Monday, December 28, 2015

appearances on ABC's College Football Saturday Night Primetime




 
"Brand name" school appearances on ABC's College Football Saturday Night Primetime, National audience only, last ten years:

USC16
Ohio State15
Oklahoma13
Notre Dame11
Nebraska9
Florida State9
Penn State6
Texas6
Oregon5
Alabama4
UCLA3
LSU3
Michigan3
Georgia2
Auburn 0
Florida 0
Texas A&M 0

A few interesting observations:

*Since 2006 (last 10 years) there were 89 nationally televised primetime games on ABC Saturday night. All but 6 games involved a "brand name school". The 6 non-brand name games included:
2013, Ok St vs Baylor
2012 Ok St vs K State
2010 Oregon St v Boise
2008 Cal v Mich St
2007 Cal v Tennessee
2007 Missouri v Kansas

*The most common match up (5) was Ohio St v Penn St.

*Clemson played 5 nationally televised prime time games on ABC but always as the opponent to a brand name: FSU 2, ND 1, Alabama 1 and Georgia 1. This is on par or below Oklahoma State (10) Texas Tech (5). and Baylor (5).
*Miami, during that same 10 years period, only appeared 3 times, always vs FSU.
* the SEC is heavily under represented. An educated guess: the SEC dominates ESPN's Saturday night broadcasts at 745 est.
* No data for FOX's Saturday night (which always involves the PAC or Big12) so those conferences can be undervalued on the chart above.
* No data for the rare CBS Saturday night game which always involves the SEC and, of late, Bama v LSU.
* I'm surprised that Michigan, Texas and UCLA were not on prime time more often. One explanation: I think Michigan prohibited night games for a long time. That ban may have been lifted recently.

* this Saturday night features: Oklahoma v Baylor on ABC, Oregon v Stanford on Fox, LSU v Arkansas on ESPN

So, the question remains, who would the Committee give preferential treatment? USC, OU, tOSU, ND. I think it safe to assume Texas and Michigan plus Alabama. I'm not sure the list goes too far beyond that.

1 comment:

  1. Just FYI: the SEC TV contract with CBS expressly forbids them from playing on ABC when they are the home team. The only way any SEC team can appear on ABC is as the visiting team. Florida never plays anyone OOC on the road except FSU, hence zero appearances on ABC. Fact(oid)

    ReplyDelete