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View Full Version : How Did College Basketball Fall So Far? (TV Scheduling)



Gthoma2a
11-24-2013, 10:48 AM
Mods Delete.

Found it. Thought it was at noon for some reason, but still, my complaint remains. This sport used to get major respect. There was none of that ESPN3 nonsense or in other words a blackout.

loran16
11-24-2013, 10:51 AM
I understand that "anybody can win" ever since mid-majors started coming around, but to allow top 25 games to continuously slip by without being televised, while televising meaningless early season games between teams that are unranked, is ridiculous. I came into today thinking I was going to get to see a bird kill a goat, but I find that Fantasy Football Now is more important to ESPN 2, a show called "Kentucky: Mark Stoops" is on my Fox Sports, and since when should I have to look on TruTV to see Michigan State play last night? This is Nuts. Davidson is on, but Louisville gets skipped over. They may be playing a nobody, but it would have been my first chance to see them kill an NIT team.

First of all, come December, every top 25 game will be televised.

It's just, NCAA Bball opens early in December with a ton of pre-season tourneys (not the case till the mid-2000s), meaning there's now a ton of games featuring top 25 or top mid major teams. During this time, it's the most dramatic time in college football, which does better #s anyhow.

So you have far more bball games than there used to be in the time period in which there are still higher rated sports going around. Do the math.

blazindw
11-24-2013, 10:55 AM
I've seen a ton of good games with a ton of top teams thus far. Just about every team in the Top 25 has had a game I could watch on TV. I'd say that college basketball coverage has expanded greatly over the past 2-3 years (and it wasn't lagging before). Also, no one's playing this time of day...it's not even 11am.

There's only 3 days between November 8th and March 8th that the ESPN family of networks will not have a college basketball game...and that's not counting any of the other channels that show college basketball (Thursday night, I had 12 different college basketball games available to watch at 7pm). You really have to try to avoid some great college basketball games while the season is going on.

Gthoma2a
11-24-2013, 10:59 AM
First of all, come December, every top 25 game will be televised.

It's just, NCAA Bball opens early in December with a ton of pre-season tourneys (not the case till the mid-2000s), meaning there's now a ton of games featuring top 25 or top mid major teams. During this time, it's the most dramatic time in college football, which does better #s anyhow.

So you have far more bball games than there used to be in the time period in which there are still higher rated sports going around. Do the math.

Maybe I have just been a Duke fan for too long, but a non-top 25 college football game is worthless outside of local views, am I wrong? I just started actually caring about more than Alabama losing so that I wouldn't have to hear the phrase "Roll Tide" used in all sentences from some people(I don't even think they're really Alabama fans). Is Nascar still more popular than the early season tournaments? These are the best things going prior to conference play. Maybe my priorities are just out of place. It just feels weird seeing that Fox Sports has somehow found a slot for "Ultimate Dodgeball", but I have to rely on ESPN 3, Tru TV and HDNet to watch some good games (UNC could very well lose or we will surely win games).

Gthoma2a
11-24-2013, 11:06 AM
I've seen a ton of good games with a ton of top teams thus far. Just about every team in the Top 25 has had a game I could watch on TV. I'd say that college basketball coverage has expanded greatly over the past 2-3 years (and it wasn't lagging before). Also, no one's playing this time of day...it's not even 11am.

There's only 3 days between November 8th and March 8th that the ESPN family of networks will not have a college basketball game...and that's not counting any of the other channels that show college basketball (Thursday night, I had 12 different college basketball games available to watch at 7pm). You really have to try to avoid some great college basketball games while the season is going on.

I was looking at the noon slot. I confused the time with yesterday's time. Still, the TruTV, ESPN 3 and HDNet things throw me off. I don't think Duke or UNC fans (only because I like watching them lose) should have to work that hard to find a game. Their game yesterday, that they could have very well lost was not televised. I have had to find a radio stream because Dish Network for TV/Time Warner (ISP) doesn't give me access to ESPN 3 for our games, too. Even when I find an unauthorized version of their stream, it's a horrible stream.

Anyway, that is my rant.

wilson
11-24-2013, 11:09 AM
I think this also has to do with the steady pushing up of basketball season's start in recent years. Remember how one of the things you used to always look forward to about Thanksgiving was the several-days' feast of the first basketball games of the season? Now, things get cranked up a full three weeks earlier, and the waters (the way I see them) are muddied with some marquee basketball games, a number of early-season mismatches, and college football's stretch run.
It could be also that we're feeling more distracted this year because, for once, that football stretch run really matters for Duke(!!!!!!).
I haven't felt like I couldn't find the good games so far this season. I have always made a point of looking for the matchups I know I want to see anyway. We are definitely searching across a wider array of channels now, since media outlets have so proliferated, but from where I sit, it still looks like there's an awful lot of good basketball for the watching.

