Fang's Bites

Some Wednesday Evening Linkage

I’ll provide a few links on this Wednesday afternoon.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at CBS pushing its Sunday primetime lineup to 7:30 p.m. ET to accommodate the NFL.

Michael Kruse of Grantland has a very good story catching up with former ESPN Radio host Nanci Donnellan aka “The Fabulous Sports Babe”.

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report has some thoughts on Notre Dame joining the ACC except for football and hockey.

Ed notes that Michelle Beadle might be headed to mornings on NBC Sports Network.

ESPN’s Kristi Dosh writes that despite losing Notre Dame, the Big East can still get a big TV rights eal.

Darren Rovell of ESPN says Notre Dame won’t becoming a full-time member of the ACC simply due to the fact that it likes its deal with NBC for football.

Georg Szalai from the Hollywood Reporter has CBS Head Honcho Leslie Moonves boasting about Super Bowl ads being sold for more than $4 million per 30 second spot.

Todd Spangler of Broadcasting & Cable writes that Google Fiber has added ESPN and several other Disney networks.

Tim Baysinger of B&C says Fox Sports has partnered with Oklahoma University to provide exclusive content on its Fox Sports Net channels.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek tells us NBC’s Sunday Night Football set another ratings record.

Jason Del Ray at Advertising Age says ESPN is launching an ad campaign for its pay Insider service.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life writes that thanks to the Olympics, NBC cruised to a summer ratings victory.

John Koblin of Deadspin has the great video of WFAN’s Mike Francesa falling asleep during his NFL Now show that was simulcast on YES last Sunday.

John also looks at the NFL going further into Sunday primetime.

Matt Yoder from Awful Announcing looks at Tim Brando’s Twitter war with Ohio State fans that stemmed from an interview during his radio show today.

Bill Carter of the New York Times discusses CBS adjusting its Sunday primetime schedule for the NFL.

Jerry Barmash from Fishbowl NY says the New York Giants season opener on NBC topped the ratings in the Big Apple.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call is one of the few who likes Bob Costas’ Sunday Night Football halftime commentaries.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has the local ratings for the DC Football Team’s season opener and RGIII’s pro debut.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle looks at the new Fox Sports-Oklahoma University rights deal.

David has a few notes in his blog including one on retiring Astros voice Milo Hamilton.

Mel Bracht at The Oklahoman says the NFL topped the local weekend ratings.

Berry Tremel of The Oklahoman looks at the new Fox Sports-OU relationship.

Eric Bailey of the Tulsa World has details of the Fox Sports-Oklahoma agreement.

Guerin Emig of the World has a Q&A about the new Sooner Sports TV programming arrangement.

Paul M. Banks from the Chicago Sports Media Watch says the White Sox set a 3 year ratings high for Comcast SportsNet on Tuesday.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune anticipates the 50,000th edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the next inductee to the Broadcasters Wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame could be going in as both a player and a broadcaster.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail says a documentary on soccer match fixing is a reason why Canada needs the CBC.

Sports Media Watch says Monday Night Football got off to a slow start.

SMW notes that the U.S. Open men’s final on Monday afternoon didn’t do as well as it could have.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth noticed an error in one of Fox Sports’  MLB promos.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says NBC Sports Network is increasing its college hockey schedule in case of an NHL lockout.

That’s going to do it for now.

ESPN’s College Football Games For Week 3 Including Announcing Assignments

Let’s take a look at the ESPN Family of Networks’ schedule of college football games for Week 3. Conference play will begin in some leagues. Florida at Tennessee on ESPN this Saturday is one highlight and Knoxville will be the site for this week’s College GameDay visit.

ABC has a tripleheader starting at noon highlighted by Notre Dame at Michigan State in primetime with Brent, Herbie and Heather.

We have the entire schedule including announcing assignments for you.

Matchup of Undefeated Teams in Five Telecasts, Two between Ranked Squads

ESPN’s college football schedule this week is highlighted by telecasts of five of the week’s six Football Bowl Subdivision matchups between undefeated teams. Two of the games will include a matchup of ranked teams, both on Saturday, Sept. 15: No. 18 Florida at No. 23 Tennessee (6 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN Radio) and No. 20 Notre Dame at No. 10 Michigan State (8 p.m. on ABC). Additional games between unbeaten squads:

• The Thursday ESPN College Football Primetime game on September 13 at 7:30 p.m. will kick off the action with Rutgers at South Florida in a BIG EAST Conference showdown.
• ESPN will televise Wake Forest at ACC rival No. 5 Florida State on Saturday, Sept. 15, at noon. Wake Forest has defeated Florida State in four of the series’ six previous games, including a 35-30 victory over then-No. 23 Florida State last season.
• ESPN will televise No. 14 Texas of the Big 12 at Ole Miss of the SEC in a non-conference matchup on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 9:15 p.m. It will mark the first game between the programs since 1966.

Overall, ESPN networks will cover 14 teams ranked in the AP Top 25, including four games on ESPN3 on Saturday, Sept. 15: No. 3 LSU against Idaho at 8 p.m., No. 7 Georgia against Florida Atlantic at 7:30 p.m., No. 8 South Carolina against UAB at 7 p.m. and No. 11 Clemson against Furman at 3 p.m.

ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D and ESPN Radio Schedule

Date	Time (ET)	Game / Commentators	Network
Thu, Sep 13	7:30 p.m.	Rutgers at South Florida Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack & Samantha Steele	ESPN
	7:30 p.m.	Mississippi Valley State at Southern Joe Davis & Jay Walker	ESPNU
Fri, Sep 14	9 p.m.	Washington State at UNLV Carter Blackburn, Rod Gilmore & Jemele Hill	ESPN
Sat, Sep 15	Noon	California at No. 12 Ohio State Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman & Quint Kessenich	ABC
	Noon	Wake Forest at No. 5 Florida State Dave Pasch, Brian Griese & Jenn Brown	ESPN & ESPN 3D
	Noon	Arkansas State at Nebraska Beth Mowins, Joey Galloway & Lewis Johnson	ESPN2
	Noon	No. 13 Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh Tom Hart & John Congemi	ESPNU
	Noon	Bethune-Cookman at Miami Drew Fellios, Doug Garber & Tiffany Green	ESPN3
	Noon	Louisiana-Monroe at Auburn Dave Neal, Andre Ware & Cara Capuano	ESPN3 & SEC Network
	12:30 p.m.	Connecticut at Maryland	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	12:30 p.m.	Presbyterian at Vanderbilt Bob Neal & Cole Cubelic	ESPN3 & CSS
	3 p.m.	Furman at No. 11 Clemson	ESPN3 * & RSN
	3:30 p.m.	North Carolina at No. 19 Louisville Bob Wischusen, Danny Kanell & Maria Taylor	ABC & ESPN2 **
		Navy at Penn State Mike Patrick, Ed Cunningham & Jeannine Edwards	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	Virginia at Georgia Tech Anish Shroff & Dan Hawkins	ESPNU
	3:30 p.m.	Morgan State at Akron Dan Gutowsky & Jerod Cherry	ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Stony Brook at Syracuse	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Network
	6 p.m.	No. 18 Florida at No. 23 Tennessee Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge & Holly Rowe Radio: Bill Rosinski, David Norrie, Joe Schad	ESPN & ESPN Radio
	6 p.m.	South Alabama at NC State Bob Picozzi, Forrest Conoly & Sarah Stankavage	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Arizona State at Missouri Joe Tessitore, Matt Millen & Shelley Smith	ESPN2
	7 p.m.	Western Kentucky at Kentucky Clay Matvick, Matt Stinchcomb & Allison Williams	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	Rice at Louisiana Tech Rich Hollenberg & Ralph Friedgen	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Mississippi State at Troy Shawn Kenney & John Bunting	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Bowling Green at Toledo Frank Giardina & TBD	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Delaware State at Cincinnati Jim Barbar, John Gregory & Rontina McCann	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	North Carolina Central at Duke Dave Weekley, Stan Lewter & Beth McDade	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	UAB at No. 8 South Carolina	ESPN3 * & FSN
	7:30 p.m.	Florida Atlantic at No. 7 Georgia Matt Stewart & Chris Doering	ESPN3 & CSS
	8 p.m.	No. 20 Notre Dame at No. 10 Michigan State Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit & Heather Cox	ABC
	8 p.m.	Colorado State at San Jose State Trey Bender & John Fina	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Idaho at No. 3 LSU	ESPN3
	9:15 p.m.	No. 14 Texas at Mississippi Mark Jones, Brock Huard & Jessica Mendoza	ESPN
	10 p.m.	No. 25 BYU at Utah Mark Neely, Ray Bentley & Paul Carcaterra	ESPN2
	10:30 p.m.	Howard at Norfolk State Joe Davis & Jay Walker	ESPNU ***

* Local blackout may apply
** Reverse mirror in which ESPN2 will regionalize two games on ABC to markets not receiving the telecast
*** Live on ESPN3 at 4 p.m. ET & same day delay on ESPNU

I’ll have Fox’s college football schedule coming next.

ESPN’s College Football Games For Week 2 Including Announcing Assignments

Week 2 in college football doesn’t have ranked teams facing each other, but ESPN will try its best to hype games for us. You have Missouri’s and Texas A&M’s first games in the SEC. ABC doesn’t have a primetime game this week as it carries a NASCAR race. But it still has a doubleheader at noon and at 3:30 p.m. ET.

ESPN does have a primetime doubleheader so there are plenty of games on the ESPN Family.

Check out the games with the announcing assignments.

Seven of Top Nine Ranked Teams; SEC Debut for Missouri & Texas A&M

This week’s college football schedule of 48 games will include a SEC tripleheader on ESPN, the first SEC conference games for new members Texas A&M and Missouri, and seven of the top nine – and 16 of the Top 25 – teams in the AP poll.

Highlights for Saturday, Sept. 8:

• Missouri and Texas A&M will make their SEC debut Saturday, each against a ranked opponent: Texas A&M will host No. 24 Florida at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN while Missouri will host No. 7 Georgia at 7:45 p.m. on ESPN2.
• Additional ranked SEC teams in action include two games on ESPN3 and the SEC Network: No. 1 Alabama against Western Kentucky at 3:30 p.m. and No. 9 South Carolina against East Carolina at noon.
• An ESPN prime time doubleheader will include No. 3 LSU against Washington at 7 p.m. and Illinois at Arizona at 10:30 p.m.
• The ABC and ESPN2 reverse mirror telecast at 3:30 p.m. will showcase a ranked team in each game: No. 2 USC at Syracuse and No. 19 Michigan against Air Force.
• The ESPNU night game will spotlight No. 8 Arkansas against Louisiana-Monroe at 7 p.m.

ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D, Longhorn Network and ESPN Radio Schedule

Date	Time (ET)	Game / Commentators	Network
Thu, Sep 6	8 p.m.	Pittsburgh at Cincinnati Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack & Samantha Steele	ESPN
Fri, Sep 7	8 p.m.	Utah at Utah State Carter Blackburn, Rod Gilmore & Jemele Hill	ESPN2
Sat, Sep 8	Noon	Penn State at Virginia Mike Patrick, Ed Cunningham & George Smith	ABC
	Noon	Auburn at Mississippi State Dave Pasch, Brian Griese & Jenn Brown	ESPN & ESPN 3D
	Noon	Central Florida at No. 14 Ohio State Beth Mowins, Joey Galloway & Lewis Johnson	ESPN2
	Noon	Maryland at Temple Tom Hart & John Congemi	ESPNU
	Noon	East Carolina at No. 9 South Carolina Dave Neal, Andre Ware & Cara Capuano	ESPN3 & SEC Network
	Noon	NC State at Connecticut Eamon McAnaney, David Diaz-Infante & Paul Carcaterra	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Network
	12:30 p.m.	Ball State at No. 12 Clemson	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	1 p.m.	Maine at Boston College Bob Picozzi, Paul Maguire & Cat Whitehill	ESPN3
	1 p.m.	Southern Illinois at Miami (Ohio) Michael Reghi & Rocky Boiman	ESPN3
	1 p.m.	Illinois State at Eastern Michigan	ESPN3 *
	1:30 p.m.	Austin Peay at No. 15 Virginia Tech John Sadak, John Gregory & Rontina McCann	ESPN3
	3 p.m.	North Carolina at Wake Forest	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	3:30 p.m.	Air Force at No. 19 Michigan Bob Wischusen, Danny Kanell & Maria Taylor	ABC & ESPN2 **
		No. 2 USC at Syracuse Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman & Shelley Smith	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	No. 24 Florida at Texas A&M Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit & Heather Cox Radio: Bill Rosinski, David Norrie & Joe Schad	ESPN & ESPN Radio
	3:30 p.m.	No. 11 Michigan State at Central Michigan Anish Shroff & Dan Hawkins	ESPNU
	3:30 p.m.	Indiana at Massachusetts Shawn Kenney, John Bunting & John Brickley	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Western Kentucky at No. 1 Alabama Mike Morgan, Chris Doering & Jill Montgomery	ESPN3 & SEC Network
	3:30 p.m.	Howard at Rutgers Mike Corey & Rene Ingoglia	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Network
	3:30 p.m.	Missouri State at No. 23 Louisville	ESPN3 *
	4 p.m.	Georgia State at Tennessee	ESPN3
	5 p.m.	Nicholls State at South Alabama Jared Schwartz & Stan Lewter	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Savannah State at No. 6 Florida State Dave Weekley, Ralph Friedgen & Tiffany Green	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Akron at Florida International Drew Fellios & Doug Graber	ESPN3
	6:30 p.m.	Montana at Appalachian State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Washington at No. 3 LSU Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge & Holly Rowe	ESPN
	7 p.m.	Louisiana-Monroe at No. 8 Arkansas Clay Matvick, Matt Stinchcomb & Allison Williams	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	Memphis at Arkansas State Brock Bowling & Cory Chavous	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Texas Tech at Texas State Trey Bender & Jay Taylor	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Presbyterian at Georgia Tech Ryan Rose, Warrick Dunn & LaChina Robinson	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Louisiana-Lafayette at Troy Jonathon Yardley & Forest Conoly	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	New Mexico State at Ohio TBD & Jerod Cherry	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Tennessee-Martin at Northern Illinois Jim Barbar & Bob Chmeil	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Eastern Illinois at Western Michigan Dan Gutowsky & Ben Leber	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Texas Southern at North Texas	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Idaho at Bowling Green Greg Franke & Tom Cole	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	UTEP at Mississippi	ESPN3 * & FSN
	7 p.m.	Norfolk State at Liberty	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Lafayette at William & Mary	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Kent State at Kentucky Matt Stewart, Cole Cubelic & Angela Mallen	ESPN3 & CSS
	7:30 p.m.	No. 16 Nebraska at UCLA	ESPN Radio
	7:45 p.m.	No. 7 Georgia at Missouri Joe Tessitore, Matt Millen & Quint Kessenich	ESPN2
	8 p.m.	New Mexico at No. 17 Texas Mark Neely, Ray Bentley & Kaylee Hartung	Longhorn Network
	10:30 p.m.	Illinois at Arizona Mark Jones, Brock Huard & Jessica Mendoza	ESPN & ESPN3 (Spanish language)
	10:30 p.m.	Bethune Cookman at South Carolina State Joe Davis & Jay Walker	ESPNU ***

* Local blackout may apply
** Reverse mirror in which ESPN2 will regionalize two games on ABC to markets not receiving the telecast
*** Live on ESPN3 at 6 p.m. ET & same day delay on ESPNU

That will do it for this post.

ESPN’s College Football Games For Week 1 Including Announcing Assignments

I already gave you the 2012 ESPN College Football regular season schedule earlier today. Now let’s take a look at the Week 1 schedule complete with announcing assignments.

ESPN’s college football slate begins Thursday with a doubleheader beginning with an SEC matchup between South Carolina and Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. ET, followed by an intriguing interconference game featuring Washington State and BYU at 10:15 p.m.

Of course, ESPN3 will have its share of season opening games on Thursday as well.

This weekend marks the debut of several new announcing teams for the ESPN Family including Joe Tessitore and Matt Millen calling a Saturday night game, Beth Mowins and Joey Galloway assigned to the ESPN2 noon ET game, Carter Blackburn joins Rod Gilmore on Friday nights, Bob Wischusen teamed with Danny Kanell on ABC Saturday afternoon games plus the reunion of Sean McDonough and Chris Spielman.

All the games are listed below for you. There are a lot of them.

2012 College Football Season Kicks off Thursday

ESPN will kick off the 2012 college football season with 46 games in five days across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, Longhorn Network and ESPN Radio as part of the fifth annualKickoff Week August 30 to September 3. The season will conclude with all five post-season Bowl Championship Series bowls, highlighted by the BCS National Championship Game Jan. 7, at 8:30 p.m. ET, on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN Radio.

This season’s Labor Day weekend season kickoff celebration will showcase 16 teams in the Associated Press poll highlighted by eight of the top 10. The weekend coverage will conclude with Georgia Tech at No. 16 Virginia Tech in a Labor Day telecast Monday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Goal Line & WatchESPN
For the third consecutive season, the ESPN Goal Line network will offer unlimited live cut-ins and highlights from numerous top college football games every Saturday beginning at noon. Goal Line is currently available to Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Verizon FiOS TV, Comcast and Midcontinent Communications customers. The season will kick off with a special edition of Goal Line on Thursday, Aug. 30, at 7 p.m. ESPNU will simulcast Goal Line Thursday, Aug. 30 from 7 to 10:30 p.m.

