I get that ‘Bama is the elephant in the room right now – see what I did there? – but does anybody else find CBS’ broadcast choice for October 13 a little strange? I mean, unless Uncle Verne has some sort of lengthy and riveting travelogue about Columbia up his sleeve to entertain us, it’s hard to see how that game is more compelling than South Carolina – LSU, particularly if both of those teams win this week.
Not that I’m complaining. I’d much prefer to have the Tigers playing host in a night game. But I am puzzled by the pick.
Get The Picture 
It’s entirely possible I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I thought that the league’s contracts give ESPN the first selection on one or two Saturdays a year
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I thought this as well. My understanding was this was part of the deal from last year allowing CBS to carry two games.
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Good that means the chickens will have to play LSU at night
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I think the panel is stumped…
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Maybe CBS is wanting a Georgia/Alabama SECCG
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Maybe CBS thinks the cluckers will be undefeated, thus making it a dream matchup.
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Now that didn’t make a bit of sense. Coffee needed. I was thinking CBS picked the cluckers and tigers….Give me an “F” on my reading comprehension before caffine.
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Ugly, you actually got it right. Bama has an off week so they will be undefeated.
I saw your typo on “cl”uckers. A little more caffiene and your “f” would have been in the right place.
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I suspect CBS is under orders contractual or otherwise to be sure it works the new conference teams as much as possible this year.
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You are correct. That’s why they joined them to the SEC.
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Possibly CBS sees the Missouri, Alabama game appealing to a large
“extra-regional” audience as oppossed to a very regionalized matchup with LSU, SC. St. Louis and Kansas City markets are big.
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It is all about the MONEY HONEY.
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It’s all about the ratings. B’ham consistently ranks very high in viewership for college games. Add to that, this is Missou’s first time up against them and bringing in the St. Louis and Kansas City markets and there you go. Ask yourself this, which game brings more eyes to the set? Alabama vs Missou or SC vs LSU? Look at our game this week, and look who got picked. More eyes for UF vs LSU or UGA vs SC? SC is still a small market team. They will get more night games and fewer 330 games as a result.
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This, and the fact that CBS behind closed doors may be predicting UGA & Uf wins this week making LSU v USCe less attractive.
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If that is true it will certainly be a statement about the football brain trust at CBS…or not.
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Isn’t that the beauty of all this. You never know til it’ over. And as we all know, “Any given Saturday….”
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Wrong … ESPN used its wildcard this week on UGA/SC. They wanted a Top 10 night match up for their flagship vs the less than stellar games in the Pac-12 & Big 10. ESPN had targeted the game for Gameday 3 weeks ago.
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I don’t completely agree here. Viewers will basically tune in for the best game and will stay glued to their sets for a competitive one regardless of which teams are involved. B’ham may like watching the second half of Bama rolling up points on Mizzou, but those KC and St. Louis markets will tune out.
Columbia and South Carolina may be small market, but they’ve got Spurrier who is a national brand. It sorta makes up for it.
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I think this was ESPN’s 2nd “priority pick”
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Pretty sure that is right.
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Ratings = $$. Of course people want to see last years Nat’l Champion as much as possible.
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I was more confused at CBS’ decision to pass on UGA@USC in favor of LSU@Florida. I mean, hell, I know they love Gators and all, but how do you pass on the game that everyone has been looking forward to all off-season, between two two favorites in the East who are ranked #5 and #6 respectively? It almost seems like a slight.
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LSU is ranked higher than Ga or SC. Florida and Nawlens add up to larger market thatn Georgia-SC…And LSU is in the Central Time Zone so the game starts and ends earlier there.
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The game is at UF…..
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But the TV audience in New Orleans and the SEC west in the Central time zone, so they go to be an hour earlier than us after watching a night game on the tube….I think we’re all bored to even be discussing such.
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Both LSU and Florida have won national titles in the recent past while UGA hasn’t won one in 30+ years and SC has never even won the SEC and only won the SEC East once(with a 5-3 conference record). In addition to that, LSU and UF are both undefeated just as UGA and SC are and LSU is the highest ranked team of the 4 at this point. If you think about it from an unbiased perspective, it makes perfect sense.
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Sometimes we have to just do the math for each other: #5 UGA + #6 USC, averaged = 5.5. #4 LSU + # 10 FU, averaged = 7.0. They took the highest averaged pair (lowest #).
Let me know if you need help with any more tricky corporate decisions.
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…wut?
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Folks, there is another explanation. Look at Alabama’s schedule. For all the whining about UGA and their missing Alabama, LSU and Arkansas, the real sad SEC schedule is Bama’s. The best team they have played is a mediocre Michigan. And who do they have left? LSU. That’s really it. Not their fault any more than it was Georgia’s fault, but it is what it is.
Speaking of schedules, I sure am glad South Carolina “has to play” Arkansas instead of us. Yeah.
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I’ve been saying this^^ ever since the second week of the season. Bama is getting a pass and they don’t play anybody good until LSU and if they win that one, then they play the SEC East Champion. 2 games–that’s it! If they lose to LSU they will have only played one real team and lost that game. Even then, the suits will try to build them up to repeat last year’s BCSNCG. We live in a world where the truth doesn’t mean sh!t in college football anymore.
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What the Mayor said…
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Talk em up, and then let the dawgs knock em down. Assuming things work out, I don’t see Georgia being intimidated by bama this year. If I were a player, I’d love to go into that game knowing that nobody was giving me a shot to come out on top Rocky style.
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If Alabama loses to LSU, they are out of it – unless they (A) somehow back into the SEC-CG and rout the SEC East champ, combined with (B) every other team out there has a loss on its resume.
If Alabama loses to someone other than LSU, then they are just out of it, period.
SEC backlash for last year’s Repeat is going to manifest itself at some point. It will be lessened to a degree if the SEC champ comes out of the East.
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That’s a good point,ASEF. What if LSU loses to FL, and beats Bama, UGA loses to SC but beats FL, and wins the East, plays LSU and wins? I think UGA gets screwed, and SOS will be leading the screwing charge.
Long shot to happen, but if it does, remember you heard it here first.
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I think it may have something to do with College Gameday being at the game and it having to be on an ESPN channel. Not sure if anyone has noticed or not but the games where gameday is at is always on one of the ESPN family of networks channels (ie. either ESPN or ABC). I think that is the reason that ESPN has the UGA-USC game rather than CBS and the same for next weekend with USC-LSU.
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Not very confusing at all…it’s about advertising and viewership…Bama is the most national, recognizable brand in the country and playing Mizzou extends coverage into St. Louis and Kansas City…this is a combo that equals major viewership which equals major advertising dollars…pretty simple.
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