESN

2 p.m.
Villanova at Pittsburgh — ESPN

Women’s: Missouri at Texas Tech — Fox Sports Net (national)
Women’s: Auburn at Tennessee — SEC Network

3 p.m.
Northwestern at Illinois — Big Ten Network
Miami (FL) at Duke — ESPNU

Women’s: Georgia at Alabama — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Florida/SportSouth

4 p.m.
Women’s: Washington at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)

Cranking Out Your Tuesday Links

Since late last night, I’ve been culling linkage for today. Let’s get to them.

Terry Lefton and Daniel Kaplan at Sports Business Journal discuss how Indianapolis hotels are gouging customers for Super Bowl Week.

Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press reviews NBC’s online presentation of the Super Bowl for this Sunday.

Sergio Non of USA Today looks at the UFC on Fox rating from Saturday.

Michael Learmonth of Advertising Age says USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter wrecked Super Bowl ads for good.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch provides his thoughts on The Big Lead’s profile of ESPN Radio hack Colin Cowherd.

Tim Goodman of the Hollywood Reporter has an appreciation for The Beautiful Game.

Tim Nudd of Adweek looks at the highly successful “This is SportsCenter” ad campaign.

Wayne Friedman of MediaPost says NBC is copping $4 million per Super Bowl ad.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine writes that a survey shows that a majority of readers feel Super Bowl XLVI will set a viewership record.

Toni gives us a media buyer’s primer on the Super Bowl.

Diego Vasquez of Media Life says advertisers want to get buzz about Super Bowl commercials weeks before the Big Game.

The Daily says it appears Madonna’s set list for the Super Bowl halftime show has been leaked.

Peter Schrager of Esquire lists 10 current NFL players who could make a second career on TV.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid notes that Jerry Seinfeld and the Soup Nazi will appear in a Super Bowl ad.

Frances Martel of Mediaite reviews the ESPN2 show, “Dan Le Batard is Extremely Crazy Highly Questionable.”

Robert Littal of Black Sports Online has details of the Mexican TV reporter who made an impression during Super Bowl Media Day.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group looks at ESPN taking over Pan Am Plaza in downtown Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.

Karen Hogan of SVG writes that sports has entered into reality TV in a big way.

Summer Harlow of the University of Texas Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas writes about CBSSports.com’s firing of Adam Jacobi over his premature report on Joe Paterno’s death.

Karen Rosen of TV Guide talks with ESPN’s Hannah Storm about her NFL special tonight.

All Access says a new ESPN Deportes Radio affiliate will launch tomorrow in Chicago.

Mark Miller of Examiner.com says Gary Thorne makes his Pro Bowling announcing debut this Sunday on ESPN.

Larry Mahoney of the Bangor (ME) Daily News speaks with former MLB’er Matt Stairs who joins NESN as a studio analyst for the 2012 season.

Michael Hayes of the Clinton (CT) Patch says ESPN will report from the geological center in between Gillette and Met Life Stadiums on Sunday.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has an interesting story on a small Connecticut NPR station which has a sports talk show that is not your typical run-of-the-mill program.

Judy Battista of the Times notes that the NFL will address head safety in one its in-house ads during the Super Bowl.

David Hinckley of the New York Daily News says rivals WFAN and ESPN Radio New York are squaring off in their Giants Super Bowl coverage.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes the release of ESPN’s Bracketbusters schedule.

Stacy Jones of the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger says Super Bowl advertisers are hoping to hook viewers from their computers and mobile devices as well as through their TV’s.

Neal Zoren of the Delaware County Daily Times notes Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s countdown of the worst sports villains of all-time.

Long-time New Orleans sports anchor Jim Henderson is retiring from WWL-TV, however, he’ll remain as Voice of the Saints.

Dave Walker of the New Orleans Times-Picayune gets reaction Henderson on his retirement.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle discusses the busy Super Bowl week and the ads.

Dennis Manoloff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer speaks with ESPN’s Erin Andrews about sports, life and her hosting the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission Annual Awards Banquet this week.

Tim Evans of the Indianapolis Star says Radio Row at the Super Bowl is the perfect place for star gazing this week.

Emily Hatton of the Indy Star gives us an inside look at ESPN’s Pan Am Plaza set.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has NBC’s Bob Costas calling for a revote if National League MVP Ryan Braun of the Brewers loses his appeal for testing positive for steroids last year.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says ESPN College GameDay visits the Missouri campus this weekend.

Brian Gomez of the Colorado Springs Gazette says ESPN may pull the Winter X Games out of Aspen after an 11 year relationship.

Jason Blevins of the Denver Post writes that ESPN has been airing this year’s Winter X in 3-D.

Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News says longtime UCLA voice Chris Roberts was honored by his peers as was Daily News sports media writer Tom Hoffarth.

And Tom writes an appreciation for being honored last night.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has videos of the Big Ten Network going behind the scenes with Gus Johnson.

Josh Tinley of Midwest Sports Fans explains how the Super Bowl got its name and why every game has Roman numerals.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog notes the NHL All-Star Game did really well for CBC.

And that will do it for now.