Duvall
11-24-2013, 11:11 AM
I don't think you can look at the numerous made-for-tv holiday tournaments and reasonably conclude that the sport is suffering from a lack of exposure. There used to be, like, three.

wilson
11-24-2013, 11:12 AM
I don't think you can look at the numerous made-for-tv holiday tournaments and reasonably conclude that the sport is suffering from a lack of exposure. There used to be, like, three....one of which was played in Alaska, with typical tipoff times of like 12:45 am Eastern.

El_Diablo
11-24-2013, 11:22 AM
I was looking at the noon slot. I confused the time with yesterday's time. Still, the TruTV, ESPN 3 and HDNet things throw me off. I don't think Duke or UNC fans (only because I like watching them lose) should have to work that hard to find a game. Their game yesterday, that they could have very well lost was not televised. I have had to find a radio stream because Dish Network for TV/Time Warner (ISP) doesn't give me access to ESPN 3 for our games, too. Even when I find an unauthorized version of their stream, it's a horrible stream.

Anyway, that is my rant.

Pro tip: For every Duke game, the goduke.com schedule (http://www.goduke.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=4200&SPID=1845&SPSID=22726) lists the television station carrying it, and UNC games are listed in advance here (http://northcarolina.scout.com/3/bbschedule.html). There is absolutely no excuse for a Duke or UNC fan to ever have to work hard to find a game.

Kimist
11-24-2013, 12:29 PM
I was looking at the noon slot. I confused the time with yesterday's time. Still, the TruTV, ESPN 3 and HDNet things throw me off. I don't think Duke or UNC fans (only because I like watching them lose) should have to work that hard to find a game. Their game yesterday, that they could have very well lost was not televised. I have had to find a radio stream because Dish Network for TV/Time Warner (ISP) doesn't give me access to ESPN 3 for our games, too. Even when I find an unauthorized version of their stream, it's a horrible stream.

Anyway, that is my rant.

The Duke/Wake game was on ESPN2, as will be the upcoming unc game. Most cable packets should give you access to that....unless the ESPN gods severely rule things regionally.

Several Duke football games and basketball games of lower national attention have been/are going to be only available on ESPNU, which did require me to shell out another $10/month for the signal.

FWIW: While I don't know the exact "behind the scenes" actions, you should have the ability to visit the ESPN (broadcasts) web site, and then key in relevant information for your cable provider (normally same user name/password for your cable account). That should then allow you online access to whatever you would otherwise already have access to on your television.

As for knowing where games are to be broadcast, as noted earlier the www.goduke.com web site provides excellent (updated and current) schedules for both the basketball team and the football team.

k

budwom
11-24-2013, 12:33 PM
I remember the days when we were lucky to find one or two of our regular season games on TV.
So looking up where are games are to be found on TV seems to be one of the bigger non problems I've ever heard about. It really isn't very hard. Even I can do it.

wilson
11-24-2013, 12:37 PM
I remember the days when we were lucky to find one or two of our regular season games on TV.I don't quite remember those days, but I do remember my parents (finally!) signing us up for cable in the late '80s so we could watch more Duke games. Now I can watch them on the computerized information machine in my pocket.

Indoor66
11-24-2013, 12:40 PM
I remember the days when we were lucky to find one or two of our regular season games on TV.
So looking up where are games are to be found on TV seems to be one of the bigger non problems I've ever heard about. It really isn't very hard. Even I can do it.

How about the ACC Game of the Week. One game on Saturday afternoon. That is it! Sail with the Pilot.

Kimist
11-24-2013, 12:56 PM
How about the ACC Game of the Week. One game on Saturday afternoon. That is it! Sail with the Pilot.

One of the catchier tunes ever to grace the airwaves!

Sail With The Pilot! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4gptzlIGow) should bring back some memories. (And check the comments there!)

And it was also in the era when most college football games (and all of Duke's games) were played on a Saturday afternoon. Hot as Hades (and everyone "dressed up") for the September games, slightly more tolerable (except for those darn splinters) for the late-season games.

k

Indoor66
11-24-2013, 01:10 PM
One of the catchier tunes ever to grace the airwaves!

Sail With The Pilot! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4gptzlIGow) should bring back some memories. (And check the comments there!)

And it was also in the era when most college football games (and all of Duke's games) were played on a Saturday afternoon. Hot as Hades (and everyone "dressed up") for the September games, slightly more tolerable (except for those darn splinters) for the late-season games.

k

Castleman D. Chesney was a visionary (http://www.ncshof.org/2012/03/09/castleman-d-chesley/).

OldPhiKap
11-24-2013, 01:23 PM
How about the ACC Game of the Week. One game on Saturday afternoon. That is it! Sail with the Pilot.

On a related note, I miss Dinah Shore.

And was always impressed that Terry Holland could coach UVa, and run Food Lion at the same time.

