ESPN Gameday in Athens for the Bama Game?

Last week, Quentin Grant of DawgPost.com wrote an article called "Road Trip 2008." In the article he pondered, "if travel and money weren't an issue" what games would you attend across the country next year. He wrote:

Week 5 – September 27, 2008
Alabama vs. Georgia at Sanford Stadium

There isn’t a lot to choose from on this weekend, so I’m going with the best game in the best conference which is Alabama/Georgia. If Nick Saban can bring the Tide into week five without a loss and Mark Richt’s Dawgs are also undefeated, then you could get something magical. (Emphasis added).

That got me thinking. My original half-assed predictions for the first few weeks of ESPN Gameday sites had Corso, Fowler and the Pro-Big 10 Douche Herbie in Nebraska for the Virginia Tech game. I based that on the theory that they would take an ABC game over a CBS game.

As we know now, ESPN used a priority pick to take the Alabama at Georgia game. They haven't announced an official time for our game, and I guess it could still end up as ESPN2 at 6:00 pm if UGA and Bama both wet the bed leading into the game. But more than likely this game is kicking off on ESPN's flagship time slot of roughly 7:45 pm.

The only other quality games nationally that weekend are:

• Virginia Tech at Nebraska - VT is starting the season off around 17th to 20th, and Nebraska is likely unranked. VT and Nebraska should both be undefeated at that point, and both ranked around 14th-25th.
  
  
• Tennessee at Auburn - This should be an excellent game, but it'll be on CBS. ESPN tends to prefer to promote its own network.
  
  
• Illinois at Penn State - Illinois will start the season around 18th-21st, and Penn State will start the season somewhere around 23rd-unranked. If Illinois can get past Missouri in Week 1, they'll enter the PSU game undefeated. Penn State's only "challenge" before this is a home game against Oregon State. If both are undefeated, it's probably #14 or so vs. #20. This is also likely the ABC Primetime Game.
  
  
• Colorado at Florida State (Jacksonville) - It's unlikely that this game will have much national sizzle given that both could have losses before this one rolls around.
  
  
• Wisconsin at Michigan - ESPN loves 'em some Big 10, but this won't exactly be an anticipated game nationally given Michigan's rebuilding this year. Even if they beat Utah and Notre Dame, it's still an off the radar game for the most part.
  
  
• Alabama at Georgia - It's really up to Georgia. If we take care of business in Columbia and Tempe, I'd say this is a near lock. Personally, I think Bama splits the Arkansas and Clemson games, and we face them with the Gameday crew watching from the sideline. Even if Georgia drops a game to ASU or SC, we're still a Top 10 team playing on ESPN's prime spot.

The only negative working against Georgia for the Alabama weekend could be the back-to-back issue. Gameday is a near 100% lock to be in Tempe the week before. However, they last two years, they've had two cases each seasons in which they televised the same team back to back home and away.


Now, whether or not you want them here is another issue. I'm just saying...I think they're coming.

As for the comment Fowler made *roughly 9 years ago* about our frat boys being over served and over dressed, I don't think that matters. There has only been one game since their last appearance in 1998 in which they should've been in Athens and choose to go elsewhere. That was the 2007 Auburn game in which the show chose to be in Williamstown, Mass. The Gameday Crew all but apologized on air for not being in Athens.

So what do you think? Do you care? Do you want them here? Do you think they are coming?

PWD

"Uga and His Family" documentary on CSS television - July 12

Date: July 12
Time: 7:00PM til 8:00PM
Where: CSS Television

This special documentary produced by Southern Outdoor Productions will follow the UGA vs. BAMA ‘07 game telecast on CSS television.

As originally written up by Chip Towers on AJC.com (May '08):

“Uga and His Family” was shot by Jeffries Eldridge and Jeff Corley of Valdosta, who followed Uga VI through last season. They start with Picture Day last August, reveal where Uga lives at the home of Sonny and Cecelia Seiler in Savannah and follow him on his journey to Athens for a game-day weekend.

“We kind of do a brief history of the mascots and then show what Uga goes through during a typical season,” said Eldridge, whose company S.O. Productions normally shoots outdoor sports features for television. “It’s really sort of a tribute to the Seilers and a behind-the-scenes look to all the work that goes getting Uga to and from games.”

