I was looking at composite MAC schedule and noticed the date of the championship game is listed as Saturday December 2nd. This struck me as odd as I figured the MAC was locked into a Friday championship from now to eternity.

The current Dec 2nd schedule calls for ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 to split the CUSA, AAC, MW, ACC, and MAC championship games. Historically they have only used ABC/ESPN for two timeblocks, noon and 8:00pm, so the use of ESPN2 and the addition of the MAC is new. This means someone will be playing their championship game Saturday on the Deuce and my guess it will likely be either CUSA or the MW.

The viewership for the MACC was 1.4 million on ESPN2 going up against the PAC 12 championship. The AAC only had 2.05 on ABC, with the MW having only 713K and CUSA only 926K on ESPN.

One scenario could be the AAC keeping the noon ABC slot like last year, CUSA being relegated to noon on ESPN2, and the MAC taking the noon slot on ESPN. Another would be the AAC taking the 8 pm ESPN slot from the MW and we slide into ABC at noon, relegating MW to 8 pm ESPN2.

I wonder if the MAC taking an ESPN slot at noon Saturday is better than the Friday slot? It would be better for the fans, but I think exposure wouldn't be as good since it isn't prime time. If the second scenario played out and the MAC managed to get the ABC slot and AAC getting primetime ESPN, would that be the best for the MAC (and the AAC)?

This is an issue which has been dealt with over many years.

Initially the MACC at Ford Field was a Thursday night. Believe it filled a scheduling hole for ESPN. The crowds were anemic. Folks wouldn't drive a hundred or two hundred miles during the week.

Then ESPN switched it to Friday Night. The best gig was to go early vs. the Pac-12 and that has worked. Last year with undefeated WMU the crowd was I believe 45,000. For the Thursday night game, move the decimal one place to to the left. Some crowds were terrible and the game had to be moved to a better slot.

I agree the Friday has worked well, at least for ESPN. That is why I am surprised the game is moved to Saturday. I cannot imagine ratings will be as high, but who knows, at least it will be better for the fans.

(08-07-2017 02:56 PM)IULurker Wrote:  I agree the Friday has worked well, at least for ESPN. That is why I am surprised the game is moved to Saturday. I cannot imagine ratings will be as high, but who knows, at least it will be better for the fans.

SORRY, owe you an apology. I completely missed that the game has moved to Saturday...

No worries

Check out this thread --> MACC Time

Time to upgrade to Saturday with this game having CFP implications on the line.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530AZ using CSNbbs mobile app

Saturday is better than Friday. We all agree on that, right?

Even if kickoff is at 11 a.m. ET? (And that's not a prediction.)

(08-09-2017 06:10 PM)HUSKIEFOOTBALLFAN Wrote:  Check out this thread --> MACC Time

Well that's embarrassing...must have missed that thread!

(08-10-2017 12:04 PM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  Saturday is better than Friday. We all agree on that, right?

Even if kickoff is at 11 a.m. ET? (And that's not a prediction.)

Saturday is better especially since I would think it will be noon on Espn. Better time and better network.

(08-10-2017 03:57 PM)IULurker Wrote:  

(08-10-2017 12:04 PM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  Saturday is better than Friday. We all agree on that, right?

Even if kickoff is at 11 a.m. ET? (And that's not a prediction.)

Saturday is better especially since I would think it will be noon on Espn. Better time and better network.

What is the competition at that hour?

I assume that ONE reason that Saturday is possible is that the Lions are NOT at home the next day. I believe that no event can take place at the stadium the day before the NFL game because of walk-thru, etc.

I'm guessing this is an 'experiment' and could continue if the Lions are away that weekend or will need to return to Friday night if the Lions are home that Sunday.

My take is this: As long as the game is airing on ESPN2 or a stronger network, I think it's better to play it on Saturday, and I don't much care who we are going up against. (That's the network's problem, not ours.) It means a bigger crowd and that the product people will see will look better.

I don't think it would be worth putting the game on Fox Sports 1 or some other lesser network to play the game on Saturday. We would lose too much exposure that way.

The competition I think will be AAC and CUSA title games which have always had the noon slot. ESPN could wait until the last second to see which conferences looks to earn the NY6 bowl berth and give those conferences the best two slots (ABC and ESPN) with the other going to ESPN2.

I have wondered if ESPN is doing an experiment due to the upcoming contract negotiations with the AAC. If they can show the MAC can draw similar numbers on ABC/ESPN at noon as the AAC has historically, it would show that it is the network and the time slot yielding viewership and not the conference. This would be a devastating result for the AAC's contract amount but would be a good result for ESPN.

With all that said, I agree with Schadenfreude. The change to Saturday is a good thing no matter what network it is on.