Viewers can also watch live ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Goal Line game action online at WatchESPN.com or on smart phones and tablets through the WatchESPN app. The service – available to customers of Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Verizon FiOS TV and Comcast Xfinity TV – gives fans the ability to watch ESPN’s live networks, no matter where they are.

Schedule highlights

• The season will kick off with ESPN doubleheader: No. 9 South Carolina at Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. followed by Washington State, led by new head coach Mike Leach, at BYU at 10:15 p.m.
• ESPN3 will offer exclusive coverage of 15 games and 25 games overall.
• Saturday Night Football on ABC, the first primetime weekly college football series on broadcast television, will kick off with No. 8 Michigan vs. No. 2 Alabama. The Cowboys Classic matchup from Dallas Cowboys stadium Arlington, Texas will begin at 8 p.m.
• ESPN’s weekly Friday night series will kick off with No. 24 Boise State at No. 13 Michigan State in a showdown between Mountain West and Big Ten teams at 8 p.m.

• Overall, the weekend will include 16 teams from the AP preseason poll. Additional teams include:

• No. 1 USC against Hawaii Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN Radio
• No. 3 LSU against North Texas Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. on ESPNU
• No. 5 Oregon against Arkansas State Saturday, Sept. 1, at 10:30 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 6 Georgia against Buffalo Saturday, Sept. 1, at noon on ESPN3 and the SEC Network
• No. 7 Florida State against Murray State Saturday, Sept. 1, at 6 p.m. on ESPN3
• No. 9 South Carolina at Vanderbilt Thursday, Aug. 30, at 7 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 10 Arkansas against Jacksonville State Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. on ESPN3
• No. 14 Clemson vs. Auburn from Atlanta in the 2012 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 15 Texas against Wyoming Saturday, Sept. 1, at 8 p.m. on Longhorn Network
• No. 16 Virginia Tech against Georgia Tech Monday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 17 Nebraska against Southern Mississippi Saturday, Sept. 1, at 3:30 p.m. on ABC and ESPN2
• No. 23 Florida against Bowling Green Saturday, Sept. 1, at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 25 Louisville against Kentucky Sunday, Sept. 2, at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN

2012 Season
With the addition of games from the Mountain West Conference, ESPN will be the only network to televise home games from all 11 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences and BYU. ESPN will also televise road games featuring Notre Dame, Navy and Army.

The 2012 college football season on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Radio, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN Regional Television and ESPN GamePlan will total more than 450 regular-and post-season games, concluding with the entire Bowl Championship Series, highlighted by the National Championship Game, on ESPN. The schedule will include weekly Saturday night games on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, weekly ESPN and ESPNU Thursday night contests and telecasts every Friday.

ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D, Longhorn Network and ESPN Radio Schedule

Date	Time (ET)	Game/Commentators	Network
Thu, Aug 30	7 p.m.	No. 9 South Carolina at Vanderbilt Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack & Samantha Steele	ESPN
	7 p.m.	Central Florida at Akron Keith Morehouse & Jerod Cherry	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Eastern Michigan at Ball State Jim Barbar & Rocky Boiman	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Southeast Missouri State at Central Michigan Dan Gutowsky & Bob Chmeil	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	ESPN Goal Line simulcast	ESPNU
	7:30 p.m.	McNeese State at Middle Tennessee State	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Massachusetts at Connecticut Bob Picozzi & David Diaz-Infante	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Network
	8 p.m.	Sacramento State at New Mexico State	ESPN3 *
	8 p.m.	Southern Utah at Utah State	ESPN3 *
	9 p.m.	Eastern Washington at Idaho Trey Bender & Jay Taylor	ESPN3
	10:15 p.m.	Washington State at BYU Joe Tessitore, Matt Millen & Shannon Spake	ESPN
Fri, Aug 31	7 p.m.	Villanova at Temple Scott Graham, John Bunting & Cat Whitehill	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Kickoff Game: NC State vs. Tennessee (Atlanta) ESPNU: Dave Neal, Andre Ware & Holly Rowe Radio: Bill Rosinski, David Norrie, and Joe Schad	ESPNU & ESPN Radio
	8 p.m.	No. 24 Boise State at No. 13 Michigan State Carter Blackburn, Rod Gilmore & Jemele Hill	ESPN
	8 p.m.	Wagner at Florida Atlantic Jared Schwartz & Forrest Conoly	ESPN3
Sat, Sep 1	Noon	Ohio at Penn State Dave Pasch, Brian Griese, Tom Rinaldi & Mark Schwartz	ESPN & ESPN 3D
	Noon	Northwestern at Syracuse Beth Mowins, Joey Galloway & Jenn Brown	ESPN2
	Noon	Western Michigan at Illinois Anish Shroff & Dan Hawkins	ESPNU
	Noon	Buffalo at No. 6 Georgia Dave Neal, Andre Ware & Cara Capuano	ESPN3 & SEC Network
	12:30 p.m.	Elon at North Carolina	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	2 p.m.	Texas San Antonio at South Alabama Jonathon Yardley & Cole Cubilic	ESPN3
	3 p.m.	William & Mary at Maryland John Sadak, Cory Chavous & Beth McDade	ESPN3
	3 p.m.	Richmond at Virginia	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	3:30 p.m.	Southern Mississippi at No. 17 Nebraska Mike Patrick, Ed Cunningham & Jeannine Edwards	ABC & ESPN2 **
		Miami at Boston College Bob Wischusen, Danny Kanell & Maria Taylor	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	Bowling Green at No. 23 Florida Mark Jones, Brock Huard & Jessica Mendoza	ESPN
	3:30 p.m.	Iowa vs. Northern Illinois (from Solider Field – Chicago) Tom Hart & John Congemi	ESPNU
	6 p.m.	Youngstown State at Pittsburgh Bob Picozzi, Ralph Freidgen & Rotina McCann	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Murray State at No. 7 Florida State Shawn Kenney& Rene Ingoglia	ESPN3
	6:30 p.m.	Liberty at Wake Forest Ryan Rose & Stan Lewter	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Kickoff Game: No. 14 Clemson vs. Auburn (Atlanta) Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge & Holly Rowe	ESPN
	7 p.m.	North Texas at No. 3 LSU Clay Matvick, Matt Stinchcomb & Allison Williams	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	Florida International at Duke Darren Goldwater, John Gregory & Angela Mallen	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Tennessee-Chattanooga at South Florida Dave Weekley, Warrick Dunn & Tiffany Greene	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Austin Peay at Western Kentucky Dan Gutowsky & Doug Graber	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Jackson State at Mississippi State	ESPN3 * & RSN
	7 p.m.	Central Arkansas at Mississippi	ESPN3 * & PPV
	7 p.m.	Jacksonville State at No. 10 Arkansas	ESPN3 * & PPV
	7 p.m.	Southeastern Louisiana at Missouri	ESPN3 * & PPV
	7:30 p.m.	Hawaii at No. 1 USC Rich Cellini, John Mackovic, and Brett McMurphy	ESPN Radio
	8 p.m.	Cowboys Classic: No. 8 Michigan vs. No. 2 Alabama (Arlington, Texas) Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit & Heather Cox	ABC & ESPN Radio
	8 p.m.	Wyoming at No. 15 Texas Mark Neely, Ray Bentle7 & Kaylee Hartung	Longhorn Network
	10:30 p.m.	Arkansas State at No. 5 Oregon Joe Tessitore, Matt Millen & Shelley Smith	ESPN
	10:30 p.m.	Toledo at Arizona Joe Davis & Mike Bellotti	ESPNU
Sun, Sep 2	Noon	MEAC/SWAC Challenge: Bethune-Cookman vs. Alabama State (from Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium – Orlando) Dave Lamont, Jay Walker & Paul Carcaterra	ESPN
	3:30 p.m.	Kentucky at No. 25 Louisville Carter Blackburn, Rod Gilmore & Jemele Hill	ESPN
Mon, Sep 3	8 p.m.	Georgia Tech at No. 16 Virginia Tech Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman & Quint Kessenich	ESPN

* Local blackout may apply
** Reverse mirror in which ESPN2 will regionalize two games on ABC to markets not receiving the telecast

There you have it.

ESPN’s Rather Extensive 2012 College Football Regular Season Schedule

Here’s something that came in last week and I’ve only been able to put this up now. This is the 450 game regular season college football schedule on the platforms of ESPN. There’s already been one change.

The Texas A&M-Louisiana Tech game originally scheduled for Thursday on ESPNU has been postponed due to Tropical Storm Issac and will be replayed on Saturday, October 13 on an ESPN platform to be determined. Other than that, this is what we have and it should be solid.

Of course as stated often in the television business, the schedule is subject to change. Here’s the ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPN3/ESPN Radio/ACC Network/Big East Network/SEC Network combined schedule.

2012 ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Radio College Football Schedule Note: Schedule subject to change; Saturday noon, afternoon and prime time windows will be added as the season progresses; all rankings Associated Press