I believe that they updated the documentary to include information about Uga VI's passing.

PWD

TV News: Contracts and Scheduling

Speaking of non-conference games (Image: Hipple)
Josh Kendall of the Macon Telegraph has a couple of articles of interest. The first discusses the SEC's TV contract talks and the role that TV plays in scheduling games.

You Talk a Lot for an Irrelevant Program
I think it's laughable for Bill Curry to act indignant about the role that TV plays in scheduling. (Note: I don't know that he has another emotion beyond indignation and self-righteous condescension, but that's a topic for another post) The reason I think Curry's blustering is silly is simple. The most proven, modern model for rapidly growing a football program (particularly in a more "urban" setting") is by embracing non-traditional TV start times...and winning (obviously).

Emerging programs have to gain exposure somehow and competing for eyeballs and ticket dollars on Saturday is a tough swim up stream. Louisville, South Florida, Boise State (although obviously not as metropolitan), Rutgers, etc. have all heavily leveraged Thursday, Friday and Sunday games to grow the program. Many of those games would've otherwise been ignored.

Not Always a Bad Thing
The networks were traditionally big drivers in helping arrange marquee inter-regional match-ups like great Alabama vs. Penn State series in the 70s and 80s. Today, they help create home and home series like UGA vs. Ok State or Auburn vs. Kansas State. They aren't always a force of evil. They can create better games if teams will work with them.

In hoops, I know basketball programs work the phones heavily with all the networks in hopes of helping facilitate the scheduling of non-conference games. It's simple

Coach A: "Will you play us?"
Coach B: "No."
Coach A: "Will you play us if I line up a TV partner?"
Coach B: "Well, that's different.".

Going Forward
If I'm CBS and ESPN, I would be willing to go much deeper into my pocket financially for the new SEC TV deal if the SEC would commit to more competitive non-conference scheduling. Imagine a scenario where every SEC program commits to scheduling an average of 1.3-1.5 BCS non-conference teams per year for the next XX years.

That would force schools like Arkansas, Mississippi State and LSU into stepping up and broadening the TV inventory for the betterment of the league. It's outrageous that you have schools like UGA now scheduling 2-3 non-conference BCS teams per year for the next 10+ years while Arkansas (last year) and LSU (this year) have years where they don't play *any* non-conference peer schools.

If the SEC did that deal, there's no reason that ABC couldn't use the same philosophy in renegotiating with the Big East, Big 12, Big 10, etc. All for the betterment of college football, fan interest and yes....TV ratings.

The real problem with college football isn't the lack of a playoff. The real problem is the exceptionally high inventory of non-competitive games across the board. This problem is caused by:

1. Too many Div I-A programs
2. BCS teams scheduling 1-2 Div I-AA teams per year
3. Too few BCS vs. BCS match-ups

How can you truly know which teams are best if the best don't play each other?

PWD

Georgia Southern vs. UGA Game Time Finalized

Image: Georgiadogs.com
The GSU game will kickoff at 12:30 EST, and it will be televised via Pay Per View. No details on the PPV front yet. If I had my way, no games would kickoff before 2:00 pm. However, I understand that different segments of the fan base have different needs.

If I'm getting CMU, Alabama (night), Tennessee and Georgia Tech all at 3:30 or later, then I can roll with an earlier start for the GSU and potentially Vandy games.

BTW -- In case you missed it, GSU Coach Chris Hatcher "expects to beat Georgia." Bless his heart. Later in the season, he and Linus will wait through the night in an open field for The Great Pumpkin. Both weekends will end in disappointment for him.

PWD

Georgia vs. Central Michigan Kickoff Time Announced

Image: Georgiadogs.com
According to the Athens Banner Herald:

FSN South will air the Sept. 6 home game against Central Michigan at 3:30 p.m, FSN South spokesperson Shannon Alderman said. The game will be shown in high definition.

