With the NBA beginning its new set of media rights deals next month, ESPN is seeing opportunity in some of the changes.
One major change to ESPN’s schedule comes on Friday nights in October and November. Under the old NBA deals, ESPN would regularly schedule some Friday night games during those months. That won’t be the case under the new agreements, with Friday nights now belonging to Amazon’s Prime Video early in the season before transitioning to ESPN later on.
For ESPN, that opens up the schedule for college football. The network has regularly scheduled Friday night games for years, typically featuring ACC or Big 12 schools. The issue is that it wasn’t an every week affair given its NBA obligations. That has changed this season. Friday night college football has become a point of emphasis.
“We felt like we could be way more consistent [on Fridays] from a college football perspective and really worked with the ACC and Big 12 at the beginning of their scheduling process to really embrace that with us and, at least on paper, we think the matchups sort of reflect that as we go throughout the season here,” Nick Dawson, ESPN’s SVP of college sports programming and acquisitions told Sports Business Journal.
That strategic scheduling becomes apparent with one glance at the Friday night games scheduled for ESPN in October and November. October 17 features a doubleheader starting with Louisville-Miami, two of the ACC’s top draws, followed by Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team taking on Cal. The next week, Cal travels to Virginia Tech, a venue that always presents well in television on primetime. Then on Halloween, ESPN features Belichick and the Tar Heels again as they travel to Syracuse. Two weeks later, ESPN’s Friday night game is Clemson-Louisville. Then Florida State takes on NC State the following week.
As far as ACC matchups go, these are no slouches. Each of the conference’s biggest brands are featured at least once, and there’s a consistency to the schedule that wasn’t there when the network was airing NBA games.
Friday has become an increasingly important college football night across networks. Fox has regularly used the window for Big Ten and Big 12 games since it moved on from WWE Smackdown last year. ESPN2, FS1, and CBSSN also regularly air college football on Friday nights.
It makes sense. Friday night is one of the few windows still unsullied by NFL programming. Before the NFL’s Thursday Night Football became a prominent package, Thursdays were typically a night reserved for college ball. And while there are still college games played on Thursdays, the bigger games are transitioning to Friday, where they can air without NFL competition.
ESPN is hoping the more consistent schedule can help establish Fridays as a premier night for college football.