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Thu, Aug 30	7 p.m.	No. 9 South Carolina at Vanderbilt	ESPN
	7 p.m.	Central Florida at Akron	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Eastern Michigan at Ball State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Southeast Missouri State at Central Michigan	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Texas San Antonio at South Alabama	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	McNeese State at Middle Tennessee State	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Massachusetts at Connecticut	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Local Package
	9 p.m.	Eastern Washington at Idaho	ESPN3
	10:15 p.m.	Washington State at BYU	ESPN
Fri, Aug 31	7 p.m.	Villanova at Temple	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game: NC State vs. Tennessee (Atlanta)	ESPNU & ESPN Radio
	8 p.m.	No. 24 Boise State at No. 13 Michigan State	ESPN
	8 p.m.	Wagner at Florida Atlantic	ESPN3
Sat, Sep 1	Noon	Ohio at Penn State	ESPN & ESPN 3D
	Noon	Northwestern at Syracuse	ESPN2
	Noon	Western Michigan at Illinois	ESPNU
	Noon	Buffalo at No. 6 Georgia	ESPN3 * & SEC Network
	12:30 p.m.	Elon at North Carolina	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	3 p.m.	William & Mary at Maryland	ESPN3
	3 p.m.	Richmond at Virginia	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	3:30 p.m.	Southern Mississippi at No. 17 Nebraska	ABC & ESPN2 **
		Miami at Boston College	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	Bowling Green at No. 23 Florida	ESPN
	3:30 p.m.	Iowa vs. Northern Illinois (from Solider Field – Chicago)	ESPNU
	6 p.m.	Youngstown State at Pittsburgh	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Murray State at No. 7 Florida State	ESPN3
	6:30 p.m.	Liberty at Wake Forest	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game: No. 14 Clemson vs. Auburn (Atlanta)	ESPN
	7 p.m.	North Texas at No. 3 LSU	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	Florida International at Duke	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Tennessee-Chattanooga at South Florida	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Austin Peay at Western Kentucky	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Jackson State at Mississippi State	ESPN3 * & RSN
	7 p.m.	Central Arkansas at Mississippi	ESPN3 * & PPV
	7 p.m.	Jacksonville State at No. 10 Arkansas	ESPN3 * & PPV
	7 p.m.	Southeastern Louisiana at Missouri	ESPN3 * & PPV
	7:30 p.m.	Hawaii at No. 1 USC	ESPN Radio
	8 p.m.	Cowboys Classic: No. 8 Michigan vs. No. 2 Alabama (Arlington, Texas)	ABC & ESPN Radio
	10:30 p.m.	Arkansas State at No. 5 Oregon	ESPN
	10:30 p.m.	Toledo at Arizona State	ESPNU
Sun, Sep 2	Noon	MEAC/SWAC Challenge Presented by Disney: Bethune-Cookman vs. Alabama State (from Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium – Orlando)	ESPN
	3:30 p.m.	Kentucky at No. 25 Louisville	ESPN
Mon, Sep 3	8 p.m.	Georgia Tech at No. 16 Virginia Tech	ESPN
Thu, Sep 6	8 p.m.	Pittsburgh at Cincinnati	ESPN
Fri, Sep 7	8 p.m.	Utah at Utah State	ESPN2
Sat, Sep 8	Noon	Penn State at Virginia	ABC
	Noon	Auburn at Mississippi State	ESPN & ESPN 3D
	Noon	Central Florida at No. 18 Ohio State	ESPN2
	Noon	Maryland at Temple	ESPNU
	Noon	East Carolina at No. 9 South Carolina	ESPN3 * & SEC Network
	Noon	NC State at Connecticut	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Local Package
	12:30 p.m.	Ball State at No. 14 Clemson	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	1 p.m.	Maine at Boston College	ESPN3
	1 p.m.	Southern Illinois at Miami (Ohio)	ESPN3
	1:30 p.m.	Austin Peay at No. 16 Virginia Tech	ESPN3
	3 p.m.	North Carolina at Wake Forest	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	3:30 p.m.	Air Force at No. 8 Michigan	ABC & ESPN2 **
		No. 1 USC at Syracuse	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	No. 23 Florida at Texas A&M	ESPN & ESPN Radio
	3:30 p.m.	No. 13 Michigan State at Central Michigan	ESPNU
	3:30 p.m.	Indiana at Massachusetts	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Western Kentucky at No. 2 Alabama	ESPN3 * & SEC Network
	3:30 p.m.	Howard at Rutgers	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Local Package
	3:30 p.m.	Missouri State at No. 25 Louisville	ESPN3 * & RSN
	4 p.m.	Georgia State at Tennessee	ESPN3 * & PPV
	5 p.m.	Nicholls State at South Alabama	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Savannah State at No. 7 Florida State	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Akron at Florida International	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Bethune-Cookman at South Carolina State	ESPN3
	6:30 p.m.	Montana at Appalachian State	ESPN3 * & PPV
	7 p.m.	Washington at No. 3 LSU	ESPN
	7 p.m.	Louisiana-Monroe at No. 10 Arkansas	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	Memphis at Arkansas State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Louisiana-Lafayette at Troy	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Texas Tech at Texas State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Presbyterian at Georgia Tech	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	New Mexico State at Ohio	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Tennessee-Martin at Northern Illinois	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Eastern Illinois at Western Michigan	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Idaho at Bowling Green	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Texas Southern at North Texas	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	UTEP at Mississippi	ESPN3 * & RSN
	7:30 p.m.	Kent State at Kentucky	ESPN3 * & RSN
	7:30 p.m.	No. 17 Nebraska at UCLA	ESPN Radio
	7:45 p.m.	No. 6 Georgia at Missouri	ESPN2
	10:30 p.m.	Illinois at Arizona State	ESPN
	10:30 p.m.	Bethune-Cookman at South Carolina State ^	ESPNU
Thu, Sep 13	7:30 p.m.	Rutgers at South Florida	ESPN
	7:30 p.m.	Mississippi Valley State at Southern	ESPNU
Fri, Sep 14	9 p.m.	Washington State at UNLV	ESPN
Sat, Sep 15	Noon	California at No. 18 Ohio State	ABC
	Noon	Arkansas State at No. 17 Nebraska	ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
	Noon	No. 16 Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh	ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
	Noon	Wake Forest at No. 7 Florida State	ESPN or ESPN2
	Noon	Louisiana-Monroe at Auburn	ESPN3 * & SEC Network
	Noon	Bethune-Cookman at Miami	ESPN3
	12:30 p.m.	Connecticut at Maryland	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	12:30 p.m.	Presbyterian at Vanderbilt	ESPN3 * & RSN
	3 p.m.	Furman at No. 14 Clemson	ESPN3 * & ACC Network
	3:30 p.m.	Navy at Penn State	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	North Carolina at No. 25 Louisville	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	Virginia at Georgia Tech	ESPNU
	3:30 p.m.	Morgan State at Akron	ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Stony Brook at Syracuse	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Local Package
	4 p.m.	Howard at Norfolk State	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	No. 23 Florida at Tennessee	ESPN & ESPN Radio
	6 p.m.	South Alabama at NC State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Arizona State at Missouri	ESPN2
	7 p.m.	Western Kentucky at Kentucky	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	NC Central at Duke	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Rice at Louisiana Tech	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Bowling Green at Toledo	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Delaware State at Cincinnati	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Mississippi State at Troy	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	UAB at No. 9 South Carolina	ESPN3 * & RSN
	7:30 p.m.	Florida Atlantic at No. 6 Georgia	ESPN3 * & RSN
	8 p.m.	Notre Dame at No. 13 Michigan State	ABC
	8 p.m.	Colorado State at San Jose State	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Idaho at No. 3 LSU	ESPN3 * & PPV
	9:15 p.m.	No. 15 Texas at Mississippi	ESPN
	10 p.m.	BYU at Utah	ESPN2
	10:30 p.m.	Howard at Norfolk State ^	ESPNU
Wed, Sep 19	7 p.m.	Kent State at Buffalo	ESPNU
Thu, Sep 20	7:30 p.m.	Arkansas Pine Bluff at Alabama State	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	BYU at No. 24 Boise State	ESPN
Fri, Sep 21	7 p.m.	Georgetown at Princeton	ESPNU
	8 p.m.	Baylor at Louisiana-Monroe	ESPN
Sat, Sep 22	Noon	Massachusetts at Miami (OH)	ESPN3 * & MAC Game of the Week
	2 p.m.	Connecticut at Western Michigan	ESPN3
	2 p.m.	Norfolk State at Ohio	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Gardner-Webb at Pittsburgh	ESPN3
	4:30 pm	South Florida at Ball State	ESPN3
	5 p.m.	Wyoming at Idaho	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	No. 25 Louisville at Florida International	ESPNU or ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Southern Mississippi at Western Kentucky	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Troy at North Texas	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Coastal Carolina at Toledo	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Alcorn State at Arkansas State	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	New Mexico at New Mexico State	ESPN3
	TBD	Arizona at No. 5 Oregon	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
	TBD	Kansas at Northern Illinois	ESPNU or ESPN3
	TBD	No. 3 LSU at Auburn	ESPN Radio
	TBD	California at No. 1 USC	ESPN Radio
Thu, Sep 27	7:30 p.m.	Morgan State at North Carolina A&T	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	No. 21 Stanford at Washington	ESPN & ESPN Radio
Fri, Sep 28	8 p.m.	Hawaii at BYU	ESPN
Sat, Sep 29	Noon	Buffalo at Connecticut	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Local Package
	Noon	Ball State at Kent State	ESPN3 * & MAC Game of the Week
	2 p.m.	Miami at Akron	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Rhode Island at Bowling Green	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Central Michigan at Northern Illinois	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Ohio at Massachusetts	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Samford at Georgia Southern	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Western Kentucky at Arkansas State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Florida International at Louisiana-Lafayette	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Grambling State at Alabama A&M	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Indiana State at Southern Illinois	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Toledo at Western Michigan	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	No. 12 Wisconsin at No. 17 Nebraska	ABC
	8 p.m.	UNLV at Utah State	ESPN3
	10:30 p.m.	Grambling State at Alabama A&M ^	ESPNU
	TBD	No. 7 Florida State at South Florida	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
	TBD	North Texas at Florida Atlantic	ESPN3
	TBD	Tennessee at No. 6 Georgia	ESPN Radio
	TBD	Mississippi at No. 2 Alabama	ESPN Radio
Thu, Oct 4	7:30 p.m.	Arkansas State at Florida International	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	No. 1 USC at Utah	ESPN
Fri, Oct 5	7 p.m.	Pittsburgh at Syracuse	ESPN
	10:15 p.m.	Utah State at BYU	ESPN
Sat, Oct 6	Noon	Buffalo at Ohio	ESPN3 * & MAC Game of the Week
	1:30 p.m.	Presbyterian at Virginia Military Institute	ESPN3
	2 p.m.	Youngstown State at North Dakota State	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Illinois at No. 12 Wisconsin	ABC & ESPN2 **
		TBD	ABC & ESPN2 **
	7 p.m.	UNLV at Louisiana Tech	ESPN3 * & WAC Syndication
	7 p.m.	Grambling State at Prairie View	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Miami (Ohio) at Cincinnati	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	No. 17 Nebraska at No. 18 Ohio State	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
	10:30 p.m.	Grambling State at Prairie View ^	ESPNU
	TBD	No. 11 West Virginia at No. 15 Texas	ESPN Radio
	TBD	No. 3 LSU at No. 23 Florida	ESPN Radio
Thu, Oct 11	7:30 p.m.	Western Kentucky at Troy	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	Arizona State at Colorado	ESPN
Fri, Oct 12	8 p.m.	Navy at Central Michigan	ESPN2
Sat, Oct 13	1:30 p.m.	Chattanooga at Furman	ESPN3
	TBD	Texas A&M vs. Louisiana Tech (from Independence Stadium – Shreveport, LA)	TBD
	2 p.m.	Youngstown State at Illinois State	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Illinois at No. 8 Michigan	ABC & ESPN2 **
		TBD	ABC & ESPN2 **
	3:30 p.m.	Miami (Ohio) at Bowling Green	ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Utah State at San Jose State	ESPN3 * & WAC Syndication
	7 p.m.	Fordham at Cincinnati	ESPN3
	TBD	No. 15 Texas vs. No. 4 Oklahoma (Dallas)	ABC
	TBD	No. 20 TCU at Baylor	ESPN Radio
	TBD	Stony Brook at Coastal Carolina	ESPN3
Tue, Oct 16	9 p.m.	Louisiana-Lafayette at North Texas	ESPN2
Thu, Oct 18	7:30 p.m.	Hampton at NC Central	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	No. 5 Oregon at Arizona State	ESPN
Fri, Oct 19	8 p.m.	Connecticut at Syracuse	ESPN
Sat, Oct 20	Noon	Northern Illinois at Akron	ESPN3 * & MAC Game of the Week
	1 p.m.	Army at Eastern Michigan	ESPN3
	1 p.m.	Harvard at Princeton	ESPN3
	1:30 p.m.	Presbyterian at Charleston Southern	ESPN3
	3 p.m.	Western Carolina at Elon	ESPN3
	3:30 pm	Pittsburgh at Buffalo	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Idaho at Louisiana Tech	ESPN3 * & WAC Syndication
	TBD	Cincinnati at Toledo	ESPNU or ESPN3
	TBD	No. 13 Michigan State at No. 8 Michigan	ESPN Radio
	TBD	Colorado at No. 1 USC	ESPN Radio
Tue, Oct 23	8 p.m.	Arkansas State at Louisiana-Lafayette	ESPN2
Thu, Oct 25	7:30 p.m.	No. 14 Clemson at Wake Forest	ESPN
	7:30 p.m.	Delaware State at Morgan State	ESPNU
Fri, Oct 26	8 p.m.	Cincinnati at No. 25 Louisville	ESPN2
Sat, Oct 27	Noon	Northern Illinois at Western Michigan	ESPN3 * & MAC Game of the Week
	1 p.m.	Stony Brook at Presbyterian	ESPN3
	1:30 p.m.	The Citadel at Wofford	ESPN3
	2 p.m.	South Dakota at Indiana State	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	No. 13 Michigan State at No. 12 Wisconsin	ABC
	3:30 p.m.	Alabama A&M at Alabama State	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Eastern Michigan at Bowling Green	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	North Texas at Middle Tennessee State	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Kent State at Rutgers	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Local Package
	6 p.m.	No. 18 Ohio State at Penn State	ESPN or ESPN2
	8 p.m.	No. 8 Michigan at No. 17 Nebraska	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 & ESPN Radio
	10:30 p.m.	Alabama A&M at Alabama State ^	ESPNU
Thu, Nov 1	6 p.m.	Eastern Michigan at Ohio	ESPNU
	7:30 p.m.	No. 16 Virginia Tech at Miami	ESPN & ESPN Radio
	9:15 p.m.	Middle Tennessee State at Western Kentucky	ESPNU
Fri, Nov 2	9 p.m.	Washington at California	ESPN2
Sat, Nov 3	1 p.m.	Western Michigan at Central Michigan	ESPN3
	1 p.m.	Penn at Princeton	ESPN3
	1:30 p.m.	Coastal Carolina at Gardner-Webb	ESPN3
	2 p.m.	Appalachian State at Georgia Southern	ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Texas-San Antonio at Louisiana Tech	ESPN3 * & WAC Syndication
	TBD	Missouri at No. 23 Florida	ESPN Radio
	TBD	No. 5 Oregon at No. 1 USC	ESPN Radio
Tue, Nov 6	8 p.m.	Ball State at Toledo	ESPN2
Wed, Nov 7	8 p.m.	Bowling Green at Ohio	ESPN2
Thu, Nov 8	7 p.m.	Louisiana-Monroe at Arkansas State	ESPNU
	7:30 p.m.	No. 7 Florida State at No. 16 Virginia Tech	ESPN & ESPN Radio
Fri, Nov 9	8 p.m.	Pittsburgh at Connecticut	ESPN2
Sat, Nov 10	1 p.m.	UNI at South Dakota	ESPN3
	1:30 p.m.	Gardner-Webb at Charleston Southern	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Navy at Troy	ESPN3*
	TBD	No. 11 West Virginia at No. 19 Oklahoma State	ESPN Radio
	TBD	Baylor at No. 4 Oklahoma	ESPN Radio
	TBD	Arizona State at No. 1 USC	ESPN Radio
Wed, Nov 14	8 p.m.	Ohio at Ball State	ESPN2 or ESPNU
	9 p.m.	Toledo at Northern Illinois	ESPN2 or ESPNU
Thu, Nov 15	7:30 p.m.	North Carolina at Virginia	ESPN & ESPN Radio
Fri, Nov 16	8 p.m.	Florida International at Florida Atlantic	ESPNU
	9:30 p.m.	Hawaii at Air Force	ESPN2
Sat, Nov 17	Noon	Rutgers at Cincinnati	ESPN3 * & BIG EAST Local Package
	Noon	Kent State at Bowling Green	ESPN3 * & MAC Game of the Week
	1:30 p.m.	Liberty at Virginia Military Institute	ESPN3
	2 p.m.	Florida Classic: Florida A&M vs. Bethune-Cookman	ESPN Classic
	TBD	Iowa at No. 8 Michigan	ESPN Radio
	TBD	No. 1 USC at UCLA	ESPN Radio
Tue, Nov 20	7 p.m.	Akron at Toledo	ESPN2
Thu, Nov 22	4 p.m.	Tuskegee at Alabama State	ESPNU
Fri, Nov 23	Noon	No. 17 Nebraska at Iowa	ABC
	2:30 p.m.	No. 3 LSU at No. 10 Arkansas	ESPN Radio
	3:30 p.m.	No. 11 West Virginia at Iowa State	ABC
	10 p.m.	Arizona State at Arizona	ESPN
	TBD	South Florida at Cincinnati	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
	TBD	Syracuse at Temple	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Sat, Nov 24	Noon	No. 8 Michigan at No. 18 Ohio State	ABC
	3 p.m.	Idaho at Utah State	ESPN3 * & WAC Syndication
	3:30 p.m.	Troy at Middle Tennessee State	ESPN3
	TBD	Notre Dame at No. 1 USC	ABC or ESPN & ESPN Radio
	TBD	No. 19 Oklahoma State at No. 4 Oklahoma	ESPN Radio
Thu, Nov 29	7:30 p.m.	No. 25 Louisville at Rutgers	ESPN
Fri, Nov 30	7 p.m.	Marathon MAC Championship (Detroit)	ESPN2
	TBD	Pac-12 Championship Game	ESPN Radio
Sat, Dec 1	7:45 p.m. or 8 p.m.	Dr Pepper ACC Championship Game (Charlotte)	ABC or ESPN & ESPN Radio
	TBD	Conference USA Championship Game	ESPN or ESPN2
	TBD	Pittsburgh at South Florida	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
	TBD	No. 24 Boise State at Nevada	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
	TBD	Cincinnati at Connecticut	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
	TBD	No. 19 Oklahoma State at Baylor	ESPN Radio
TBD	TBD	SWAC Championship Game	ESPNU

 

* Local blackout may apply

** Reverse mirror in which ESPN2 will regionalize two games on ABC to markets not receiving the telecast

^ Same-day telecast of live ESPN3 coverage

There you have it.

Checking Out Some Wednesday Linkage

Let’s provide some mid-week linkage before I get too busy later on.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily writes that NBC’s overnight rating for Tuesday’s Olympic primetime was up from the comparable night four years ago.

Tripp Mickle of SBJ says NBC is about to set up a set of exhibition beach volleyball matches between the US and China later this year.

In an SBJ podcast, Tripp meets with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch to talk about the media coverage of the 2012 Olympics.

Tim Goodman of the Hollywood Reporter will not complain about NBC’s Olympic coverage.

Daniel Miller of the Reporter says swimmer Ryan Lochte is in discussions to star in his own reality TV show.

Also from the Reporter, Marisa Guthrie has five lessons NBC should learn from the 2012 Games.

Another from the Reporter, a majority of those polled think Ryan Seacrest is doing a good job at the Olympics? Who is being polled?

And finally from the Reporter, Eriq Gardner reports that the NCAA has been ordered to hand over TV licensing revenue documents in a case involving video game manufacturer Electronic Arts which is using likenesses of student-athletes without permission from the athletes themselves.

Stephen Douglas at The Big Lead has video of Lolo Jones breaking down on the Today Show this morning.

Meanwhile, Glenn Davis of SportsGrid has video of medal winners Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells being rather candid about their opinions on Lolo with Michelle Beadle this morning.

Jen Floyd Engel at FoxSports.com says despite what the media says, this is not the Olympics of the Woman as the media is stating.

Graeme McMillan of Time asks if NBC should offer the Olympics as reality TV or just straight sports?

Joe Posnanski talks with former NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol about working his last Olympics for American television, the 2012 London Games.

Reid Cherner of USA Today’s Game On has a look at the upcoming slate of 30 for 30 documentaries.

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated profiles ESPN’s Joe Tessitore who is getting a high profile college football assignment after years of taking on crazy schedules.

SI’s Richard Deitsch has a college football roundtable featuring writers Stewart Mandel, Andy Staples and Holly Anderson on what they expect from the TV side of the sport this season.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable says NBC Sports Network is setting viewership records with Olympic programming.

Tim writes that AT&T U-Verse has signed a new agreement to carry NFL Network and RedZone.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the 2012 Olympics are on pace to become the most-watched TV event in US history.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes that online sports viewers can tolerate the bombardment of ads seen during the Olympics.

Thomas Pardee of Advertising Age says the Olympics are topping social TV sites like GetGlue, but HBO’s True Blood is showing its reach.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life looks at the winners and losers from broadcasting the Olympics.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions says DirecTV may be adding five new channels including one sports network run by Al Jazeera.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report notes that a former Boston Globe college sports columnist is now on his own and got a big scoop this week.

Ed has a couple of NBC Sports-related announcements that have nothing to do with the Olympics.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group looks at NBC’s operations at Olympic Stadium.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell notes that it’s better for sponsors that Michael Phelps remain retired instead of him being an active Olympian.

CBS Radio has officially announced that Scott Zolak will be the radio analyst for New England Patriots games starting this Thursday. He replaces Gino Cappeletti who retired last month.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that NBC is getting a mixed ratings bag for the Olympics from the last few days.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union tells readers where they can find this week’s New York Giants preseason opener.

Pete has ESPN’s schedule of MLB games for most of this month.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record notes that former Jets and Giants coach Bill Parcells will appear on ESPN Radio NY opposite his buddy, WFAN’s Mike Francesa during NFL season.

Ken says NBC Sports Network will have Olympic reruns throughout August.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that ESPN Radio Hack Colin Cowherd is up to his old tricks again.

Eric Deggans from the Tampa Bay Times wonders if the Olympic promos for the NBC’s “Go On” might actually hurt the show in the long run.

Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald looks at last night’s Hard Knock premiere on HBO.

Izzy Gould at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that the Miami Dolphins put the team up for display on Hard Knocks.

Gould says Hard Knocks did not explore the Dolphins’ injuries.

Mel Bracht from The Oklahoman says the local NBC affiliate’s ratings are down from 4 years ago.

T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times talks with Vin Scully about calling Sandy Koufax’s perfect game back in 1965.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Scully made a great argument for using instant replay in baseball during an argument on the field Monday night.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says while viewers in the Great White North are complaining about Olympic coverage, the ratings are saying otherwise.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing goes in-depth into the Turner Sports purchase of the Bleacher Report.

Matt Yoder of AA defends Lolo Jones against the very strange media backlash that began over the weekend in the New York Times.

John Koblin of Deadspin writes that even our troops stationed abroad are victims to NBC’s tape delays and can’t watch the Olympics live!

Sports Media Watch says UFC on Fox set yet another record low for mixed martial arts on network TV.

The Big Lead, in a sponsored post, speaks with CBS’ Clark Kellogg.

That is going to do it for today.

It’s A Thursday Link Thing

Let’s do some linkage now. Fifth straight day! This is a record!

Michael Florek at USA Today’s Game On blog notes that Time Magazine will have six separate covers in four regions for its Olympic preview issue. For the U.S., guys will have Lolo Jones to gawk at, women get Ryan Lochte. Gymnast Gabby Douglas also adorns a cover.

To Tripp Mickle of Sports Business Journal who profiles NBC Olympics Executive Producer Jim Bell who is not only following in his mentor, Dick Ebersol’s footsteps, but still has to do his regular job of overseeing the Today show as well.

Sports Business Daily says a nightly Olympic light show in London will display colors based on the overall mood of Tweets during the Games. I kid you not.

Nick Zaccardi and Richard Deitsch at Sports Illustrated provide you with fifty Twitter feeds you should follow during the Olympics.

Speaking of SI, Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report delves into the staff cuts made this week at the fabled magazine.

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age looks at where SI made its staff cuts.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable notes a new NFL analyst hire for ESPN.

Noreen O’Leary at Adweek writes that Cadillac has launched a new short film to target consumers just before the Olympics.

Jenny Tsao at Arbitron notes that sports radio on FM is drawing a higher and younger audience than AM.

Matt Hayes from the Sporting News reports that the college football four team playoff system could get a huge rights fee and that ESPN is a big favorite to get the whole kit and caboodle.

John Koblin of Deadspin finds more evidence of ESPN.com writer Lynn Hoppes lifting material.

Tom Ley at Deadspin had a funny battle with a horse dressage site this week. And thanks to Deadspin’s readers, the dressage site’s editor had to humbly apologize. The comments in both stories are just plain hilarious.

And Issac Rauch of Deadspin has video that has become a worldwide sensation, Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke’s pre-race dance before her heat at the IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about Sports Illustrated’s staff cuts.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says the MLB All-Star Game drew well in New York.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says the local ESPN Radio affiliate will have a weekly show devoted to the Saratoga horse racing season starting tonight.

Adam Sichko of the Albany Business Review says a local TV studio will assist NBC in producing its summer horse racing series at Saratoga.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that a local radio station will pick up the Buffalo Bills this season.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says Fox Soccer will air over 20 college soccer gamesin the fall.

