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So the Pac-12 FX/Fox Sports Net/Versus schedule was released by the conference, and well, nothing has changed. Our lackluster finish to last season and low expectations for this season means Bears fans will have to play the merciless waiting game for the exhausting six/twelve day selection windows for picking games.
Here's the early projections for this year's schedule.
- September 3rd: Cal vs. Fresno State in Candlestick, TBD.
Analysis: Likely a regional telecast on CSN California, particularly with the two Northern California teams and neither team being hyped that much. - September 10th: Cal at Colorado, TBD.
Analysis: Likely a regional telecast on CSN California/FSN regional in Boulder that I don't know. - September 17th: Cal vs. Presbyterian, TBD.
Analysis: Might have to get lucky here and hope there's no baseball colliding with this time (particularly the As) and we'll get the CSN California afternoon timeslot. Maybe we can rig something up with that public access channel that shows interpretive dance and local high school lacrosse.
We dig into our conference schedule after the jump. Leave your thoughts on our TV outlook in the comments!
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September 24th: Cal at Washington, TBD.
Other contests: UCLA-Oregon State
Analysis: Should have decent odds at this one for the 3:30 PM ET/12:30 PM PT FSN national telecast, and we should have a good shot if the Bruins and Beavers struggle out of the gate and we and the Huskies go at least 2-1 to start the season. Otherwise CSN California. - October 1st: Bye week. Televised on Univision with a dancing Don Francisco.
- Thursday, October 6th: Cal at Oregon, 9 PM ET/6 PM PT, ESPN.
- Thursday, October 13th: Cal vs. USC, 9 PM ET/6 PM PT, ESPN.
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October 22nd: Cal vs. Utah, TBD. Two FSN/FX slots are available,
Other games: Oregon-Colorado and Oregon State-Washington State.
Analysis: Think we'll get the late night game (10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT) and beat out OSU-WSU (smallest two markets in the Pac-12). -
October 29th: Cal at UCLA, TBD. An FSN/FX and FSN slots available.
Other games: Arizona-Washington, Colorado-ASU, WSU-Oregon, OSU-Utah.
Analysis: Cal-UCLA has generally been nationally televised every year, and I doubt it'll change this season unless both teams stink it up. I think we get the afternoon FSN/FX slot. - November 5th: Washington State at Cal, TBD. Afternoon ABC and Mid-afternoon FSN/FX and Versus slots open.
Other games: Utah-Arizona, ASU-UCLA, Furd-Oregon State, Oregon-Washington.
Analysis: Not a huge surprise if our game is the least interesting by the time it gets televised. Bet on regional telecast, potentially non-HD regional telecast. - November 12th: Oregon State at Cal, TBD. Three slots open (afternoon ABC, mid-afternoon FSN/FX, evening Versus).
Other contests: Oregon-Furd (guaranteed to get televised, likely moving the ABC game to primetime), UCLA-Utah, ASU-WSU, Arizona-Colorado, USC-Washington.
Analysis: Way too hard to say at this point, but the USC-UW game will get televised barring catastrophe, leaving one slot and three other matchups to fight with for that slot. 25% shot at Versus, 70% at regional contest, 5% at no TV, 0.0000000000000002% at scattered gamma rays being rescrambled into a low-quality black-and-white affair by wandering curious aliens 10 million years from now in Alpha Centauri. -
November 19th: The Big Game, TBD. Afternoon ABC slot or the mid-afternoon Versus slot open
Other contests: Saturday Night Football on ABC has USC-Oregon. We fight for two slots with Arizona-ASU, Colorado-UCLA, Washington-OSU, Utah-WSU.
Analysis: I doubt this game will end up regional, particularly with all the interest surrounding Andrew Luck. The Furd will be a huge draw all season. I'd guess the afternoon ABC game, and the Pac-12 South leader getting the other game.
- Friday, November 25th: Cal at Arizona State, 10:15 PM ET/7:15 PM PT, ESPN.
I'd say we end up with at least six to seven national telecasts and four to six regional games. Decent for Northern California fans, terrible for everyone else.
All in all, not too great, especially compared to the golden 2006-2009 run, but not a terrible way to end out the run of the crappiest modern college football conference TV contract ever produced. 2012 can't get here fast enough.