Home Game Start Times for 2008:

Georgia Southern - 1:00 pm (estimated)
Central Michigan - 3:30 pm on FSN
Alabama - ESPN Night Game
Tennessee -- 3:30 pm on CBS (estimated)
Vandy -- 12:30 pm on Raycom (estimated)
Georgia Tech -- 3:30 pm on CBS (estimated)

If you're serious about tailgating, this is about as good as it gets. If the GSU game doesn't get picked up by FSN, I think it moves to pay-per-view with a 1:00 pm kickoff.

See Also:
-- Details on Coverage - georgiadogs.com


PWD

Damn

LSU vs. UNC postponed due to rain. They'll play tomorrow at 7 pm EDT. Georgia vs. Stanford pushed back to Saturday at 2:00 pm. Per the NCAA:

IMPORTANT SCHEDULE CHANGE

Game 10 (North Carolina vs LSU) has been postponed due to weather and will be played Friday night at 6pm. It will restart where it left off. There will now only be ONE game on Friday.

Games 11 and 12 have been moved to Saturday at 2pm and 7pm. (EDT)

If games 13 or 14 are necessary, they will be played on Sunday.

The main event Mon-Wed won't be moved...barring more weather problems.

The entire thing is a giant, hot turd on my plans in Omaha. Damn you Jim Cantore!

Update: On the bright side...the last time mother nature intervened in a major tournament in a game directly before the Dawgs next game...it turned out ok. If only this meant that we got to play the CWS Title game at Tech.

PWD

UGA on the Travel Channel Tonight

The Travel Channel has a new show called, "Lawrence of America." The University of Georgia campus, football team and cheerleaders will be featured tonight. The Travel Channel PR person said the show is quite funny. We'll see. I think it looks kinda hokey. But it's Dawg related, and they emailed me. So what the hell...I'll dvr it.

The show will air on Tuesday, June 17th at 11pm EST.

Lawrence will also be posting about the experience right after the show on his blog. Basically, the show looks like it's about a Brit experiencing American Culture. If they got Jeff from BBC's "Coupling" to do the tour, I think it would be infinitely better. Sadly, I'm guessing that none of my readers are going to get that comment.

PWD

UGA vs. South Carolina Kickoff Confirmed

The last trip to Columbia turned out pretty good. Image: DawgPost.com
As expected, the SEC announced today that CBS will carry the Georgia Bulldogs vs. South Carolina Gamecocks game at 3:30 pm EST. Georgia is 33-22-1 in CBS games.

Actually, the SEC announced their full TV slate for the first three weeks. As many of you know, TV contracts are driven by the home team's contract. Several SEC teams are hitting the road in the first few weeks and providing the networks with additional programming options. All told, there will be 16 games televised across six networks during those first three weeks.

CBS (1 game) - Coverage starts in Week 3
ABC (3 games)
ESPN (6 games)
ESPN2 (4 games)
ESPNU (1)
Raycom (3 games)

With all the ESPN, ESPN2 and Raycom spots locked up for the first three weeks, the only way our games against Georgia Southern and Central Michigan would be televised are (a.) Pay Per View or (b.) the rumored Fox Sports South mini-contract. If those two games aren't televised, you have to expect that they will be a 1:00 pm start. I'm still holding out hope for at least one of them to be a 3:00 pm kickoff.

See Also:
-- CBS College Football Theme


PWD

SEC Week 1 TV Schedule Almost Finalized

Several kickoff times have been confirmed by the SEC. At the SEC meetings in Destin, they announced that Raycom Sports would be televising (all times are 12:30 pm EST):

Week 1: Hawaii at Florida
Week 2: Southern Miss at Auburn
Week 3: UAB at Tennessee

That Hawaii game will kickoff at 6:30 am Hawaii time. Ouch. I'm a little surprised that the Hawaii/UF game didn't find its way to ESPN2. However, ESPN picked up seven Big 12 games this season, and I guess the Illinois at Missouri (in St. Louis) match-up is one of those games.

The appeal of the Big 12 North Champs vs. the Rose Bowl Runner-Up outweighed the Heisman Show in Gainesville. Either that or the Disney Family of Networks was uncomfortable televising a match-up of Tebow vs. Pacific Islanders. The last one ended up with blood everywhere.