In Press Box, Tim Richardson reports that a decision is close on the MASN/Washington Natonals rights fee dispute.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog writes that DC NFL Team linebacker Ryan Kerrigan guest anchored on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic this week.

Rich Tandler of CSNWashington.com talks with Kerrigan about his experiences on the TV side.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that two sports radio hosts with local ties made Talkers Magazine’s Heavy 100 list.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch talks with ESPN Chicago NBA beat writer Nick Friedell.

Jack Denker of the Fremont (NE) Tribune profiles a native who’s working behind-the-scenes at ESPN.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says NBC is hoping for big numbers from the London Olympics.

Dave Paresh of the San Francisco Chronicle says NBC and Adobe have teamed up to create two Olympic mobile apps.

David P. Greisman at Boxing Scene says NBC is seeking to increase the time in-between rounds so it can squeeze in more commercials.

Joe Favorito says the Houston Rockets should be taking a page from the Brooklyn Nets’ playbook and start reaching out the community.

We are done.

Let’s Break Out Some Monday Linkage

Here’s the Monday linkage wrapped in a nice bow for you.

From Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand and Michael Smith, they report that ESPN will pay an average of $80 million per year to air the Rose Bowl. That more than doubles the current contract which pays $30 million.

Liz Mullen of SBJ says a noted movie studio is forming a sports talent agency further melding Hollywood and athletics.

Also from Sports Business Journal, Chris Botta notes that Brooklyn is ready and waiting if the New York Islanders can’t find a new home on Long Island

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Bill Walton returns to national TV through ESPN as he’ll become the network’s analyst for Pac-12 basketball games.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that the early sign up numbers for NBC’s Olympic apps are encouraging.

Mike says NBCUniversal is looking to make the 2012 London Games a truly digital experience.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report talks with NBC’s Bob Costas about turning 60.

Talkers Magazine, the so-called Bible of Talk Radio, lists its 2012 Heavy 100 of Sports Talk. I agree with Mike Francesa and Dan Patrick in the Top 3, the rest I have issues with including a few in the New England area, plus why is Joe Morgan on the list? And there are only two women.

Lisa O’Carroll of the London (UK) Guardian says Britain’s oldest and largest black newspaper has been denied credentials to the Olympics Stadium for the track & field events.

George Winslow from Broadcasting & Cable notes that it’s expected that social media will be heavily used for the Olympics.

Matt Rudnitsky of SportsGrid notes that ESPN’s Captain Blowhard and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban are engaging in the next Great Twitter feud.

Brian Clapp at Sports TV Jobs wonders how NFL Network’s new morning show can sustain fresh content over a four hour period every day.

Kirk Minihane of WEEI.com tackles the question over whether the Boston Red Sox should fire advisor Bill James over his comments on ESPN Radio about Joe Paterno and the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

If it’s Monday, then it must mean that the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is in a bad mood about something.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that Syracuse has negotiated an early exit to the ACC from the Big East Conference.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette notes that ESPN is starting its weekday coverage of the Open Championship earlier than previously announced.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes writing in Press Box talks about the friendship that has developed between MASN’s Washington Nationals studio team of the great Johnny Holliday and Ray Knight.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog noticed that Democratic gargoyle strategist James Carville wore a Nats t-shirt on MSNBC over the weekend.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times has a look back at the weekend in sports television.

Mike Herndon of the Mobile (AL) Press-Register writes about the SEC releasing its early-season football TV schedule.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle looks back at the ten years since the failed US Olympic bids for the 2012 Games.

David imagines what if Houston had been awarded the 2012 Olympics.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post says the Penn State scandal has been the talk of the town.

Matthew T. Hall at the San Diego Union-Tribune wants to organize a fan protest on the lack of movement on getting Padres games on local TV.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News has your weekly sports calendar.

Sports Media Watch looks at Bill Walton making his return to ESPN.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media suggests how the NHL Network can stop the inexorable amount of game reruns during the summer.

Cork Gaines from the Business Insider’s Sports Page says MLB Advanced Media gave a hollow apology for a system-wide outage preventing fans from watching MLB.TV online Friday.

Emmett Jones at Sports Business Digest says truTV has given the go to a Shaquille O’Neal-fronted viral video show.

This is where we’ll end the links for today.

Some Rare Sunday Linkage

It used to be that I would be able to provide linkage all seven days of the week, but my schedule has been crazy lately especially on the weekends. My apologies for not being able to provide more weekend content.

But as I’m free right now, let’s not dilly-dally any longer and here are some links for you on this Sunday.

Christoper S. Stewart of the Wall Street Journal looks at NBC’s massive undertaking to provide online content for NBCOlympics.com.

Eddie Kim of Variety says it’ll be consumers, not the television networks who will decide how second screen usage in sports viewing will evolve.

Michael Malone of Broadcasting & Cable writes that NBC’s owned-and-operated will be sending reporters to cover the 2012 Olympics in London.

At The Sherman Report, Ed Sherman says ESPN Radio and Big Ten Network failed in covering the Louis Freeh report on Penn State and Joe Paterno.

Ed hears from fired San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Tim Sullivan who landed on his feet in Louisville.

The excellent ESPN.com college basketball writer Dana O’Neill has a response to those who feel female sportscasters must be hot in order to be on television, knowledge in sports be damned. Thanks to Trenni Kusnierek of WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee for the link.

The Associated Press has announced its Olympic coverage plans.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Ronnie Ramos looks at some of the more interesting ideas in sports and social media.

Sports Video Group has looks at the Olympic venues that we’ll be seeing over the 16 days of competition starting on July 27. Actually a couple of days earlier if you count the Soccer Tournament. Here’s Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Joe Favorito looks at the return of the New York Cosmos.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe notes that despite a .500 season, NESN still drew viewers in the first half of the 2012 campaign.

Chad also has the Boston radio ratings for the Spring Arbitron book.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about baseball stadia increasingly putting out the welcome mat for soccer exhibition games to generate new revenue.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says the Freeh Report on Penn State shows that football was above the law.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that the local NBC affiliate has a conflict with the Olympics and the New York Giants preseason opening game.

Pete has NFL Network’s extensive preseason game schedule.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says Giants fans will have to do a little searching for the team’s preseason games in August.

Ken has the Olympic Basketball Tournament viewing schedule.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News looks forward to hearing the dulcet tones of Peter Alliss on the Open Championship this week.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner recaps the local reaction to the release of the Penn State report.

Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times wonders if the future of talk radio lies with sports rather than politics.

Stephen F. Holder of the Times writes that the Buccaneers will adhere to the new NFL TV blackouts bucking what the Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers and Tennessee Titans had already announced.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Sentinel writes that the MLB All-Star Game received its lowest local ratings since 2005.

Back to Ed Sherman, he has an article in today’s Chicago Tribune on NBC’s new thinking about presenting every Olympic event live online.

Eric Zorn of the Tribune remembers a blind sportscaster who did his job so well, many listeners had no idea he was sightless. Thanks to Ed Sherman for the link.

The Reno Gazette-Journal talks with ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News notes that reports of Heather Cox replacing Erin Andrews on the sidelines for Saturday Night Football may be premature.

Sports Media Watch has a look at Fox’s primetime MLB ratings over its eight week span.

SMW says Detroit leads all local markets in the MLB ratings.

Paul M. Banks at the Sports Bank wonders if it’s time for Matt Millen to leave ESPN.

Media Rantz looks at the NFL teams deciding not to adhere to the new TV blackout rules.

EPL Talk has the schedule for some of exhibition soccer games on TV over the next few weeks.

And that’s going to complete our links for today. I hope to have another post for you later. I hope time will allow me to do so. It’ll be good, I promise.

A Few Sunday Sports Media Thoughts

Let’s provide a few sports media thoughts on this Sunday. They’ll be in bullet form.

• Last Thursday’s release of Louis Freeh’s report on Penn State University’s conduct in the Jerry Sandusky scandal was the sports media’s version of the Obamacare Supreme Court decision. Unlike the Obamacare decision, no media outlet made errors in reporting. But there were a couple of errors in judgment in the aftermath.

  First was allowing Matt Millen to go solo on SportsCenter to spout freely to defend Joe Paterno and his legacy. ESPN should have had one of its legal experts like Roger Cossack to discuss the contents of the reports. To let Millen go on to defend Paterno right after the report’s release was irresponsible. If ESPN was going to have Millen on, it needed to have an opposing viewpoint accompany him. Bad decision by ESPN.

  Second was crackpot Bill James originally stating on his own site and then again on ESPN Radio’s Doug Gottlieb Show on Saturday that the Freeh Report had somehow exonerated Paterno. James currently works for the Boston Red Sox in an advisory role and while he did not make those statements representing the team, they have a conundrum knowing that the calls for James’ firing have already begun. Someone should have corralled James before he went on ESPN Radio and embarrassed himself. How James could believe the report that report exonerated Paterno is beyond belief. The Red Sox will have to take action on James. And no, this is not a First Amendment issue. Under an organization’s employe, that organization can fire someone for actions or statements it deems offensive or contrary to its values.

  The Paterno story and its effects on Penn State will be going for a while, I’m afraid.

• I’m a fan of HBO’s boxing coverage from Jim Lampley to Larry Merchant, Emanuel Steward and Harold Lederman, but when it comes to Max Kellerman, the man is abrasive, obnoxious and a charlatan. Often, he repeats what Jim Lampley has already said. Larry Merchant is much better in the third analyst role. How Kellerman has worked for ESPN, Fox Sports Net and HBO is beyond me.
• After watching a few MLS and US Soccer games on NBC Sports Network, I’ve become a fan of how Arlo White and Kyle Martino call contests. With White in the traditional commentary box and Martino down on the field, the two have very good chemistry. I look forward to having them call Olympic Soccer in the UK at the end of this month.
• If I’m on a baseball team playing on a Fox Saturday Baseball game that’s being called by Kenny Albert, I’m calling in sick. In 2010, Kenny called two marathon games, a 20 inning affair between the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals and a 13 inning contest between the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers. Then on Saturday, Kenny had another 13 inning game, this time between Detroit and Baltimore. Kenny is truly a baseball Marathon Man.

That will conclude the thoughts for today.

Let’s Do Some Wednesday Links

Lots of stuff to get to. Let’s not waste time.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch reports on ESPN’s signing of four of its NFL insiders to long-term contracts.

SI’s Tom Verducci gives us some myths and truths about the MLB All-Star Game.

Tim Kenneally of The Wrap says the All-Star Game won the night for Fox in overall ratings and younger demographics.

At the Biz of Baseball, Maury Brown notes how surprised he is about the MLB All-Star Game’s overnight ratings seeing an increase from last year despite being a blowout.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes about the All-Star Game’s increased overnight ratings from last year.

To the Daily Beast where Howard Kurtz says NBC is betting that you’ll watch the Olympics despite not knowing anything about the sports inside the Games.

Andy Fixmer and Alex Sherman at Bloomberg Businessweek note that NBC expects to draw many cable viewers to watch the Olympics online.

Meg Carter at Co-Create notes how BBC is attempting to build the very first social Olympic Games.

Radio World says Fox Sports Radio will have a big presence at the London Olympics.

The Big Lead continues to break sports media stories this year. First, it breaks news that Fox and possibly NBC are interested in hiring ESPN Sunday Night Baseball voice Dan Shulman.

And then Jason McIntyre of TBL reports that CBS is making overtures at ESPN Radio’s Doug Gottlieb to work on its new radio network, become a college basketball analyst and host a show on its cable network.

Brian Clapp at Sports TV Jobs wonders if the competition is out for blood in poaching ESPN’s talent.

Barstool Sports in Boston somehow got its hands on a video featuring New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft making an audition tape with his 30 year old aspiring actress girlfriend, Ricki Noel Linder.

The video has gone viral and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio says Kraft has issued a statement on that video going public.

Isaac Rauch of Deadspin has an interesting story on how ESPN.com entertainment writer Lynn Hoppes has apparently lifted several passages from Wikipedia either verbatim or with very few changes and inserted them into his features.

Patrick Burns of Deadspin sees what subjects ESPN is devoting its time covering on SportsCenter.

Glenn Davis from SportsGrid has video of Fox & Friends criticizing the U.S. Olympic team’s Opening Ceremony attire as looking too French. Seriously?

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report is still suffering from Ozzie Guillen Fatigue and isn’t enthused about tonight’s Showtime premiere of “The Franchise: A Season with the Miami Marlins.”

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group looks at MLB International delivering the All-Star Game to a worldwide audience.

Brian Stelter of the New York Times reports on the NBC and Facebook partnership for the 2012 Olympics.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says WPIX in New York will pick up an NFL Network Thursday Night Football game involving the defending Super Bowl champs, the New York Football Giants, in September.

Bob’s Blitz notes that ESPN Radio NY despite a new powerful FM signal fell further behind WFAN in the June Arbitron ratings period.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette looks at Fox’s ratings increase for this year’s MLB All-Star Game.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says a local college will be part of ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon in November.

Keith Groller from the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says a local cable sports channel will be all over a Minor League Baseball All-Star Game this week.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says a former Texas native is coming home to work in the local market as a TV sportscaster.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman looks at the local weekend ratings.

Mark Alesia and Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star write that the Colts will adhere to the old NFL TV blackout rules and will not have games air in the local market unless a game is totally sold out. The NFL relaxed the rules to 85% this season.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that CBS’ Lesley Visser gets her chance to run in the Miller Park Sausage Race on Friday.

Jordan Kobritz of the Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier looks at the MLB TV rights negotiations.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail explores a popular English-language sports radio station in Montreal flipping to French leaving many fans in the cold.

Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette says English speaking sports fans have lost a voice to vent.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says the Home Run Derby had a big audience in Canada.

Sports Media Watch notes that the MLB All-Star Game had its second lowest overnight rating ever.

Joe Favorito looks at a very unique way a New York soccer team found a sponsor.

At the Broadcast Booth, Dave Kohl explores the reasons why the NFL slightly relaxed its TV blackout rules.

And that’s going to do it for today.

Grinding Out Some Tuesday Links For You

Let’s do some links. Couldn’t get to them yesterday. Time to grind some out today.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says ESPN won’t be an oasis away from political advertising this fall.

Michael also has the ratings on Wimbledon and NASCAR.

Bill King of Sports Business Journal looks at NBC bringing back boxing to network television.

Sports Business Daily Global notes that the Wimbledon men’s final drew well in both the US and the UK.

SBD says the International Olympic Committee is under fire for renewing sponsorship deals with McDonald’s and Coke in the midst of an increasing obesity crisis.

And Eric Fisher of SBD notes that MLB will allow players to Tweet during tonight’s All-Star Game.

Jason Fry of the ESPN Ombudsman’s Poynter Review Project notes that the Alleged Worldwide Leader’s reporting has changed thanks to Twitter.

Alicia Jessop at Forbes writes that Kansas City expects a big financial windfall from the MLB All-Star Game.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group looks at Fox’s ever-changing production of tonight’s All-Star Game.

Chris Ariens of TVNewser has a clip of Erin Andrews’ interview with Fox News’ Shepard Smith in Kansas City.

Glenn Davis from SportsGrid notes that one cover of ESPN the Magazine’s Body issue will feature a nekkid Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots.

A rare link to Grantland finds a 15,612 word oral history of WFAN written by Alex French and Howie Kahn. It’s really good, but read it at your own pace and not all at once.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable says the Gentlemen’s Final at Wimbledon drew ESPN’s best tennis ratings ever.

Tim says NBA TV is all over Summer League games in the next two weeks.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News notes that the combined TNT/truTV effort for last Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race brought the highest ratings for the Daytona 400 in four years.

Ann Killion of Adweek says Olympic athletes are trying to get their piece of marketing gold in the midst of companies getting all of the sponsorship money.

Also from Adweek, Anthony Crupi writes that NBC and Turner Sports appear to be fighting for the main cable rights to MLB.

Lifestyle Mirror has a fantastic photo shoot with Fang’s Bites fave Charissa Thompson.

To The Sherman Report where Ed Sherman has Part 1 of a two part series with Fox Sports MLB analyst Tim McCarver. And here’s Part 2.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times is amused that SNY, the home of the Mets, has erected a billboard at the Yankee Stadium subway train stop.

Richard says Jerry Seinfeld, a big baseball fan, will break down the iconic Abbot & Costello comedy skit, “Who’s on First?” on MLB Network.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says a local TV station has hired a new sportscaster.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says WFAN and ESPN Radio NY will split Dial Global Radio’s Olympic coverage later this month.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that new DC NFL Team QB Robert Griffin III was asked on local sports radio if he’s already more popular than the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin.

Dan says DC NFL Team radio analyst Sam Huff has worked so long on the game broadcasts that the network feels he can call his own shots now.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Fox Sports’ Tim McCarver.

Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times writes that a local TV station has signed to air NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football Bucs-Vikings game.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says MLB Network airs a documentary on the life and death of former Astros pitcher Darryl Kile.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman says ESPNU will re-air four games involving Sooner State schools in its top college football games of the season.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that despite the U.S. Women’s Open being played locally, there wasn’t much interest either on ESPN2 or on NBC.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Fox Sports Florida sideline reporter Laura McKeeman was crowned Miss Florida over the weekend.

SportsRantz also profiles Ms. McKeeman.

Sports Media Watch says last night’s MLB Home Run Derby had a slight ratings decline from last year.

SMW says Fox’s Baseball Night in America ended its 8 week run on a high note thanks to Yanks-Red Sox.

Let’s Do The Friday Megalinks

Time for Friday linkage.

The Weekend Viewing Picks have your sports and entertainment suggestions. Let’s get cracking.