77devil
11-24-2013, 02:09 PM
I understand that "anybody can win" ever since mid-majors started coming around, but to allow top 25 games to continuously slip by without being televised, while televising meaningless early season games between teams that are unranked, is ridiculous. I came into today thinking I was going to get to see a bird kill a goat, but I find that Fantasy Football Now is more important to ESPN 2, a show called "Kentucky: Mark Stoops" is on my Fox Sports, and since when should I have to look on TruTV to see Michigan State play last night? This is Nuts. Davidson is on, but Louisville gets skipped over. They may be playing a nobody, but it would have been my first chance to see them kill an NIT team.

Truly a first world problem.

Dukeface88
11-24-2013, 02:31 PM
Truly a first world problem.

I have to be honest, I really dislike the "first world problems" meme. I live in a first world country; all of my problems are first world problems by definition (as I suspect are nearly everyone else's on this board).

OldPhiKap
11-24-2013, 02:41 PM
Truly a first world problem.

Remember when you had to subscribe to the Duke Weekly Report if you lived outside the Triangle, to find out anything about the game beyond the score and maybe a reference to who the top scorer was? I would read about what Cherokee Parks did against Virginia, some ten days after the game was played.

77devil
11-24-2013, 05:58 PM
I have to be honest, I really dislike the "first world problems" meme. I live in a first world country; all of my problems are first world problems by definition (as I suspect are nearly everyone else's on this board).

Suggest a) go live in a non first world country for awhile, and b) consider yourself fortunate.


Remember when you had to subscribe to the Duke Weekly Report if you lived outside the Triangle, to find out anything about the game beyond the score and maybe a reference to who the top scorer was? I would read about what Cherokee Parks did against Virginia, some ten days after the game was played.

There was also the Poop Sheet for the recruiting fix among other things.

throatybeard
11-24-2013, 06:26 PM
Men's college basketball is overexposed, not under-.

There's a reason that ESPN eventually moved the first Duke-UNC game after the Super Bowl. They use it to kick off "college basketball season for non-diehard college basketball fans." Most sports people pay attention for the last three weeks, the conference tournaments, and the NCAAT. Most casual people pay no attention before the NCAAT.

Nobody but us and the Vermont people will be watching our game tonight. Everyone else is watching the late afternoon NFL game in their market, and they don't even care if the game is in their market or not if their team played in the early slot.

Grey Devil
11-25-2013, 08:22 AM
Mods Delete.

Found it. Thought it was at noon for some reason, but still, my complaint remains. This sport used to get major respect. There was none of that ESPN3 nonsense or in other words a blackout.

I graduated from Duke in 1971. For decades i couldn't see any ACC games, let alone Duke games, on TV, nor could I read box scores in the local newspaper, because I didn't live in the ACC market area. (Yes, newspapers were about our sole means of learning about the sports world then.) Now, not only can I see virtually every Duke basketball game through the wonders of technology (and also record them for later playback via my DVR for deeper analysis), even though I live thousands of miles away from Durham, I can go online and complain about it to hundreds or thousands(?) of fellow fans via the DBR when I can't see it live.

Some folks just don't know how good they've got it. Or how bad it once was.

(Don't take this the wrong way. I, too, am frustrated when I can't see every single game live on my huge flat screen TV with my audio system cranked way up to get the full effect of being in Cameron. :cool: I just think a dose of humility can be healthy now and then.)

loran16
11-25-2013, 09:37 AM
Maybe I have just been a Duke fan for too long, but a non-top 25 college football game is worthless outside of local views, am I wrong? I just started actually caring about more than Alabama losing so that I wouldn't have to hear the phrase "Roll Tide" used in all sentences from some people(I don't even think they're really Alabama fans). Is Nascar still more popular than the early season tournaments? These are the best things going prior to conference play. Maybe my priorities are just out of place. It just feels weird seeing that Fox Sports has somehow found a slot for "Ultimate Dodgeball", but I have to rely on ESPN 3, Tru TV and HDNet to watch some good games (UNC could very well lose or we will surely win games).

PS Sadly this is not true. College football games between non-t25 teams, such as say MACtion on Tuesday nights gets better ratings than even good hoops games.

Hell, the belk bowl did ratings better than I think all but two Duke regular season bball games last year.

Cameron
11-25-2013, 06:22 PM
...one of which was played in Alaska, with typical tipoff times of like 12:45 am Eastern.

The good old days. The Great Alaska Shootout was by far my favorite early-season tournament growing up because it meant that, when Duke played in it, I got to stay up practically all night to watch basketball. For a period of time, it was one of the better early-season tournaments period, regularly featuring the defending national champion and many of the game's most storied programs.

I get why the tournament lost its luster over the years -- who wants to go play a tournament at the North Pole when there are so many high-profile events being held today on tropical islands and other exotic locales -- but thinking about its heyday does make me nostalgic and I wish it was still as big as it once was.