Week 1 SEC kickoff times EST (ht - LSUfootball.net *)

Aug 28th (Thurs):
Vanderbilt at Miami-Ohio -- 7:30 pm (ESPNU)
NC State at South Carolina -- 8:00 pm (ESPN)

Aug. 30th (Sat.)
Hawaii at Florida -- 12:30 pm (Raycom)
Mississippi State at Louisiana Tech -- 7:00 pm (ESPN or ESPN2)**
Alabama vs. Clemson (ABC or ESPN) -- 8:00 pm (ABC or ESPN)

Appy State at LSU -- 8:00 pm (Tentative. FSS still possible)
GSU at UGA -- 1:00 pm (Tentative. FSS still possible)
Memphis at Ole Miss - TBD***
W. Illinois at Arkansas - TBD
UL-La. at Auburn - 7:00 pm

Aug. 31st (Sunday)
Kentucky at Louisville -- 3:30 pm (ESPN2)

Sept. 1st (Monday)
Tennessee at UCLA -- 8:00 pm (ESPN)

That's what we know for now.

PWD


*All LSUfootball.net times are listed CST.

** MSU at LaTech is on the WAC TV contract

***Jim Cornett lost interest in televising the Memphis/Ole Miss game after Orgeron got fired. Cornett's Mid-South Network was looking to hire Tony Schiavone to do play by play for it, but that all fell apart after Jerry Lawler made a big stink about who owned the Memphis circuit. Or not.

ESPN confirms plans to televise Georgia vs. Alabama

More TV / kickoff time news from the SEC Meetings in Destin.

• Night Game News -- ESPN confirmed to the Athens-Banner Herald that they have used a priority selection to pick the Alabama Crimson Tide vs. the Georgia Bulldogs game in Athens on Sept. 27th (scroll down to bottom of ABH page for info). They have not announced a kickoff time yet. This is something that the Chattanooga Free Press mentioned as a likely scenario last month. I would expect a 7:45 pm kickoff time. Why? Because ESPN doesn't usually televise SEC games before 5:45 pm, and they aren't wasting a priority pick on a start that early. (ht - jimfromduluth)
  
  For my tailgate crew, this would mean a return of Football Armageddon. That's the name for last year's Auburn tailgate extravaganza...a tailgate so over the top that small children sing songs about it, and elderly men write poems about its bourbon fueled awesomeness.
  
  
• Raycom Gets Modern TV Equipment -- Only one day removed from mocking the primitive technology of Raycom (formerly LF Sports), we learn that "All SEC football games and most basketball games on Raycom will be available on HD, according to Jimmy Rayburn, Raycom's vice president of operations." (Same ABH article as above) I hope HD stands for High Definition and not some reference to Hiring Daves. They've got plenty of Dave's already.

See Also:
-- RIP J.P. Sports - Dawgnoxious (2006)
-- SEC TV Network Discussions - GSB (2007 view of the story)

PWD

TV Rumor: FSS to pick up 2 SEC games in September

TV rumor yesterday (ht - ScenicCityDawg) was that FSS had agreed to televise two non-conference SEC home games in September this year. (which I assume includes the Aug. 30th opening week). Dean Legge of DawgPost.com confirmed the rumor on The Porch message board.

The eligible games of interest (meaning games not already projected for TV include:

Week 1:
Georgia Southern at UGA
-- The last UGA vs GSU game in 2004 was televised on FSN at 3:00.

Week 2:
Tulane at Alabama
Southern Miss at Auburn
Central Michigan at Georgia
-- One of these games will be Raycom Sports (formerly LF Sports) and the other will be FSS. I'd guess that we'll be on LF Sports, and S. Miss at Auburn will be on FSS.

Week 3:
UAB at Tennessee

Week 4:
No realistic options

Week 5:
UAB at South Carolina

If I'm FSS, I take a game in Week 2 with my first choice. Then I decide between GSU vs. Top 4 UGA in Week 1 or UAB at Tennessee in Week 3. UAB/UT should be a better game, but the Vols may not be undefeated by Week 3 following their season opener at UCLA.

The UT at UCLA game is no gimme. To the best of my knowledge....no SEC team has won at a Pac 10 stadium since 1997.