National

Michael Hiestand from USA Today looks at TNT’s plans to go mostly split-screen during breaks for Saturday’s NASCAR race.

Tom Perrotta of the Wall Street Journal reports that the one Wimbledon souvenir the players want is the towel.

Alex Sherman at Bloomberg Businessweek talks with NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus about the Olympics.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says enhancing the NFL fan experience might bring more people to games.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report is happy to learn that Jeremy Schaap’s ESPN Radio show is now available as a podcast.

Bob Pockrass at The Sporting News says NASCAR hopes that NBC Sports will be a bidder for the sport’s TV rights.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says ESPN Deportes scored with the EURO 2012 Final last Sunday.

Mike says Golf Channel has selected the venue for the next season of “Big Break”.

Christopher Heine of Adweek says MLB’s allowing Twitter votes for the All-Star Game for the first time may have had a hand in deciding which league hosts the World Series.

Jason Del Ray of Advertising Age says the impending Turner Sports purchase of Bleacher Report makes sense.

Wayne Friedman at MediaPost says the NFL easing requirements on local TV blackouts shows the league wants to reach the casual fan.

Dan Daley at Sports Video Group says ESPN will be utilizing plenty of microphones at the MLB Home Run Derby.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder has a screengrab of a Canadian TV station messing up the Steve Nash trade to the Lakers.

And Matt has found an episode of Judge Sapp. Yes, that’s Warren Sapp.

The Big Lead soaked up the latest Twitter battle between ESPN’s Darren Rovell and Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch.

MediaRantz looks at the top 5 ESPN plagiarism scandals.

Nick Bromberg of Yahoo’s From the Marbles blog wonders what is the big deal with the TNT/truTV simulcast of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race on Saturday.

Joe Favorito likes how MLS has adopted “Food Week” to get fans to explore its markets’ restaurants.

East and Mid-Atlantic

At SB Nation Boston, Bruce Allen says it was time for Erin Andrews to leave the ESPN Mothership.

Jerry Barmsah of Fishbowl NY says CBS Radio’s WFAN could be headed to FM and could take the Yankees with it.

Yes, Phil Mushnick of the New York Post, we know you hate ESPN.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for ESPN tennis analyst Brad Gilbert.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says the MLB Extra Innings pay per view package will be free next week.

Don Laible of the Utica (NY) Observer-Dispatch talks with the NHL on NBC’s Dave Strader about calling Olympic basketball.

Ken says a local minor league baseball team has found a new radio home.

Dave Sottile of the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News says there are no plans to bring Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic to the local area.

Tim Richardson in Press Box looks at the differences between the Washington Nationals and MASN over the team’s TV rights fee.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with MLB Network’s Chris Rose.

South

Kyle Veazey of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal says a popular local sports radio host is changing stations.

At the Houston Chronicle, David Barron writes that the new Comcast SportsNet Houston will air Conference USA football featuring the University of Houston.

Midwest

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says MLB feels it has restored integrity to the All-Star Game. It’s an exhibition game!

Paul M. Banks of the Chicago Sports Media Watch wonders who had the best mock NBA Draft?

Paul Christian at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says the new TV voice of the Minnesota Wild will have an exciting team to call this season.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks about Erin Andrews making her Fox debut next week.

Dan writes that Blues analyst Darren Pang turned down a full-time offer from TSN and will remain in St. Louis.

West

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has this harsh takedown of Erin Andrews.

Here’s Tom’s column which has a little more on the last post.

Tom also links to reaction to his Erin Andrews column.

Matt Rudnitsky of SportsGrid replies point-by-point to Hoffarth.

John Maffei of the North County Times writes about Erin Andrews joining Fox.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star talks with Fox’s Joe Buck on the challenges of calling the MLB All-Star Game.

Jim has his Weekend Viewing Picks.

Matthew T. Hall at the San Diego Union-Tribune wonders where’s the fan outrage in the Fox Sports San Diego-Time Warner Cable dispute leaving Padres games off TV.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News tries to clear up some confusion over the Pac-12 Network.

And that will conclude our links for today.

Breaking Out Some Wednesday Linkage

Time for some Wednesday links. Won’t be a full set as I’ll be monitoring NBC’s Olympic conference call.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio discusses Chris Berman heading to the Monday Night Football booth for two games.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing says national nightmare Berman in the booth is not what NFL fans want.

Doug Farrar of Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner says it isn’t Berman who we should be worried about.

Matt writes about ESPN replacing Craig James on Thursday Night college football.

Michael Smith in Sports Business Daily writes that the PGA has a new sponsor for its developmental tour.

Scott Foxborough at the Hollywood Reporter notes the huge increase for EURO 2012′s ratings on ESPN from the last event four years ago.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says MLB Network has upgraded its production control room for its signature MLB Tonight show.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the Sportsman Channel is gaining ground for its HD network.

Patrick Hipes of Deadline notes the TV bidding for the new college football playoff system to begin with the 2014 season will be worth beaucoup bucks.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report talks with the former owner of WFAN and how it was a risk to start an all-sports radio station 25 years ago.

Ed says no matter what you think of him, Don Imus’ move to WFAN helped save the sports radio format and sent it flying to new heights.

Ed says ESPN’s public relations blog fired salvos on behalf of ESPN Radio at CBS and NBC.

Jason Dachman from Sports Video Group says Fox Sports Net has developed an MLB app for second screens.

In GoLocalProv, former WBZ-TV anchor Bob Lobel gives one of the greatest moments in his career when he brought Boston legends Bobby Orr, Larry Bird and Ted Williams together for one show. I watched that when it happened. It was a great show.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY talks with WFAN 20/20 Sports update man John Minko.

Jerry also talks with another WFAN original, Steve Somers who schmoozes S-P-O-R-T-S every night.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union writes about Chris Berman and Trent Dilfer being teamed for two Monday Night Football games.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg says Nationals’ ratings on MASN are way up from last season.

Barry Jackson from the Miami Herald reviews LeBron James’ appearance on Late Show with David Letterman last night.

Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic talks about the strange removal of Daron Sutton from Diamondbacks broadcasts.

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com says the Diamondbacks have suspended Sutton for “insubordination” and won’t say anything more.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News notes that the Pac-12 won the most NCAA Championships this academic year.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders if it’s soccer time to shine in Canada and the U.S.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at CBC and CTV dropping their joint bid for the 2014/16 Olympics.

Sports Media Watch looks into the move to put Chris Berman into the Monday Night Football booth.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead says bitter little hedgehog Danny Sheridan is buying Twitter followers.

Dave Kohl in The Broadcast Booth talks about multiple national sports radio networks.

And that’s going to do it today. Had to cut the links short because today will be quite busy. Leaving the afternoon free for the NBC Olympics announcements.

ESPN’s Viewership For EURO 2012 Quartersfinals Up Significantly From EURO 2008

It seemed four years ago when ESPN began its commitment to soccer with EURO 2008 that getting ratings anything near to what the network saw for the EURO 2012 tournament would be a pipe dream. However, not only have the ratings for EURO 2012 skyrocketed as compared to EURO 2008, but the numbers have been quite consistent. Even with matches playing mid-afternoon on the East Coast, the viewership on average for the 28 group stage and quarterfinal matches has been 1.144 million people and that’s way up about 63% from four years ago.

And for the Italy-England match on Sunday that went to penalty kicks, ESPN saw an average viewership that almost reached 3 million. That’s the second most watched European Championship game on the networks of ESPN with only the 2008 Final between Spain and Germany on ABC being higher.

Quite impressive going into today’s All-Iberian Peninsula semifinal game between Portugal and defending champion Spain. By the way, the great Ian Darke and Steve McManaman will call the match. For tomorrow’s Germany vs. Italy semi, it’ll be Adrian Healey and Robbie Mustoe in the commentary box.

Here’s ESPN’s press release.

ESPN Audience for UEFA EURO 2012 Quarterfinals Up 31 Percent vs. 2008

England vs. Italy Sets UEFA European Football Championship Record for ESPN Deportes; Audience on ESPN Digital Platforms Surges

Last Sunday’s UEFA EURO 2012 quarterfinal match between Italy and England, a 0-0 tie won by Italy 4-2 in a penalty-kick shootout, on ESPN was seen by an average of 2.968 million viewers, bigger than any UEFA European Football Championship match in 2012 or 2008, except the 2008 final on ABC (3.760 million for Germany vs. Spain).

The four UEFA EURO 2012 quarterfinal matches (June 21–24) delivered an average of 1.463 million television households and 1.918 million viewers – up 31 percent in both households (1.116 million) and viewers (1.459 million) compared to the quarterfinal round in 2008.

Audiences for UEFA EURO 2012 and 2008 quarterfinals matches:

Date	Network	Match	Households/Viewers (P2+)
Sun, June 24, 2012	ESPN	England vs. Italy	2,117,000/2,968,000
Sun, June 22, 2008	ESPN	Spain vs. Italy	1,387,000/1,911,000
Sat, June 21, 2008	ABC	Netherlands vs. Russia	1,384,000/1,838,000
Sat, June 23, 2012	ESPN2	Spain vs. France	1,301,000/1,758,000
Fri, June 22, 2012	ESPN	Germany vs. Greece	1,203,000/1,446,000
Thu, June 21,2012	ESPN	Czech Republic vs. Portugal	1,068,000/1,238,000
Thu, June 19, 2008	ESPN	Germany vs. Portugal	881,000/1,106,000
Fri, June 20, 2008	ESPN	Turkey vs. Croatia	798,000/962,000

Through 28 matches (group stage and quarterfinals) of the UEFA European Football Championship 2012, ESPN’s live English-language presentation is averaging 889,000 households and 1,144,000 viewers — up 61 percent and 63 percent, respectively, versus the same 28 matches in 2008 (552,000 households and 703,000 viewers).

The top 10 metered markets through the group stage include: New York (1.9), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (1.8), Providence (1.5), Los Angeles (1.3), Washington, DC (1.3), San Francisco (1.2), Richmond, Va. (1.2), Atlanta (1.2), Austin, Texas (1.2), and San Diego (1.1).

ESPN Deportes:
Last Sunday’s England vs. Italy on ESPN Deportes was viewed by an average of 424,000 Hispanic household, based on an 8.1 Hispanic household coverage rating, making it the most-watched UEFA European Football Championship match on the 24-hour Spanish-language sports network.  The telecast beat the network’s previous high – UEFA EURO 2008 final between Germany and Spain with 357,000 Hispanic household impressions.

On ESPN Deportes, the quarterfinals averaged a 5.5 Hispanic household coverage rating with 287,000 Hispanic household impressions – up 57 percent and 133 percent from 2008 respectively. (In 2008, ESPN Deportes televised one of the four quarterfinal matches on delay.)

Through the 24 live matches in 2012, ESPN Deportes has delivered an average 3.5 Hispanic household coverage rating with 184,000 Hispanic HH impressions – up 46 percent and 117 percent respectively.  UEFA EURO 2012 news and information programming has also delivered strong ratings: Fuera de Juego Euro Edition has aired 42 live telecasts, averaging a 1.3 Hispanic household coverage rating with 68,000 Hispanic household impressions.

ESPN Digital Platforms:
From June 21-24, through four days of EURO 2012 quarterfinals play, ESPNFC.com and ESPNsoccernet.com globally averaged 878,000 daily visitors, 3.1 million page views per day and 10.2 million minutes per day (source: Adobe/Omniture). Compared to ESPNsoccernet.com during the same time period for EURO 2008, the site is up 24 percent, 13 percent and 132 percent, respectively. In total, ESPNFC.com, ESPNsoccernet.com and ESPNdeportes.com generated 13.3 million total page views during the quarterfinals, up 14.6 percent compared to EURO 2008.

Mobile coverage of the EURO 2012 quarterfinals across ESPNFC, ESPNsoccernet and ESPNdeportes mobile Web sites as well as the ESPNsoccernet app for iPhone and Android logged an average of 1.4 million page views per day, up 238 percent compared to EURO 2008.

Through the quarterfinals (June 8-24) across computers, smartphones, tablets and Xbox, ESPN3 and WatchESPN has logged an average minute audience of 83,607 per match and a total of 344.7 million live minutes to both English and Spanish language feeds. On computers alone, there were a total of 2.1 million unique viewers. Additionally, fans consumed 300.2 million live minutes on computers, up 688 percent compared to EURO 2008.

The England vs. Italy quarterfinal took the top spot as the new most watched match of the tournament thus far on ESPN3 and WatchESPN, logging 422,000 unique viewers, 27.8 million live minutes and an average minute audience of 147,745.

UEFA EURO 2012 Semifinals and Final on ESPN Networks
ESPN’s comprehensive presentation of UEFA European Football Championship 2012 in English and Spanish will continue Wednesday, June 27, and Thursday, June 28, with the semifinals, and conclude Sunday, July 1, with the title match live from Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine.  Schedule (Subject to change):

Date	Time (ET)	Match	Networks
Wed, June 27	2 p.m.	UEFA EURO Report	ESPN
		Fuera de Juego: EURO Previa	ESPN Deportes
	2:30 p.m.	Semifinal I – Portugal vs. Spain Ian Darke and Steve McManaman Jorge Ramos and Hernan Pereyra	ESPN/ESPN3/ESPN Deportes
	5-6 p.m.	Fuera de Juego: EURO 2012	ESPN Deportes
	5-5:30 p.m.	EURO 2012 Tonight	ESPN2
Thu, June 28	2 p.m.	UEFA EURO Report	ESPN
		Fuera de Juego: EURO Previa	ESPN Deportes
	2:30 p.m.	Semifinal II – Germany vs. Italy Adrian Healey and Robbie Mustoe Fernando Palomo and Rafa Puente	ESPN/ESPN3/ESPN Deportes
	5-6 p.m.	Fuera de Juego: EURO 2012	ESPN Deportes
	5-5:30 p.m.	EURO 2012 Tonight	ESPN2
Sun, July 1	2 p.m.	UEFA EURO Report	ESPN
		Fuera de Juego: EURO Previa	ESPN Deportes
	2:30 p.m.	EURO 2012 Final Darke and McManaman Ramos, Pereyra and Puente	ESPN/ESPN3/ESPN Deportes
	5-6 p.m.	Fuera de Juego: EURO 2012	ESPN Deportes
		EURO 2012 Tonight	ESPN2

We have one more ESPN EURO 2012 press release and we’ll need a jump break. (continue reading…)

Your Tuesday Linkage

Let’s do some Tuesday links.

We’ll start with Matt Hayes of AOL Sporting News and he writes that the BCS is looking for a $5 billion TV deal over a decade for its new college football playoff.

In the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Michael Bradley says the new college football playoff still can be improved.

Eric Fisher and John Ourand of Sports Business Journal write that the Washington Nationals and MASN continue to be at odds over what the team’s TV rights are worth.

Maury Brown in Baseball Prospectus goes inside the Nats/MASN TV rights dispute.

Mark Buteau and Alex Duff of Bloomberg report that NBC has signed a long-term extension to lock in the Tour de France.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter says CBC and CTV are dropping their joint bidfor the 2014/2016 Olympic Games.

Charlie Warzel of Adweek says the PGA and Turner Sports are parting ways as the golf association will handle its digital rights in-house and no longer outsource it to Turner.

Tim Baysinger from Broadcasting & Cable writes that Ion will provide the WWE with a third night of programming.

In Multichannel News, Tim has an article about NFL Network’s NFL AM show.

Media Life Magazine notes that a Spanish language ad ran during ABC’s NBA Finals broadcasts.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead says CBS’ Jim Nantz is now pimping his own wine label. Surprised it’s not called “Hello, Friends.”

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has the amazing video of Mike Tyson on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption giving a preview of his new one-man Broadway play.

Dmitry Chesnokov of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy notes that the KHL has officially announced plans to play in the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn while trashing New York’s Madison Square Garden in the process.

The ESPN Front Row blog fires a shot at the new upstarts CBS Sports Radio and NBC Sports Radio Network on behalf of ESPN Radio.

Ben Lee at Digital Spy UK says Wimbledon’s primetime coverage on BBC2 drew over a million viewers.

Tara Pringle Jefferson at Loop 21 has six questions for ESPN’s Sage Steele.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says NBA Draft prospect Anthony Davis has trademarked his unibrow.

Darren wonders if US Olympic 100 meter sprinter Justin Gatlin can be marketable once again after sitting out a four year ban for steroids.

Sports Video Group notes that NESN has signedanother content sharing agreement with a third New England TV station, this time in Vermont.

All Access interviews a radio industry analyst who feels the new CBS Sports Radio will do well for the parent company.

Ian Bethune at Sox & Dawgs has the funny video of NESN’s Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy entertaining the viewers during a Red Sox rain delay last night.

Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston writes about the Red Sox being in no rush to replace their late public address announcer Carl Beane.

Claire Atkinson of the New York Post reports that a positive FCC ruling for Tennis Channel in its carriage dispute against Comcast could lead to more viewers for the network and make it more attractive to potential buyers.

Bob’s Blitz has WFAN’s schedule for Sunday when it celebrates 25 years as the Nation’s first sports radio station.

Kimberly A. Martin of Newsday notes that E! will air a special on New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow.

Neil Best of Newsday looks at ESPN’s start-to-finish coverage of Wimbledon.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has MLB Network’s live game schedule through the end of July.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call profiles a former local sports anchor who’s making his mark in Detroit.

Laura Nachman says a part-timer at Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is now part of the regional sports network’s starting team.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that Washingtonian magazine readers aren’t enamored with the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times chastises readers who complained about weather alerts about Tropical Storm Debby that cut into sports action.

