TV & The BE Schedule

[DFW HOYA]

It's no secret that the Big East doesn't like putting Georgetown on TV anymore, and that's not likely to change this year. While the schedule is overall favorable for Georgetown, RPI issues notwithstanding, the TV situation looks like a challenge.

Home games? Syracuse a "yes", Cincinnati a "maybe", but Pitt and WV are at best regional games, with PC, Rutgers, St. John's and South Florida meaning another busy year on the chat board.

A few more opportunities on road games, but with 16 teams expect Louisville, UConn, Villanova, and Syracuse to get the lion's share of games. When your mirror teams were a combined 47-45 last year...ouch.

[theEDGEfactor]

Yeah you are right on DFW. Duke game will be televised, Illinois game could be televised, Michigan game could be on ESPN/2 possibly, and Oregon game could be on FSN, but the only certainty is Duke. But really, there are no deffinites. 2006 season, we will be seeing alot of Gtown on tv I think, but we still got alot to prove this year. NCAA's nebody?

[SFHoya99]

Since I usually end up at a bar somewhere with friends, as long as these games are picked up on ESPN+, I'm okay with it. Oh, it doesn't help recruiting any, but so far I see far fewer games I don't expect to be picked up at all.

[DFW HOYA]

I'm working on the numbers this evening, but it appears Georgetown is 13th of 16 teams in strength of conference schedule. The top 4 are UConn, Cincinnati, Villanova, and Syracuse. The bottom four are DePaul, Georgetown, Rutgers, and St. John's. That ought to tell you something about the conference's thinking right there.

[SFHoya99]

dfw said:

I'm working on the numbers this evening, but it appears Georgetown is 13th of 16 teams in strength of conference schedule. The top 4 are UConn, Cincinnati, Villanova, and Syracuse. The bottom four are DePaul, Georgetown, Rutgers, and St. John's. That ought to tell you something about the conference's thinking right there.

Based on what? Last year's record? Maybe that does say something about their thinking, but I don't think we got off that easy with SJU as a mirror. And what good is it having USF as a mirror if you don't play the Hall (who should be pretty awful).

I'm not about to predict it, but I could sincerely see St. John's outperforming the Cuse this year.

[DFW HOYA]

sfhoya99 said:

Based on what? Last year's record?... I'm not about to predict it, but I could sincerely see St. John's outperforming the Cuse this year.

It's based on last year's records, which may not be as accurate a measurement the first year in.

And while I wouldn't predict the Redmen outperforming Syracuse, St. John's could outperform Pitt if Krauser doesn't return from summer school.

[kghoya]

georgetown earned its way off of the tv schedule...now they have to earn their way back on...i think this season will go a long way towards accomplishing that

for selfish reasons i dont really care about the local games being on tv...im just worried about the road games and i think we will see quite a few

i would like to see the hoop club get a bus trip to nova and wvu...i can also see myself going to the game at the garden...so that takes care of 3 road games for me...last year the trip to nova was called off due to a poor response...i ended up driving up there and it was well worth it...of course they need to be weekend games!

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

The way the schedule works pairs the top 4 teams against each other and really pushes the 1 and 2 internally ranked teams on TV a lot - Georgetown is highly under-rated by being in the bottom 4 of a 16 team league. Given that I think this placement is based on more than last years W's and L's it could be a formula that takes into account more than one year - in which case 2003-2004 season really hurts us. I don't anticipate us getting much play on TV like last season - but only slightly more - the fact is that the only thing that will get us on TV is sustained success in the BE and NCAA appearances.

I'm sure that III, who is an incredible motivator, will take the fact that Georgetown's own league doesn't think they can compete even with the job they did last year and turn it into bulletin board material. If this is the hand that the league CBS, ESPN, and FSN is going to deal us - so be it - more so than last year we will be the greatest team that the sports media doesn't show.

[MCIGuy]

Which is why JT3's out of conference schedule is even more important. Gives us national TV time. Last season not one of our games against Temple, Illinois and Penn State was carried nationally (ESPN Plus came in at the last minute to do the Illinois game but most people outside the DC and Illinois areas couldn't see it unless they had a cable college bball package or satellite). However I expect at least three of the four major OOC games for next season (Duke, Michigan, Illinois and Oregon) to get a national TV telecast.

And what's the deal with this Oklahoma game that people keep mentioning? Is that happening? If so that should be a game on national TV too.

As for the BE regular season the networks are going to program the vast majority of the BE games to about five or six teams. A few of those games I'm sure will involve the Hoyas. Bet on it. Then there may be one bone thrown in when we play a team like WVU which will be ranked in the preseason.

Of course the Hoyas could get a game against Marquette, St John's, DePaul, etc on an ESPN 2 broadcast on an open Wednesday night. And last of all if the Hoyas do well early on ESPN could find room for an extra game or two down the road. That has happened with teams before.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

ESPN 2 won't have open programming time if Hockey is back.

[MCIGuy]

stpetersburghoya said:

ESPN 2 won't have open programming time if Hockey is back.

The last time a Hoya game was ADDED to one of the two prime ESPN networks the NHL was in the middle of a regular season. So it has happened before.