2007 - UT at Cal - L
2006 - ARK at USC - L
2003 - AU at USC - L
2002 - MSU at Oregon - L
1999 - Bama at UCLA - L
1997 - UT at UCLA - W I'm an idiot. Thanks Tom. I knew that didn't look right.

PWD

SEC TV Contracts top Discussion in Destin

The SEC athletic directors and high profile coaches are in Destin for their annual meetings this week. One of the top items for discussion is the ongoing negotiations between the SEC and its TV Partners (CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, LF Sports/Raycom, Fox Sports South, etc.)

Among the more interesting issues would be the formation of an SEC TV network similar to the Big 10 Network. This will be an interesting topic to watch over the coming days.

Personally, I think we should ditch RayCom and have MTV broadcast the 12:30 pm games with Rob and Big as the play by play crew. The coverage couldn't get any worse as MTV has to own working cameras from the 21st century, and the commentary comedy would go way up vs. what the Daves currently give us.

Do work.

See Also:
-- Future TV Contracts top discussion items - AL.com
-- Will SEC get into TV business - Knoxville News
-- The SEC should be tough - Get the Picture
-- Slive hopes to work with NBA on rules - Shreveport Times

PWD

Georgia to host Baseball Regional

The NCAA announced the 16 regional hosts for the baseball tournament tonight, and Athens was named a host city. The host sites are:

Athens, Ga./Georgia (35-21-1)
Ann Arbor, Mich./Michigan (45-12)
Baton Rouge, La./LSU (43-16-1)
Cary, N.C./UNC (46-12)
College Station, Texas/Texas A&M (43-16)
Conway, S.C./Coastal Carolina (47-12)
Coral Gables, Fla./Miami (47-8)
Fullerton, Calif./Cal State Fullerton (37-18)
Houston/Rice (42-13)
Lincoln, Neb./ Nebraska (40-14-1)
Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach State (36-19)
Raleigh, N.C./NC State (38-20)
Stanford, Calif./Stanford (33-20-2)
Stillwater, Okla./Oklahoma State (42-16)
Tallahassee, Fla./Florida State (48-10)
Tempe, Ariz./Arizona State (45-11)

As Baseball America pointed out, the committee did a nice job of breaking things up geographically. The geographic distribution suggest that Georgia Tech will also likely begin (and hopefully end) their post-season in Athens.

Because Perno's Bulldogs lost 4 of their final 5 games, it's unlikely that Athens will get a Top 8 national seed. That doesn't mean we can't host a Super Regional, it just makes it less likely.

The pairings and full bracket will be announced tomorrow at 12:30 pm on ESPN.

See Also:
-- Dawgs host regional - DawgSports

PWD

ESPN College Gameday Predictions

Last year, I put together an in-depth look at week by week predictions for where ESPN College Gameday may broadcast during football season. My predictions didn't fair so well early on; although, the tragedy at Virginia Tech did cause the first three weeks to get shuffled around. Had that not happened, I think my batting percentage would've been much higher.

I'm not planning to do an in depth series this year because (A) I'm not sure I care enough and (B) It took too long. However, here's my poorly researched shot at where I think College Gameday will broadcast over the first half of the season. (This was prompted by Barnhart's article on Monday in the AJC that mentioned this topic).

Predictions:

Week 1: Alabama vs. Clemson (ESPN/ABC)

Week 2: Miami at Florida (ESPN)

Week 3: Ohio State at Southern Cal (ABC)

Week 4: UGA at Arizona State (ABC) - I called this one last November.

Week 5: VT at Nebraska (ABC) Outside shot of Bama at UGA if the Tide and Dawgs are undefeated at this point, and the game ends up as a night ESPN telecast.

Week 6: Ohio State at Wisconsin or FSU vs. Miami

Week 7: LSU at UF (last two defending national champs face off)

If LSU and Florida are both struggling, I could see UGA vs. Tennessee getting consideration in Week 7. But I doubt it. I think we're more likely to run into Fowler and Herbie on the road in places like Tempe, Jacksonville and Baton Rouge than we are at home.