At the Miami Herald, Barry Jackson looks at anti-Heat media comments almost a week after the team won the NBA Championship.

Marc Weiszer of the Athens (GA) Banner-Herald writes that ESPN is producing a documentary on the 2008 SEC Tournament game between Alabama and Mississippi State that was interrupted by a tornado that ripped through Atlanta.

Jimmy Smith of the New Orleans Times Picayune reports that the Hornets will have the soon-to-be Fox Sports New Orleans to call their home. Fox Sports NO will replace Cox Sports which is getting out of the pro sports business.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says NFL Network will air clips of a Brett Favre interview all week long.

Danny Ecker of Crain’s Chicago Business says the local Comcast SportsNet affiliate will launch a new trivia game show.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has a clip of Frank Deford’s appearance on last night’s Colbert Report.

Simon Houpt and Steve Ladurantaye of the Toronto Globe and Mail look at CBC and CTV ending their joint bid for the 2014/16 Olympics after two prices were rejected.

Ann Dempsey from the Toronto Star also has a story on the CBC/CTV disbanding.

Bill Harris in the Toronto Sun says Olympic viewing in Canada after this year is up in the air.

Monika Warzecha of Toronto Life wonders if Canadians will be stuck watching NBC for the 2014/16 Olympics.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog notes TSN did well in showing the NHL Draft and EURO 2012.

Sports Media Watch has some various ratings news and notes.

Emmett Jones at Sports Business Digest says NBC and Shazam have teamed up to provide interactive coverage of the London Olympics.

And that’s going do it for our linkage.

A Few Sports Media Bullet Points

Ok, as we’re all in denial over the Miami Heat winning the NBA Championship, it’s time for a few sports media thoughts. Too many things to go over, but I’ll do my best to cover as many things as I can.

As always, we do them in bullet form. And to drown out the thoughts of LeBron James celebrating, I’m listening to Korn on my iPad at the highest volume.

• Over 24 hours since first learning about Darren Rovell’s decision to leave CNBC for ESPN and I’m still baffled. Now, over all the sports media free agents I’ve mentioned or heard about for 2012, Darren’s name never came up. Darren who started his career at ESPN and left for CNBC in 2006 seemed to be happy with the NBCUniversal, having his own show on NBC Sports Network, his own CNBC site, and occasional appearances on NBC Sports events.

  But when the Worldwide Leader comes a’calling, you have to listen. Deadspin reported Thursday that Disney will pay Rovell $500,000 to file reports for both ABC News and ESPN.

  I don’t know if he’ll have his own show as he did with NBC Sports Network, I tend to doubt it. But the timing is rather interesting. Just after getting the sports business show that he had been clamoring, Darren leaves.

  ESPN has made a few recent sports business hires including Kristi Dosh and Michelle Steele. I wonder if ESPN is making a concerted effort to cover sports business again.

  And as we know, Darren is a prolific tweeter. Will his penchant for Twitter be controlled under ESPN’s social media policy? I’m sure this will all be addressed down the line.

• CBS Radio’s announcement that it was launching a sports radio network came as a surprise. The timing came just ten days after NBC announced it was launching a radio network of its own.

  This makes an already crowded radio scene even more so. Considering you have ESPN which has been firmly established since the 1990′s, Fox Sports Radio, Yahoo and even the Sports USA Radio Network, one wonders if there’s enough room for one more national radio net let alone two.

  Personally, I love to see more networks because competition can only lead to better programming, however, economic realities tell you that one of these fledgling entities may not make it.

  The eyeball test from the outset shows that CBS has the best infrastructure having already established sports stations in several major markets that will be part of CBS Sports Radio. Plus teaming with Cumulus Media’s 67 stations cross the country helps the reach.

  As for NBC, it’s just getting back into the radio business after General Electric had sold the Radio Network to Westwood One and its entire radio station group to various owners. It will partner with the former Westwood One now known as Dial Global.

  The question is whether this will lead to a bidding war for sports properties. ESPN Radio has the BCS, MLB and the NBA while Dial Global has the NFL, NCAA Championships and The Masters.

  Suddenly radio is red hot once again and I like it. And as SportsbyBrooks pointed out, it could lead to more poaching of ESPN talent by CBS and NBC to fill programming slots.

• I was disappointed to learn that Radio Wimbledon will not be handling the worldwide audio play-by-play of the Championships Wimbledon starting next week.

  Last October, Wimbledon’s parent, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club accepted a bid from IMG to take over the radio rights to call the matches. The new entity called Live@Wimbledon will be using some, but not all of Radio Wimbledon’s team. Over the years, Radio Wimbledon had been the only link to live tennis when NBC was pulling its tape delay shenanigans. Unfortunately, despite Radio Wimby attracting 2.7 million listeners in 2011, the AELTC decided to take IMG’s money and ruin a very good service for the fortnight.

  Radio Wimbledon will be missed.

• As Sports Business Journal reported this week, Fox Sports has begun talks with NASCAR in hopes of extending its current contract. It expires in 2014.

  As Fox has been successful in obtaining rights to the FIFA World Cup, Big 12 and Pac-12, the thinking behind many of these acquisitions has been to play keep away from NBC Sports Group. You know that with NASCAR rights in play, NBC Sports would love nothing more than to add inventory to NBCSN.

  If Fox is successful, it leaves only TNT’s mid-season Sprint Cup races and ESPN’s Chase for the Cup races being up for grabs. And both Turner and ESPN want to prevent NBC from grabbing their packages.

  With MLB, NASCAR, the Big East and the NBA negotiations all unsettled thus far, NBC still has a chance to lure one if not all to its war chest.

• Lastly, the aforementioned SportsbyBrooks tweeted that Chris Berman will call the late game for Monday Night Football’s season opening doubleheader on September 10. And in addition, he’ll call one preseason game as practice. If you thought the venom towards Berman is bad when he calls the U.S. Open or the All-Star Home Run Derby, just wait until he does the NFL. It’s probably best that ESPN public relations stay off social media on the nights Berman calls the NFL.

And that will conclude the thoughts. Enjoy your Friday.

Some Thursday Links

After an outage that ruined things from Sunday through Tuesday and being busy yesterday, my goal to have links every day this week has gone out the window. However, I can get a few links out to you today.

Let’s get to them.

Starting with Ed Sherman from the Sherman Report who talks with ESPN resident Prince of Darkness Vince Doria who not only hates Twitter, but is concerned that the social media site could bring “diminished standards.” No, hiring Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith brings “diminished standards.”

Ed feels ESPN’s hiring of Darren Rovell away from CNBC is a good move for all sides.

Christopher Botta and John Ourand from Sports Business Journal write that despite having ratings downturns for the NHL Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Final, NBC and its sponsors are happy with the results.

Christopher notes that a budding Northwest US MLS rivalry is bringing excellent sponsor activation in the region.

At the Bleacher Report, Dan Levy asks ESPN to respond to the heavy viewer criticism brought forth to the network every time Chris Berman does the U.S. Open.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says the ESPN Family is doing well with EURO 2012.

Peter Kafka at All Things Digital writes that the on-again/off-again Turner purchase of the Bleacher Report seems to be on again. I promise my friends over at Bleacher Report that I won’t publish the Tsunami screengrab like Deadspin does.

Speaking of Deadspin, John Koblin tells us that CNBC’s Darren Rovell, will be getting $500,000 from Disney to work at ESPN and ABC News.

The Big Lead notes that Jalen Rose will be heading to the basketball version of ESPN’s College Gameday.

Simon Dumenico of Advertising Age notes the high amount of Tweets devoted to Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Media Life Magazine notes NBC’s ratings for last weekend’s US Open.

Evan Weiner at Examiner.com says while Roger Clemens was acquitted by a jury of his peers, he still has to get by the Hall of Fame jury known as the Baseball Writers of America.

Lance Venta at Radio Insight reports that with CBS Radio starting a new sports network, ESPN Radio will lose two affiliates in Florida.

To espnW where Amanda Rykoff went to an event which honored women in sports business including Kim Williams, the Chief Operating Officer of NFL Network.

Matt Rudnitsky at SportsGrid says today is D-Day for many Sports Illustrated employees. Godspeed to them.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group looks at how TNT tries to expand the fan experience during its six NASCAR Sprint Cup productions.

Jerry Barmash of FishbowlNY talks with MSG Network’s Walt “Clyde” Frazier about his popularity among Knicks fans.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says SNY’s Gary Cohen will be taking two rare days off this week.

Ken says WFAN will be airing Team USA Olympic basketball games.

And Ken talks about the launch of CBS Sports Radio.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says the Philadelphia Phillies’ troubles have become fodder for the local talk shows.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle notes that the city is about to get its 5th sports radio station thanks to the new CBS Sports Radio.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman says Game 4 of the NBA Finals set another local ratings record.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the Reds’ ratings are up and they’re being noticed by Fox Sports.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Brewers analyst Bill Schroeder will work Saturday’s game against the White Sox for a different audience.

Paul M. Banks of Chicago Sports Media Watch says Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper guest tweeted on the White Sox official account this week.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily has begun a list of the top sports media voices of the landmark Title IX that gave women the opportunity to play sports. His first honoree is sports broadcasting pioneer Donna de Varona. Next is Mary Carillo. She’s followed by Ann Ligouri. Pam Ward is next. Basketball Hall of Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale follows. Read about Jeannine Edwards. Then look at the bio of Christine Brennan. Then there’s Michele Tafoya. Then Jamie Little. Next is Suzy Kolber. And she’s followed by Sally Jenkins. Great stuff by Tom.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail reports that the NHL doesn’t want Maple Leafs rightsholders Rogers and Bell to form a consortium to bid for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada and they’ve been told to provide separate bids.

Michael Hill from Dolce Vita magazine profiles CTV Olympic host Brian Williams (not to be confused with NBC’s Brian Williams) about the many Games he has hosted over the years for either CBC or CTV.

Sports Media Watch speculates that NBC could be moving its NHL Game of the Week to Saturday afternoons for the 2012-13 season.

Tony Manfred at the Business Insider Sports Page has a slideshow on ESPN’s Erin Andrews who remains a free agent at this time.

Joe Favorito looks at the NBA possibly shutting the door on its players participating in the Olympics.

And that will do it for us today for the links.

Cranking Out Some Friday Megalinks

Ok, linkage has been really scarce over the last month and a half and I apologize for that. My schedules have been quite busy and it’s been tough to sit down for the time it takes to gather the links. I hope that changes over the next month or so.

I have some National links for you right now. I’ll follow up with more stuff later.

Here are the Weekend Viewing Picks for you.

National

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch speaks with the people at the Poynter Institute who are the ESPN Ombudsman.

Nate Davis at USA Today’s The Huddle has the Miami Dolphins not so enthusiastic about being on Hard Knocks this season.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with ESPN’s Sean McDonough who will undergo brain surgery later this year.

Ira Boudwell of Bloomberg Businessweek says ESPN is getting out of the high school sports business saying it’s not broad enough.

Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski says this week’s blowout between David Stern and Jim Rome proves that the NBA Commissioner needs to go.

John Ourand of Sports Business Daily says Fox Sports San Diego is launching an ad campaign against Time Warner Cable which has still not picked up the regional sports network.

Good Morning America’s and former ESPN SportsCenter host Robin Roberts says she will beat the rare blood disorder that will require a bone marrow transplant.

Michael O’Connell of the Hollywood Reporter notes that the NBA Finals are pacing ABC to good ratings this week.

At Broadcasting & Cable, Tim Baysinger writes that this week’s Dream Team documentary gave NBA TV its best viewership ever.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says GolTV scored with this week’s soccer international friendly match between Brazil and Argentina.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life reports that NBC will debut two new sitcoms right smack dab in the middle of the Olympics.

Ed Sherman at the Sherman Report looks at the geriatric broadcasting team calling the NBA Finals for ESPN Radio.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid notes that even after the winning the Stanley Cup this week, the Los Angeles Kings still aren’t getting respect from the local media.

Former Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio returns to his former stomping grounds to do a massive takedown of Jay “The Rat” Mariotti.

Also from Deadspin, John Koblin writes that there doesn’t seem to be a clamoring for Erin Andrews beyond ESPN.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group says NBA TV and NBA Entertainment are appealing to the hardcore basketball fan for their Finals coverage.

Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead says Sports Illustrated could be laying off part of its staff.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has tweets from people who hated Chris Berman on the U.S. Open yesterday.

Sports Media Watch notes that this year’s Stanley Cup Final did not resonate with viewers.

SMW also has some various ratings news and notes.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that Brooklyn Nets gear is selling very well.

MediaRantz tells us that Sean Salisbury will be getting a new internet radio gig.

UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: Time for more linkage here.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe reports that May was a very good month for sports radio station WEEI as it finished ahead of 98.5 The Sports Hub.

At SB Nation, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch writes about golfer David Duval taking a turn in the broadcast tower at the U.S. Open.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette discusses Johnny Miller holding court for NBC at the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco this week.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with ESPN college baseball analyst Kyle Petersen who will be introducing many Long Islanders to the College World Series today.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post goes after the Yankees for pricing out fans from the “Beautiful People” seats at Yankee Stadium.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY notes that SNY will unveil the all-time Mets team at a gala event on Sunday.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says the US Women’s National Soccer Team will be on TV and the web this weekend.

Ken says local Time Warner Cable subscribers will have access to the new Pac-12 Networks this summer.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette says NBC Sports Group has announced the 2012 Summer at Saratoga schedule.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union talks with Jim Rome who marks his 16th year in New York’s Capital Region.

Pete says one of harness racing’s famous races changes networks this year.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call profiles a local cable TV sports reporter who is filling a double role this summer.

Keith has more on her in his blog.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes that a decision on the Washington Nationals TV rights has been delayed.

South

Barry Jackson from the Miami Herald has some NBA Finals Game 2 postgame reaction as well as Jon Barry saying he’s not a Miami Heat Hater.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says Fox Sports Houston was well-prepared and staffed for Wednesday’s perfect game thrown against the Astros by Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants.

Mel Bracht at The Oklahoman writes that ESPN on ABC was all over the non-foul call against the Thunder’s Kevin Durant during Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

The Oklahoman rounds up what sports reporters are saying on Twitter about the NBA Finals.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer says an all-star high school football game will be shown locally this weekend.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that ESPN is dropping its high school sports operation.

Bob criticizes Jim Rome for his questioning of NBA Communist China Sympathizer David Stern.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch says Cubs announcers Len Kasper and Bob Brenly were silent when comedian Jeff Garlin brought up trading Alfonso Soriano.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin notes the rare occurrence of the U.S. Open and the NBA Finals going head-to-head on TV this Father’s Day.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that viewers of Fox Sports Midwest may need a scorecard to tell who’s in the Cardinals TV booth over the next few days.

Dan notes that next week will mark a decade since the passing of Jack Buck and Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile.

West

Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman says this fall’s Boise State-Southern Mississippi game will get the Fox treatment.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says Utahans are nervous about getting the Pac-12 Networkcomparing it to their experience with the ill-fated the mtn.

John Maffei of the North County Times writes that Fox Sports San Diego has set its sights squarely on Time Warner Cable.

Jim Carlisle at the Ventura County Star says ESPN’s NBA Countdown show seems to work fine without a host.

Jim talks with NBC’s Johnny Miller about the U.S. Open.

Jim has his weekend viewing picks.

Melissa Rohlin of the Los Angeles Times says Game 2 of the NBA Finals drew a good overnight number for ABC.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with former Kings voices about the Stanley Cup victory.

Tom has some more in his blog.

Canada

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin blames both Jim Rome and David Stern for their ugly exchange this week.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog says the NBA and NHL Commissioners are taking it on their chins this week.

And that’s going to do it.

A Busy Week in Motorsports on ESPN/ABC

The Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Nationwide Race in Charlotte, NC headline ESPN/ABC’s motorsports coverage this week.

Motorsports This Week on ESPN and ABC

Indianapolis 500 Airing for 48^th Year on ABC

ABC will air the 96^th running of the Indianapolis 500 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 27, continuing one of the longest-running relationships between a sporting event and a TV network with the race on ABC for the 48^th straight year. A one-hour pre-race show airs at 11 a.m. ET with the race’s green flag at 12:12 p.m. For the first time, viewers will be able to watch streaming views from onboard cameras on ESPN3, ESPN’s multi-screen, live sports event network.

Announcers:
Booth: Lap-by-lap announcer Marty Reid; analysts Scott Goodyear, Eddie Cheever.

Host: Brent Musburger

Pit reporters: Rick DeBruhl, Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch, Vince Welch

NASCAR Nationwide Series at Charlotte on ABC

The NASCAR Nationwide Series races this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the History 300 airs live on ABC on Saturday, May 26. NASCAR Countdown airs at 2:30 p.m. ET with the race’s green flag at 3:01 p.m.  Also from Charlotte, ESPN2 airs NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Announcers:

Booth: Lap-by-Lap announcer Allen Bestwick; analysts Rusty Wallace, Andy Petree.

Pit reporters: Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Shannon Spake.

NASCAR Now Schedule

The one-hour weekend edition of ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program NASCAR Now will air on Sunday, May 27, at 10 a.m. ET with a preview of that night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Michael Yam will host, joined by analyst Ricky Craven with reporters Mike Massaro and Ryan McGee at the track. NASCAR Now will review the race at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 28.