Besides...all indications are that the NHL won't get much time on ESPN even after the lockout is over. ESPN did better in the ratings without it.

[RDF]

ESPN's already said the NHL is DONE--they have to find a new television network. The ratings for CBB were better for ESPN then what NHL did, so they dropped it. That was released by ESPN last month and that means more games will be televised of CBB and NBE will be a major attraction because CUSA teams who got air time are all now in Big East--and Memphis will be flagship team of that league--but trust me, Big East and ACC will carry the television airwaves for ESPN and CBS--especially with NBE having the major market addition of Chicago and name team additions in Cincy and Louisville.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

rdf said:

ESPN's already said the NHL is DONE--they have to find a new television network. The ratings for CBB were better for ESPN then what NHL did, so they dropped it. That was released by ESPN last month and that means more games will be televised of CBB and NBE will be a major attraction because CUSA teams who got air time are all now in Big East--and Memphis will be flagship team of that league--but trust me, Big East and ACC will carry the television airwaves for ESPN and CBS--especially with NBE having the major market addition of Chicago and name team additions in Cincy and Louisville.

Thanks for saying that - now where is Buffalo to defend his sport?

[SFHoya99]

Sad as it is to say, the WNBA was getting better ratings than Hockey.

[JimmyHoya]

sfhoya99 said:

WNBA

Don't swear.

When do the television schedules start coming out?

[Jack]

One thing we can be pretty certain of is that no GU Big East games are scheduled for CBS. If I recall correctly, CBS gets first pick of the matchups, and any game CBS takes ESPN gets the right to request a return matchup, thus the mirror games. I cannot see CBS picking a GU v. WV, SJU, or USF game for their Saturday telecasts, so it looks like whatever national coverage the Hoyas receive will be coming from the non-conference or cable.

[SFHoya99]

Jack, don't you think it entirely possible that CBS takes GU-Cuse and ESPN takes a different game -- i.e. they don't make a fuss about getting GU-SU?

[Jack]

I suppose that is possible, especially given that ESPN did not pick up GU-SU at all last year, but I would think ESPN would be interested in that game at some level this time around.

[BeantownHoya]

Katz provides a little info on the upcoming TV possibilities and also identifies 2 games picked up by CBS:

The Big East released its unbalanced schedule on Thursday and West Virginia could end up benefiting like Boston College did a year ago.
The Big East and its television partners, CBS and ESPN, projected the Mountaineers as one of the top six teams but they only have to play one of the other five twice -- Cincinnati.

The new Big East schedule calls for 16 league games where each team plays 13 opponents once, three of those 13 another time and doesn't play two league foes at all.

West Virginia's other two home-and-home series are against Georgetown and local rival Pittsburgh. The Mountaineers, who return four starters from an Elite Eight team, won't play DePaul and Rutgers.

The other five teams designated as the premier teams next season were Connecticut, Syracuse, Villanova, Louisville and Cincinnati.

A year ago, Boston College (now in the ACC) played Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse only once each, while those four played each other twice. The Irish were the only team in this group that didn't make the NCAA Tournament. The only two Big East NCAA teams the Eagles played twice last regular season were Villanova and West Virginia.

Under the new schedule, Connecticut gets Louisville, Syracuse and Villanova twice and won't play DePaul and Rutgers.

Louisville will play Cincinnati, Connecticut and Villanova twice and misses Georgetown and Seton Hall.

Villanova faces Connecticut, Louisville and Syracuse twice and won't play Pittsburgh and Providence.

Cincinnati draws Louisville, Syracuse and West Virginia twice and won't see Notre Dame and St. John's.

"Mathematically, it wouldn't work that all of them would play each other," said Big East associate commissioner Tom Odjakjian, who handles scheduling for the conference.

Under the Big East's television agreement, CBS has the first choice of a game but then ESPN has the right to pick the same matchup, essentially forcing a home-and-home series. Odjakjian said CBS chose West Virginia-Connecticut and West Virginia-Louisville but ESPN decided against choosing those two games and creating home-and-homes.

Odjakjian said the Big East assured the networks that the top six teams would definitely play each other at least once.

That didn't help the league avoid missing Cincinnati-Notre Dame, Louisville-Georgetown, Syracuse-Providence and Villanova-Pittsburgh this season.

Pittsburgh and Notre Dame had been two of designated premier teams last season, but both are in a rebuilding phase. The Panthers' home-and-home games are against Marquette, Providence and West Virginia while they miss Syracuse in addition to Villanova. Notre Dame plays home-and-home games against DePaul, Marquette and Providence and doesn't play Cincinnati or St. John's.

Still, not being designated a premier team doesn't mean that team won't compete for the title.

"Every year there is a team that comes out of nowhere and is a contender," Odjakjian said. "I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case again."

Last year, BC, West Virginia and Georgetown, which narrowly missed the NCAAs, were surprise teams in the league.

[theEDGEfactor]

Last year, BC, West Virginia and Georgetown, which narrowly missed the NCAAs, were surprise teams in the league.
I dont get that last line at all?