See Also:
-- ESPN College Gameday Past Locations - Wikipedia

PWD

Arizona State TV Time Set

The Arizona State game will kick off at 8:00 PM Eastern on ABC. The 6 5:00 PM local time start should allow plenty of tailgating. That is, if the Arizona State authorities will allow tailgating before 2:30 PM, which university policy prohibits.

If you're making the trip, you have to be pleased with the early evening kick off.

UPDATE: As commenter "cwl" reminded me, the entire Arizona State cheerleading squad was scrapped this week. The Dirty posted photos of six cheerleaders in their underwear. Frankly, they're not that great or that scandalous. What's the deal ASU? Banning your cheerleaders because they took some pictures at a slumber party? No liquor, at all? No beer or wine until three and a half hours before the game? I thought we lived in the Bible Belt, not you.

If the rumors are true, we won't care if there are cheerleaders because every coed is supposedly smoking hot at ASU, and not because its 120 degrees outside.

Quinton

(Thanks to the time experts in the comments section. Arizona apparently toggles their time zones and in the half of the year that includes September they prefer Pacific Standard time, as opposed to Mountain Standard for the other half of the year.)

Herschel Walker to Reveal More Personality Disorder Details Tonight on Nightline

ESPN is reporting that Herschel Walker will appear on ABC Nightline tonight at approximately 11:35 pm to discuss the details of his multiple personality disorder within the context of his book "Breaking Free."

Update: Video from Nightline web site. It's a 4 page article. More video here.

The ESPN article reveals some horrifying stuff about attempted suicide and other violent behavior. From Herschel:

After his retirement from football in 1997, Walker said the disorder began to overwhelm him. At one point, while sitting in his kitchen, he said he played Russian roulette with a loaded pistol.

"To challenge death like I was doing, you start saying, there's a problem here," Walker told Woodruff.

From his ex-wife

Walker and his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, were married for 16 years before she knew about his illness, she said.

"Well, now it makes perfect sense, because each personality has a different interest," Grossman told "Nightline". "This one has an interest in ballet, this one has an interest in the Marines, this one had an interest [in the] FBI, this one had an interest in sports.

"There was also a very sweet, lovable [personality]. That's the one he told me I married. He told me I didn't marry Herschel," said Grossman, who later in the interview recalled a conversation with Walker, "and the next thing I knew, he just kind of raged and he got a gun and put it to my temple."

It isn't news that Herschel says he has/had a personality disorder. We've known about the book and this "revelation" for a few months. I had privately blown this off as a B.S. attempt to sell books. That's the primary reason that I haven't promoted any of his book signings...despite multiple emails asking me to do so by various book stores and publicity types.

I mean if your dad, ex-football coach and everyone that knows you says they lack any knowledge of your problem, then is it really...real? Far be it for me to criticize a UGA legend if he's trying to make a buck. So I said nothing about the book on this site.

But to hear him talk about suicide attempts and to see his ex-wife vouch for his behavior...it makes it more real. And it makes it Must See TV for me tonight.

PWD

CBS leaks info on Dawg kickoff times

Night Games = Supply Run (Image: businessweek)
David Paschall of the Chattanooga Times Free Press interviewed Mike Aresco, CBS's senior vice president of programming. Among his other responsibilities, Aresco apparently decides what games will air each week on CBS as part of their SEC coverage.

Everything is still described as "speculative" at this point, but he points to ESPN having Alabama at Georgia as one of ESPN's priority picks.

A night home game against the Tide = Awesome Tailgate

The article also lists the UT game as a possible evening kickoff on CBS due to their double header schedule. As Iron Chef Turducken just pointed out to me, Mike Adams would likely lobby for the UGA vs. UT game to be played at 3:30 pm in order to avoid back to back night games in Athens. Regardless, it's an option on the table.