Date	Time	Show	Host	Network
Tue., May 22	3 p.m.	NASCAR Now	Jonathan Coachman	ESPN2, WatchESPN
Wed., May 23	3 p.m.	NASCAR Now	Jonathan Coachman	ESPN2, WatchESPN
Fri., May 25	3 p.m.	NASCAR Now	Michael Yam	ESPN2, WatchESPN
Sun., May 27	10 a.m.	NASCAR Now	Michael Yam	ESPN2, WatchESPN
Mon., May 21	3 p.m.	NASCAR Now	Allen Bestwick	ESPN2, WatchESPN

Global Rallycross Charlotte Action Airs on ESPN2

The high-octane world of Global Rallycross, which mixes the energy of motorsports with the attitude of action sports, is kicking off its 2012 season with an event at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the famous track’s NASCAR weekend. The event, which will be contested on a 0.750-mile Rallycross course built along the frontstretch and pit road of the 1.5-mile superspeedway, will air on ESPN2 on Saturday, May 26, at 8 p.m. ET.

In addition, the event will air on ESPN3, ESPN’s multi-screen live sports network, starting at 7 p.m.

NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series on ESPN2

The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series has the weekend off, but NHRA fans can watch action from the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series on Saturday, May 26, at 12:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The telecast will feature highlights from the recent event in Topeka, Kansas.

Motorsports on Other ESPN Platforms

ESPN.com — RacingLive! on ESPN.com is a live blog where fans can engage in debate and discussion with ESPN.com writers and editors during the NASCAR Sprint Cup races. On Sunday, May 27, RacingLive! Charlotte will coincide with the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Fans can join ESPN.com’s NASCAR experts in dissecting every aspect of the race live at http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/. ESPN.com motorsports writer David Newton will be on hand at Charlotte.

ESPN Radio — Each weekend morning, ESPN Radio’s RaceDay starts its engines at 6 a.m. ET with host Pat Patterson anchored from the site of that weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race. On both Saturday and Sunday mornings, ESPN Radio’s RaceDay listeners get an hour of news, previews and analysis, as well as profiles and interviews with NASCAR’s biggest names and newsmakers and the involvement of listeners via calls and e-mails.

That’s it.

Some Wednesday Night Linkage

I’ll do some more linkage for you this evening. You’re owed it. Why not?

Thomas O’Toole from USA Today reports that Laurie Fine, the wife of ex-Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, is suing ESPN for libel saying a report ruined her reputation.

Barry Petchesky of Deadspin goes inside the lawsuit and notes that Fine is accusing ESPN of circling the wagons against her.

John Koblin from Deadspin says Fang’s Bites fave Charissa Thompson will replace the outgoing Michelle Beadle on ESPN2′s SportsNation.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch speaks with ESPN’s Prince of Darkness John Skipper who fires some shots at NBC Sports Network.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today has NBC’s response to Skipper.

Tom Weir of USA Today says ESPN’s Adam Schefter threw a G*d D*mned reference at Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio and ESPN2. That’s a lot of ESPN references in one sentence.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Pat O’Brien is back on the Olympic stage.

Mike Ozanian from Forbes says while sports TV advertising spending is up, the return of investment is not necessarily that good.

Andy Fixmer and Edmund Lee of Bloomberg Businessweek report that the networks are putting more sports programming in primetime to avoid DVR timeshifting.

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable looks at NBCUniversal announcing Olympic coverage plans for three cable networks.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News reports that NBC Sports Network will air a cable TV record amount of Olympic coverage this summer.

Mike notes that ESPN is hoping to double its subscriber numbers for its WatchESPN app.

Meanwhile, Josh Lowensohn of CNET says hold the WatchESPN to Apple TV talk.

Billy Steele of Engadget reviews the new ESPN Radio iPad app.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid notes that Fox Sports West had an interesting “Key to the Game”.

Jim Williams of the Bleacher Report talks with Fox Soccer analysts on this Saturday’s Champions League Final.

Clare Atkinson from the New York Post reports that the networks are jacking up ad rates for the NFL including CBS for Super Bowl XLVII.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette notes that NBC Sports Network will cover the Indy 500 Time Trials this weekend.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union looks at the amount of Olympic coverage on three NBCUniversal cable networks.

Pete says NBC Sports golf reporter Dottie Pepper has co-authored a series of books bringing golf to kids.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says a local cable TV sports reporter is fast becoming a regular on the high school scene.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says a sports radio producer put Icy Hot on his manjunk.

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald writes that TNT’s Charles Barkley is not a fan of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch can’t believe Mike Francesa’s anti-Twitter stance.

Kent Youngblood at the Minneapolis Star Tribune says the new TV voice of the Minnesota Wild comes with some controversy.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News says the national media is beginning to take notice of the Kings’ playoff run.

Bud Withers of the Seattle Times writes that ESPN has moved the coaching debut of Mike Leach with Washington State to a Thursday night primetime game.

Jeff Morrow of the Tri-City (WA) Herald notes that ESPN Radio has returned to the local area.

Annie Fowler of the Herald says NHL Network will air the Memorial Cup in its entirety.

Ryan Yoder of Awful Announcing is still buzzing over Mike Francesa’s anti-Twitter rant from this week.

Sports Media Watch has some various ratings news and notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the NHL on NBC could be moved on Saturday if Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final goes into triple overtime.

Steve says the ratings Game 2 of the NHL Western Conference Final were down from last year.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth looks at various local radio ratings for baseball.

And that will be do it for tonight.

ABC/ESPN & TNT’s NBA Playoffs Announcing Assignments Through Sunday, May 20

Let’s provide the announcing assignments for both TNT and ESPN/ABC from Wednesday through Sunday. We’ll do this in order. I could go out of sequence as TNT put all of their assignments in one release as did ESPN/ABC, but I’ll try to break them up and give them to in sequence.

First TNT for Wednesday.

Now, we go to ESPN/ABC’s schedule for Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Now to TNT for late night Saturday:

Now for Sunday afternoon on ABC.

And we go to TNT to round out the NBA action on Sunday night.

And that does it. All in sequence and all listed for you.

ESPN Radio Launches New App For Apple iOS Platforms

Here’s another piece of news that was released during today’s ESPN Upfront Presentation. ESPN Radio will be launching a new app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. This will be the first time ESPN Radio has optimized for the iPad. Not only will you be able to listen to ESPN Radio live at all times, you can download podcasts and get material for offline listening when you’re away from a Wifi connection.

ESPN says the app will be free for a limited time and a limited time only. When the limited time ends, the app will carry a hefty $4.99 pricetag.

Android and Windows 7 phones will have access to the new app later this year.

Check it out.

New ESPN Radio App Launches for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Now optimized for iPad and includes “build your sports station” personalization feature
Launch on Android and Windows 7 smartphones later this summer

ESPN Radio today unveils its single, most definitive ESPN Radio App optimized for iPhone, iPod touch and – for the first time – iPad. The app creates a seamless, personalized sports listening experience both live and on demand and includes a new feature that allows fans to build their own sports stations. Additionally, fans now have the option to rewind live audio streams, including ESPN Deportes Radio. Versions for Android and Windows 7 smartphones are slated to launch later this summer.

“This latest version of the ESPN Radio App builds on our promise to deliver the best sports audio content across any device,” said Marc Horine, Vice President, ESPN Digital and Print Media. “With this update, fans now have complete control over their listening experience as the app provides the functionality to customize specifically by sports, teams and athletes they care most about.”

The app is free to download and includes:

• Podcasts: Popular shows that include The BS Report with Bill Simmons, Pardon The Interruption, Around The Horn and Fantasy Focus;
• SportsCenter: The latest updates every 20 minutes;
• Offline Listening: The ability for fans to download on-demand audio content to listen offline.

Beginning today, fans can download the premium version of the app at no cost for a limited time.  After that, for a one-time fee of $4.99, fans can access the full experience of the app, complete with the new personalization features and enhancements.  These include:

• Custom Station or Playlist: Users can search tens of thousands of audio clips by a specific topic and create a station or playlist of their favorite shows, teams, players and sports;
• Live Audio Functionality: Pause and rewind up to an hour of live audio;
• myESPN Personalization: Customized audio automatically pulled into the app based on favorites;
• Top Searches: Shows popular searches and trends for easy one-click access to top audio;
• Recommendation Engine: Related audio content suggestions;
• Alerts and Push Notifications: For MLB broadcasts, breaking news and more.

Additionally, the premium app will continue to give millions of ESPN Radio listeners access to live, crystal clear radio streams from over 35 ESPN Radio stations, fan favorite shows like Mike & Mike in the Morning, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Waddle & Silvy (Chicago), The Michael Kay Show (New York) and more, select play-by-play broadcasts, live scores and text messaging.  Additional features include integrated news content from ESPN’s five local sites in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Dallas, and social media integrations via Facebook and Twitter.

ESPN Radio launched its first app in September 2009 and has since been one of the top paid sports apps in the marketplace.  Additionally, it was named Best Radio App by Radio Ink Magazine at the Digital Convergence Awards in May 2011.  The ESPN Radio App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

The ESPN Radio app is the latest product from ESPN’s digital audio portfolio.  In March, ESPNRadio.com logged its best month ever since it first launched 11 years ago.  The site generated nearly 1.51 million page views from users listening between 30-60 minutes of digital audio through the ESPN Audio NOW Player, a 511 percent increase compared to the same month last year (source: Adobe/Omniture).  It also generated more than 3.22 million unique visitors (up 10.75 percent) and nearly 27 million total page views (up 35.8 percent).  Additionally, ESPN Podcasts recorded its own best month ever in March, logging 49 million downloads, up 73 percent compared to the same month last year.

That’s it.

Looking at Some Sports Media Personnel Moves and Non-Moves

I have accumulated a lot of links today, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to get to them right now. I’ll save them for Tuesday, but I can get to a couple of sports media personnel moves. Lots of stuff to get to. This will be done in bullet form.

• It was broken earlier tonight by Jim Miller, the co-author of “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN“:
  

  Staying. @notthefakeSVP has just finished telling colleagues he has renewed his deal with ESPN.

  — James Andrew Miller (@ESPNBook) May 14, 2012

  And it was later confirmed by Scott Van Pelt himself:

  Appreciate the interest and support here.Feel very fortunate to have gone through process but glad it’s over. Ultimately, ESPN is my home

  — Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) May 15, 2012

  It’s a good move. SVP had a couple of suitors, NBC and Fox, but chose to stay where he’s most comfortable. Van Pelt has his radio show which he has enjoyed doing plus the early SportsCenters. While he could have left to go to NBC and return to his old stomping grounds of Golf Channel, ESPN is the best place for him. I told you throughout that I thought he would stay in Bristol and he did.

• Speaking of Golf Channel, the co-host of Morning Drive, Erik Kuselias is leaving the show and heading up the East Coast to become a host of NBC SportsTalk on sister network, NBC Sports Network. Stephanie Wei of the Wei Under Par golf blog had the story and some interesting gossip that I was not aware of. I’m not enamored with this move as I’m not enamored with Kuselias. He comes off as smug and pompous and I’m sure he’ll come off as smug and pompous on NBC Sports Talk. I’m not sure what anyone sees in him as he’s worked at ESPN on both radio and television, then moved to Golf Channel to launch its morning show with Gary Williams and Holly Sonders.

  Apparently during his time on Morning Drive, he became friendly with Sonders and they began dating. According to Stephanie’s story, the two are now engaged.

  Kuselias was one of the subjects of A.J. Daulerio’s Scorched Earth Policy on ESPN in 2009 after he felt the network deliberately misled Deadspin on a couple of stories.

  Anyway, it seems Kuselias will move back up north and make guest appearances on NBC Sports Talk. I don’t think NBC will use Kuselias to replace regular host Russ Thaler. At least I hope not.

• A couple of other ESPN notes, Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated reports that SportsCenter anchor and celebrated puckhead John Buccigross has reupped with ESPN:
  

  Source tells me @Buccigross has also re-upped with ESPN. No doubt he’ll be fighting the good fight for NHL love at the Empire.

  — Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) May 15, 2012

  I’ve followed Buccigross since he was in Providence and felt he was very solid. He remains so to this day and along with Linda Cohn, continues to hold the torch for hockey at ESPN. Here’s hoping he’ll be back hosting the sport one day.

  Richard also reported yesterday that Michelle Bonner is leaving.

  Longtime ESPNNews/SportsCenter anchor Michelle Bonner and ESPN have parted ways. Another work-a-day, no-shtick anchor. Wish her well.

  — Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) May 13, 2012

  I liked Michelle. Too bad about her departure.

• Now that ESPN has decisions on Dana Jacobsen, Michelle Beadle and Scott Van Pelt, the network can now focus on its last major free agent, Erin Andrews. Look for her to remain with the network and keep her hosting position on College GameDay during college football season.

That is it for tonight.

Even More Overdue Sports Media Thoughts

My apologies for the lack of updates on Wednesday. I was away from a computer for most of the day and unable to update the site as much as I would have liked. I hope Thursday won’t be as crazy as I have a few things to post for you.

I do have some sports media thoughts for you. As usual, they’re in bullet form.

• With Wednesday’s news that ESPN expanded and extended its rights deal with the Atlantic Coast Conference, it means that the Alleged Worlwide Leader has a virtual lock on most of the so-called “FBS” or Football Bowl Subdivision conferences. If ESPN signs the Big East later this year, it will have made a clean sweep in the category. While ESPN does a good job in airing college sports, the fact that it controls so much inventory is disturbing.

  Yes, CBS has a piece of the SEC, Conference USA and most of the Mountain West. Fox has the Big 12, Conference USA, Pac-12 and part of the Big Ten through its partnership with the Big Ten Network. NBC has Notre Dame, the CAA, Ivy League and Mountain West.

  But if you’re a college conference, you need to do business with ESPN. It’s all about exposure and money and not particularly in that order. While ESPN doesn’t have a monopoly in college sports, it certainly has a majority.

  And while it can be argued that no one put a gun to the conference presidents and commissioners, the fact that ESPN has so much influence through its long-term contracts has to be scrutinized. ESPN has a lot of control in college sports and it’s to the point where it can influence matchups and tell conferences when and where to play. While TV has always had a hand in scheduling, ESPN’s control has gone beyond that.

• Why was #greenythedance such a big deal and why did ESPN show highlights of this overblown bet from Mike and Mike in the Morning all over the place? Didn’t care and did want to help the network promote it. A big non-story.
• Haven’t been too impressed with Jenny Dell on NESN. The new Red Sox field reporter is trying to fill the shoes of Heidi Watney. In her live spots, Jenny has not really stood out. It’s early and she still has time to improve.

We’re done.

Some More Overdue Sports Media Thoughts

Yesterday, I provided two overdue sports media thoughts. Today, it’s time to do some more. As always, they’re in bullet form.

• I like what the NBC Sports Group has done on the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. Covering all the games has paid off with higher ratings thus far. By giving all of the games a national outlet, fans have found them and establishing CNBC and NHL Network as secondary homes in addition to NBC and NBC Sports Network was a wise move.

  While I miss having the local feeds in the Conference Semifinals, I understand why NBC Sports Group bought exclusivity there. If you’re going to grow the game nationally, you have to sacrifice the local feeds at some point. We get less of a Jack Edwards or Sam Rosen or Bob Miller, but we also get more games aired in their entirety and that’s good for hockey.

  A few things to improve upon for the future.

  Less local simulcasts on CNBC and NBCSN. NBC Sports Network should not be relying on Comcast SportsNet, CBC or TSN in the first round. NHL Network is another story, but less of the local simulcasts, please.

  Double weekend doubleheaders on NBC should be standard next season. I liked NBC’s Sunday doubleheaders in the first round. Expand them to Saturdays as well.

  And do not. Do not. Do not allow Erik Kusilias anywhere near a set next season. He is a bad host. NASCAR fans thought he was a butcher when ESPN put him as host of NASCAR Now. His brief stints as host in the Conference Quarterfinals on CNBC did nothing to dispel that notion.

  Other than those complaints, NBC Sports Group’s coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs gets high marks.

• Sports radio on FM is becoming more of a trend across the country. The latest market to get an FM sports station is the largest in the country, New York City. Last week, ESPN Radio flipped legendary Urban station KISS 98.7 FM to sports. It gave ESPN Radio NY a fighting chance against long-time Big Apple sports leader, WFAN. While the ‘FAN has dominated the New York market head-to-head against ESPN, that was when both were on the AM dial. WFAN’s ratings have dropped recently, but ESPN has not been able to pick up the slack. We’ll see if ‘FAN’s owner, CBS Radio, decides to give the station a new home. Right now, it’s not in the cards, but if ESPN Radio starts to cut into the lead, then CBS could rethink its strategy.

  CBS Radio has been successful with FM sports talk in other markets including Boston so we’ll see if it happens in New York down the road.

• Good on the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to give former CBS Sports and ABC Sports Essayist Jack Whitaker a Lifetime Achievement Sports Emmy last week.

  It would behoove the Academy to recognize Brent Musburger for his pioneering work as host of the NFL Today and CBS Sports Saturday/Sunday.

  I still find it hard to believe that Brent has never won a Sports Emmy. He should have won one for hosting the Pan American Games for CBS in 1987 and again for ABC in 1991 when they were held in Cuba.

• Belated congratulations to Ed Sherman, formerly of the Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business on the launch on his new national sports media site, The Sherman Report.
• Finally got to see this season’s version of “The Rundown” on MLB Network. I like the show and new co-host Lauren Shehadi has developed a very good chemistry with holdover Matt Yallof. I make sure I watch the show when I’m home. Now if MLB Network can do something about The Abortion Known As Intentional Talk…

Ok. Plenty of thoughts for you to absorb. I’ll try to provide more tomorrow.

