Cal gets ZERO games picked up by FSN
(Written by kencraw)
I’m a bit surprised by this, but FSN/Versus got their first stab at picking Pac-10 games for 2009 and chose to only make 7 of their 18 possible selections, leaving 11 more as “12 or 6-day selections”. That’s a bit higher than usual. I don’t know the exact numbers but I would have expected 10-12 games to be selected leaving just over a handful for the 12 day selections. The Bears got none of those picks 7 picks although I suspect they’ll get more than a couple of the 12 day selections.
As of right now, there’s only one game that couldn’t be on either FSN, ESPN or ABC, the Eastern Washington game. There’s no 12 day selections for that week and lets be honest, even if there was it wouldn’t be picked up by FSN. Look for the athletic office to be getting that game on Comcast Sports California (not Bay Area). FSN effectively did us a favor for not leaving a 12 day selection for that day because negotiations for CSN California to pick it up would have to wait for the 12 day pick before the ink could be signed.
The other game that’s a bit of a question mark is the Minnesota game. It won’t be on ABC or ESPN, but may be on the Big-10 network. It’s yet to be seen whether FSN or Comcast sports could buy the rights to that feed or perhaps whether they could go out and get dueling coverage. Whatever would happen, it wouldn’t fall under the Pac-10 contract because that’s only for Pac-10 home games. My gut says this game will be on TV somehow.
All the rest of the games are either picked up or candidates for FSN, ESPN or ABC to pick up as 12 day selections. I suspect that the athletic department will also be lining up CSN California to pick up any games that fall through the 12 day selections.
Here is where you can see the full TV schedule as it stands.
June 14th, 2009 at 10:08 am
I’m a bit surprised that no one has picked up the Minnesota game yet. Not that it affects me, because I’ll be in attendance, but it seems like a game that *should* be on TV (if memory serves me, the last Cal-Minnesota game ended up on TBS for some reason) — Minnesota returns a lot of players, and some people have picked them to be a sleeper Top 25 team this year.
June 14th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Me too. I guess it’s on a pretty packed non-conference weekend though, or so I’ve heard through the grapevine.
I think you’re right that the last Minnesota game was on TBS. TBS was replaced by Versus as the “secondary” provider that is part of the FSN Pac-10 contract a couple (few?) years back. Why FSN sells a handful of their games to another station is a bit of a mystery to me, although it’s obvious that they really like doing it as after TBS decided to bow out FSN cared enough to sign up Versus instead, but I do know that’s how it contractually works out (FSN has rights and sells to secondary station).
I also remember that the first year of both TBS and Versus were technical glitch laden. Remember that Cal game where they couldn’t output video for about 20 minutes and so we got audio only for about 10 and then 10 straight minutes of comercials while they rebooted everything? If memory serves that was Versus’s first year if not their very first game. (Or was that CSN California’s (then CSN West but not to be confused with FSN/CSN Bay Area) first year?)
June 26th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Cal vs. Minnesota will be broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2. Now I just have to deal with getting out of bed at 9 in the morning.
http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/062409aaa.html