Based on the article and our previous discussions with the schedule, our TV / kickoff time schedule could very well look like this (home games in bold):

-- Georgia Southern - 1:00 PM (PPV)
-- Central Michigan - 12:30 pm (Raycom*)
-- at South Carolina - 3:30 pm (CBS) - Per article linked above
-- at Arizona State -- 8:00 pm (ABC)
-- Alabama - 7:45 pm (ESPN) - ESPN has priority pick
-- Tennessee - 3:30 (CBS) - Double header CBS weekend
-- Vanderbilt - 12:30 (RayCom)
-- at LSU - 3:30 (CBS) - Per article linked above
-- vs. UF - 3:30 (CBS) - Per article linked above
-- at UK - 12:30 (RayCom) - Best Guess
-- at Auburn - 3:30 (CBS) - Per article linked above
-- Georgia Tech - 3:30 (CBS) - Per article linked above

According to Paschall, the Dawgs were on CBS 18 times in three years from 2002-2004. However, the College Bulldog Station (CBS) down shifted their coverage of the Dawgs in 2006 (two appearances) and 2007 (three appearances) in recent years.

It's a great read.

PWD

(Ht - korndawg79)

*formerly known as LF Sports.

Central Michigan vs. UGA: Kickoff Time?

Trying to guess kickoff times this early in the season is a mix of science, research and guesswork. The earlier in the season a game is, the less guess work and more science. Our old buddies TeddyBulldog and JimFromDuluth gave us a heads up that the Tennessee Vols at UCLA Bruins football game has been moved from Sept. 6th to Labor Day.

The UCLA/UT game is covered under the Pac-10's contract so normally it wouldn't impact UGA much. However, it might put us one more step closer to confirming that UGA will play Central Michigan on Sept. 6th at 12:30 pm on LF Sports. (It's a long convoluted reason involving ESPN/ABC and their Pac-10 deal).

It's not official yet. If I'm wrong, I'm only off by 30 minutes and it's a non-televised thing. Keep in mind that there are no CBS games in Weeks 1-2 because of tennis coverage. ESPN is also getting two SEC games that week because of a Thursday night contest involving SC/Vandy. So the world wide leader will likely only take one game on Sept. 6th.

Other SEC games that week:

• Tulane at Alabama - less attractive than UGA game
  
• UL-Monroe at Arkansas
  
• Southern Miss at Auburn - less attractive match-up
  
• Miami at Florida - Likely
  
• Central Michigan at UGA - Top 3 Georgia vs. the MAC champ
  
• Norfolk State at Kentucky - UK is playing railroad workers?
  
• Troy at LSU - less attractive than UGA game
  
• SE-Louisiana at Mississippi State
  
• Ole Miss at Wake Forest - ACC TV Package so no impact on us
  
• South Carolina at Vandy - Thursday Night on ESPN
  
• Tennessee - Idle

Oh well...there's always the breakfast tailgate.

PWD

CBS = WTF?

I'd love to understand why the hell this game isn't being broadcast in Atlanta in glorious HD. I'm watching on normal CBS. If you're TIVO/DVRing this thing, I hope you recorded regular CBS. If you recorded the HD channel, you're totally hosed.

It was the Kansas game earlier. I mean really. Has anyone looked at a map lately? We're no where near Kansas.

Anyway -- back to the TV.

Georgia vs. Xavier TV Coverage Map for 2008 NCAA Tournament First Round Games

The above TV coverage map shows the basic over the air broadcast coverage for the Georgia Bulldogs vs. Xavier WhateverTheirMascotIsBecauseIHonestlyHaven'tLookedItUpYet game (click to enlarge).

Roughly 25 percent of the country will see the game as part of their normal telecast. I'm not sure how PPV or Internet coverage works, but normally you can hit a bar in any market and see just about any game.

Most of the SEC states (excluding the Miami market) and the Ohio Valley will get our game. However, if you are a Washington DC area Dawg fan, you need to either get your butt to the Verizon Center or a bar because the game is blacked out in your area.

For a full TV coverage map of all games, check out CollegeHoopsNet.

Also -- According to the Verizon Center's web site, the winner of the UGA/Xavier game will play the winner of Purdue/Baylor in the second game on Saturday at the Washington DC regional site.

The first game starts at 2:10 pm, and our game (assuming we win) will begin 30 minutes after.

In other words, we should tipoff on Saturday (assuming no Acts of God or unlikely defeat of our juggernaut of awesomeness) at roughly 4:45-5:00 PM.


PWD

ht - ugasports.com's hoops board (aka - the happiest message board on the planet)