Some Leftover Linkage

I need to clear my brower of links I was hoping to get to sometime over the last few days. Since I couldn’t do the Friday megalinks or any Saturday morning linkage, I’ll do some Sunday evening leftover links.

Consider this the Sunday entrée to the beginning of the workweek. I honestly don’t know what that means.

Here’s some linkage for you to chew on.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports is not a fan of Shaquille O’Neal on TNT.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel News writes that Time Warner Cable is hoping to obtain more sports properties for its new Southern California regional sports network.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel says the first round of the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs was the most watched on record.

Andrea Morabito of Broadcasting & Cable reports that no talent hack Ryan Seacrest will be haunting NBC Sports as well as NBC News in an all-new, all-encompassing contract with NBCUniversal.

Tim Baysinger at B&C says ESPN’s ratings for the First Round of the NFL Draft were up double digits from the year before.

Sam Laird at Mashable writes that social media is influencing sports in many ways.

To Sean Newell of Deadspin who looks at the strange Twitter meltdown of Chicago Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley who went all-sexist on female pilots and one of his co-workers.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report writes that former CBS and ABC Sports essayist Jack Whitaker is receiving a long overdue honor from the Sports Emmys on Monday.

Ryan Yoder from Awful Announcing reviews the good and the bad of ESPN’s First Round coverage of the NFL Draft.

Joe Lucia of AA does the same for NFL Network.

Back to Matt from AA, apparently Tim McCarver fancies himself an expert on climate change

From the Tampa Bay Times, Eric Deggans reviews ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center.

Jason Dachman from Sports Video Group has ESPN optimistic that its Los Angeles studios will put itself in a unique position to cover the Lakers and Clippers in the NBA Playoffs.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck can ever match Peyton Manning’s marketability.

Providence’s WJAR-TV and Cox Communications announce a new partnership that will simulcast the NBC affiliate’s local newscasts and also put Cox Sports RI’s programming on a new cable channel.

Amy Chozick and Nick Wingfield of the New York Times explore the growing world of TV mobile and tablet apps which include the soon-to-be released NBC Olympics iPad app.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times profiles actor Peter Scolari who plays three important roles in the Magic/Bird Broadway play.

Breaking a ban of linking to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News who has an interesting story regarding Yankees voices John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman and whether they’ll be leaving if the team changes flagship radio stations after this season.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick has no hope for our society. Lighten up, Phil. Time to travel to Moldova or Johannesburg. Somewhere you don’t have to watch sports anymore.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says MSG Network’s ratings for Game 7 of the Ottawa Senators-New York Rangers series were the best since the 1994 Stanley Cup-clinching game on the network.

Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that the 76ers are leaving long-time home WIP and switching to ESPN Radio Philadelphia.

Crossing Broad says the Sixers’ move came as a surprise.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner talks with Jim Rome and his new CBS home.

Laura Newberry of the Orlando Sentinel says Golf Channel has become a Central Florida mainstay.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that the Rockets are not only moving to a new TV home next season, but are currently looking for a new radio flagship station as well.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman transcribes Mike Tirico’s call of Kevin Durant’s winning shot for the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.

The Cincinnati Enquirer says one local cable provider will pick up NFL Network, but it’s not Time Warner.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch says the Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley may be headed towards a suspension.

Danny Ecker at Crain’s Chicago Business says the Bulls generated their highest regular season TV ratings since the Michael Jordan years.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says scheduling of playoff games never has the fans in mind.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says ESPN gave the Utah Jazz the benefit of the doubt in its series opener.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC got the job done in choosing its NHL Playoff series for the Conference Semifinal round.

Peter Adler from the Edmonton Journal says the Oilers’ documentary series Oil Change which runs on NHL Network should return for a third season

Howard M. Alperin of Midwest Sports Fans asks why CBSSports.com doesn’t include soccer coverage?

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy has TSN’s top hockey bloopers of the 2011-12 season.

That’s a lot of leftover linkage. Glad I was able to clear this out before Monday.

ESPN/ABC Announces NBA Playoff Schedule Through May 6

Just as Turner Sports announced its NBA schedule and announcing assignments through May 6, ESPN/ABC has done the same.

For the opening weekend of the NBA Postseason and the Conference Quarterfinals, ABC will have single games on Saturday and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET with the old 1990′s rivalry between the New York Knicks and Miami Heat on Saturday and Denver at Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.

ESPN follows up with a Saturday night doubleheader and an early Sunday afternoon game. And then ESPN returns to the NBA Playoffs on Friday, May 4 and Saturday, May 5 with two games each. ABC has an doubleheader on Sunday, May 6.

Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Lisa Salters will be the main announcing team for ABC/ESPN. Mike Tirico, Hubie Brown and Heather Cox will be the “B” team for the networks. And other play-by-play announcers include Dave Pasch and Mark Jones. Chris Mullin and Doris Burke will be the analysts and on the sidelines will be the aggressive Holly Rowe and Ric Bucher.

Here’s the press release.

2012 NBA Playoffs on ABC & ESPN to Tip Off Saturday

Extensive Coverage on ESPN Radio; ABC Ratings Up 10 Percent, ESPN Up 7 Percent for Regular Season

ESPN and ABC’s comprehensive 2012 NBA Playoffs coverage – up to 44 games, including The Finals exclusively on ABC – will begin with five games this weekend. ABC’s game coverage will begin on Saturday, April 28, when the Miami Heat and their superstar trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh host the New York Knicks – led by Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire – at 3:30 p.m. ET.  ABC’s coverage will continue on Sunday, April 29, when the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant host the Denver Nuggets and Ty Lawson at 3:30 p.m. Mike Breen will provide commentary for both broadcasts with analyst Jeff Van Gundy and reporter Lisa Salters.

ESPN will televise a primetime doubleheader on Saturday, April 28 – Orlando Magic at Indiana Pacers at 7 p.m. with Dave Pasch, Chris Mullin and reporter Holly Rowe providing commentary; defending World Champion Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki at the Oklahoma City Thunder and scoring champion Kevin Durant at 9:30 p.m. with Mike Tirico, Hubie Brown and reporter Heather Cox calling the game.

ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs follows a regular season that delivered a 7 percent ratings increase on ESPN (Christmas to date) and a 10 percent ratings increase on ABC, according to Nielsen. More details below.

The NBA Countdown pregame show will preview both ABC broadcasts this weekend at 3 p.m. and include commentary from analysts Magic Johnson, Jon Barry, Michael Wilbon and Chris Broussard.

All ESPN games will also be available on ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV and via the WatchESPN app. The Finals on ABC are scheduled to begin June 12. Additionally, ESPN2 will televise a special one-hour NBA Playoffs Preview on Saturday April 28, at 1 a.m, 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.

NBA Playoffs opening weekend schedule:

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Commentators	Network
Sat, Apr 28	3 p.m.	NBA Countdown	Magic Johnson, Jon Barry, Michael Wilbon, Chris Broussard	ABC
	3:30 p.m.	New York Knicks at Miami Heat Gm. 1	Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, Lisa Salters ESPN Radio: Jim Durham, Dr. Jack Ramsay	ABC, ESPN Radio
	7 p.m.	Orlando Magic at Indiana Pacers Gm. 1	Dave Pasch, Chris Mullin, Holly Rowe	ESPN, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
	9:30 p.m.	Dallas Mavericks at Oklahoma City Thunder Gm. 1	Mike Tirico, Hubie Brown, Heather Cox	ESPN, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
Sun, Apr 29	1 p.m.	Utah Jazz at San Antonio Spurts Gm. 1	Mark Jones, Doris Burke, Ric Bucher	ESPN, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
	3 p.m.	NBA Countdown	Magic Johnson, Jon Barry, Michael Wilbon, Chris Broussard	ABC
	3:30 p.m.	Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Lakers Gm. 1	Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, Lisa Salters ESPN Radio: Kevin Calabro, Dr. Jack Ramsay	ABC, ESPN Radio

NBA Playoffs schedule for May 4-6 (commentators TBD):

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Fri, May 4	7:30 p.m.	Boston Celtics at Atlanta Hawks Gm. 3	ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
	8 p.m.	Chicago Bulls at Philadelphia 76ers Gm. 3	ESPN, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
	10:30 p.m.	Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets Gm. 3	ESPN, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
Sat, May 5	2 p.m.	Indiana Pacers at Orlando Magic Gm. 4	ESPN, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
	4:30 p.m.	Memphis Grizzlies at Los Angeles Clippers Gm. 4	ESPN, ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, WatchESPN
Sun, May 6	12:30 p.m.	NBA Countdown	ABC
	1 p.m.	Chicago Bulls at Philadelphia 76ers Gm. 4	ABC, ESPN Radio
	3:30 p.m.	Miami Heat at New York Knicks Gm. 4	ABC, ESPN Radio

NBA on ESPN Radio
The NBA on ESPN Radio will begin its 17^th season of NBA Playoffs coverage on Saturday, April 28, and will present exclusive national broadcasts for select first and second round games and every game of the Conference Finals and The Finals. Commentators Jim Durham, Hall-of-Famer Dr. Jack Ramsay, Kevin Calabro and Will Purdue will contribute to the broadcasts during the first two rounds. Durham and Ramsay will then call the Eastern Conference Finals while Calabro and Hubie Brown will call the Western Conference Finals. During The Finals on ABC, Durham, Ramsay and Brown will describe the action, while Ric Bucher will be courtside reporter with Marc Kestecher and Will Perdue serving as on-site studio host and analyst.

NBA Ratings on ESPN Up 7 Percent, ABC Delivers Highest-Rated & Most-Viewed Season
ESPN averaged a 1.5 household rating during the 2011-12 NBA regular season, an increase of 7 percent from the same Christmas to date timeframe in 2010-11 (1.4), according to Nielsen. The 1.5 rating also matches last season as the highest-rated regular season ever on ESPN in a full-season comparison.

ABC delivered its highest-rated and most-viewed NBA regular season ever, averaging a 3.3 household rating and 5,421,000 viewers for its 15 broadcasts during the 2011-2012 campaign, according to Nielsen. The 3.3 rating is up 10 percent from last season (3.0) and 5,421,000 viewers is up six percent from last season (5,110,000). The NBA on ABC is also up nine percent in household impressions, averaging 3,831,000 compared to 3,519,000 last season.

NBA on ESPN Digital Platforms Delivers Gains
During the 66-game regular season, NBA content across ESPN digital platforms – including ESPN.com, the mobile Web, ScoreCenter, ESPN3 and WatchESPN – logged an average minute audience of 70,000 people, up 25.2 percent compared to the same time period last year (Christmas Day through the end of the season).  Specifically, the NBA section on ESPN.com generated an average of 1.9 million daily unique visitors (up 12 percent) and an average of 17 million total minutes per day (up 21 percent).

Fantasy and mobile usage logged the biggest gains.  NBA content on the ESPN mobile Web averaged 1.5 million daily unique visitors (up 43 percent) and 13.6 million total minutes per day (up 56 percent).  Fantasy Basketball on ESPN.com and mobile platforms was also up 57 percent in average daily unique visitors and 69 percent in average total minutes per day.

“Fight To Win” with Cee-Lo Green
ESPN will debut a new NBA Playoffs promo on Saturday featuring Grammy-award winner Cee-Lo Green. The promo will air throughout the weekend during ESPN and ABC’s NBA Playoffs coverage.

ESPN.com
ESPN.com’s comprehensive NBA Playoffs coverage will include:

• Daily Dime Live – a live blog before, during and after each game;
• NBA Today podcast;
• TrueHoop and TrueHoop Network blogs;
• special sections for every postseason series;
• extensive coverage from local ESPN.com sites (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Dallas);
• pregame and postgame coverage, essays, columns, video analysis for every NBA Playoffs game.

ESPN Social Media

• Facebook – ESPN’s NBA Facebook page will include regular updates throughout the NBA Playoffs with videos and imagery, shareable NBA content, polls, instant reactions to memorable moments, “This Day in NBA History” series and other highlights;
• Twitter – ESPN’s NBA Twitter – @NBAonESPN – will provide breaking news, game updates, links to ESPN.com stories, photos and more.

ESPN3 & WatchESPN
Fans will also be able to watch every ESPN and ESPN2 postseason NBA game live on their computers, smartphones or tablets via WatchESPN.  Additionally, fans will also have access to special simulcasts of The Finals on ABC on ESPN3.  WatchESPN delivers live access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Buzzer Beater/Goal Line on PCs, smartphones and tablets to fans who receive ESPN’s linear networks as part of their video subscription from Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Verizon FiOS TV.

ESPN International
ESPN International will present the NBA Playoffs throughout Latin America, Brazil, Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Pacific Rim.

That is all

NBA Conference Quarterfinals Schedule

With the NBA Playoffs starting on Saturday, let’s provide the schedule of games in each series and networks where applicable.

That is it.

Unveiling Some Thursday Links

Let’s get to some linkage. Four days in a row. Let’s keep up the momentum.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that the NFL is considering suspending the Pro Bowl.

Stuart Kemp of the Hollywood Reporter writes that BBC’s staff to cover the London Olympics will outnumber the British athletic contingent to the Games.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable says NBC Sports Network has renewed NFL Turning Point for three more seasons.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek notes that Tide is now the Official Laundry Detergent of the NFL.

To E.J. Schultz of Advertising Age who writes that UFC sponsor Anheuser-Busch gave a warning over its fighters’ racist and homophobic comments.

Ed Sherman of the Sherman Report talks with ESPN analyst Bill Polian who will spending his first NFL Draft outside of a War Room.

Ed says NBC will be rooting hard for the New York Rangers tonight in its Game 7 against the Ottawa Senators.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says despite an ugly domestic dispute involving his estranged wife this week, Deion Sanders will appear on NFL Network’s Draft coverage.

Dan Daley at Sports Video Group says audio from the Olympics will be all-digital unlike in past years.

Karen Hogan of SVG goes inside ESPN’s NFL Draft coverage.

This pains me, but I’ll post this. Glenn Davis of SportsGrid has the audio of the Washington Capitals series-winning goal by Joel Ward to defeat the Boston Bruins in Game 7 last night.  And there were some idiotic racist tweets following the game. Those Bruins fans do not represent me. Stupid fucks.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has the YES video of two Texas Rangers fans oblivious to a crying kid while they pose with a ball they caught during last night’s game with the Yankees. Luckily, the kid got another ball, but that couple should know to give the ball to the kid. Man alive.

Ty Duffy at the Big Lead looks at Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee using the “bad journalism” claim to hide behind the problems that led to the downfall of former football coach Jim Tressel.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that Jeremy Lin’s uniform now outsells Kobe Bryant’s.

Speaking of Darren, he was the guest on the 100th edition of Sports Media Weekly and the podcast is a very good listen if I do say so myself.

Hispanic Business looks at the deal between Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Fox Deportes to put more boxing on the network.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks about ESPN Radio NY moving to the FM dial as early as next week.

Justin Terranova of the New York Post says ESPN confirms what the Post reported earlier this week.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says ESPN Radio takes over a legendary FM frequency.

Kieran Darcy of ESPN NY writes about the ESPN Radio move.

Jerry Barmash of Fishbowl NY also has a story on the ESPN Radio-to-FM flip.

Jerry looks at the ratings for the New York Rangers on MSG Network.

Richard Sandomir from the New York Times talks with ESPN NFL Draft analyst Bill Polian.

Richard writes that the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are a ratings hit thus far.

Broadway World notes that NBC’s Al Michaels was honored by Fordham University with an award named after his idol, Vin Scully.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union says a local sports anchor is leaving town next month.

Pete has the dates, but not times for the NHL Stanley Cup Western Conference Semifinals.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says NBC Sports Network will air the IIHF World Hockey Championships next month.

Over to Crossing Broad where it has audio of Phillies radio announcer Larry Anderson yelling at the team to appeal a play.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says the last 24 hours have been great for local sports.

Dan writes that the ratings for Caps-Bruins, Game 7 were high, but not quite a record.

Dan has the newspaper front pages from DC and Boston regarding the Caps-Bruins series.

Dan has video of ESPN’s Neil Everett imitating the Caps radio call of the winning goal against the Bruins.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams says it will be hard to choose either ESPN or NFL Network to watch for NFL Draft coverage.

Steven Campbell in the Tampa Tribune profiles SportsCenter anchor Sara Walsh who grew up in the local area.

Tim Griffin in the San Antonio Express-News says the NBA’s TV ratings couldn’t be any higher despite the lockout that almost wiped out the season.

David Briggs of the Toledo Blade has highlights of a talk that Fox Sports President Ed Goren gave at Bowling Green University.

In Chicagoland Radio and Media, we learn that Comcast SportsNet and WMAQ-TV will merge their sports staffs continuing what has already occurred between CSN Bay Area and KNTV in San Francisco.

At the new Chicago Sports Media Watch, Paul M. Banks talks with Ed Sherman.

The Reno (NV) Gazette Journal says the Perpetually Angry Doug Gottlieb of ESPN will be in town in July for an event.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the NHL has announced the dates for the Los Angeles-St. Louis series.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders how best to approach the media in a hockey-crazy country.

Sports Media Watch looks at the ramifications if the NFL ends the Pro Bowl.

SMW has some ratings news and notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes solid ratings for the Devils-Panthers series.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has video of Hawk Harrelson doing what he does best, being a homer on Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

TVSpy has video of a young Jim Nantz working in Salt Lake in a hot tub with Utah Jazz point guard John Stockton among others. Hello!

And that’s going to do it for supersized set of links.