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The future of Group of FIve football


pf9

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Going forward from the pandemic, I'd like the following games in each G5 conference to be played every year on Thanksgiving weekend (at least until realignment):

American: Cincinnati-Memphis, East Carolina-Temple, Houston-SMU, South Florida-UCF, Tulane-Tulsa; only full members would be involved in conference play on Thanksgiving weekend, Navy could play indies UConn or Liberty or even have that weekend off.

C-USA: Charlotte-Old Dominion, FIU-Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech-Southern Miss, Marshall-Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee-UAB, North Texas-Rice, UTEP-UTSA

MAC: Akron-Kent State, Ball State-Northern Illinois, Bowling Green-Toledo, Buffalo-Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan-Western Michigan, Miami (Ohio)-Ohio

MWC: Air Force-Colorado State, Boise State-Utah State, Nevada-UNLV, and New Mexico-Wyoming would all be on Thanksgiving weekend annually, while the California schools and Hawaii would take turns playing each other that weekend.

Sun Belt: Appalachian State-Coastal Carolina, Arkansas State-Texas State, Georgia Southern-Georgia State, Louisiana-ULM, South Alabama-Troy

Furthermore, I'd like to see an increase of G5 games on linear television.

The Sun Belt could begin a sublicensing deal with NBCSN, which would give them exclusive rights to the Sun Belt's "rivalry week games" listed above, with at least one Sun Belt-hosted game on NBCSN every week, with some games airing on weeknights. During rivalry week, NBCSN would air a tripleheader on Black Friday and two games scheduled around the Bayou Classic on Saturday. The noon game on Black Friday would always be one of the Eastern time rivalries, while a game at 9 PM ET on Saturday would always be one of the Central time rivalries.

Freeform could add G5 games produced by ESPN from conferences ESPN has rights to. The bulk of the games would come from the American, MAC, and Sun Belt, with games airing at noon, 4 PM, and 8 PM on Saturdays. During Thanksgiving week, Freeform would air a MAC game on Wednesday night (starting at 6 PM to avoid interfering with The 700 Club at 11 PM), and a Black Friday afternoon MAC doubleheader at noon and 4:00 PM. As the MAC conducts all its Thanksgiving week games on weekdays, on Thanksgiving weekend (and other weekends in November where the MAC doesn't play on Saturday), Freeform would air a C-USA game on Saturday (C-USA games also air on ESPN networks, but with much less frequency than the American, MAC and Sun Belt). Some of these broadcasts would migrate from ESPN3 and ESPN+, which are not available to everyone.

The putting of games on Freeform goes with my wish that the major media companies produce more sports telecasts for their non-sports-based cable networks

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CBS Sports Network carries C-USA and MW games too.

I could see CBS putting a weekly DH of a C-USA game (noon) and MW game (3:30) on the CW, which its parent company co-owns with WarnerMedia. Though WarnerMedia also has a sports division, CBS's is longer-established.

The CW could also air Army, UConn, or occasionally Navy home games (which all usually air on CBS Sports Network) in primetime if they are hosting a high-profile opponent like a Power 5 team. It would be the first time the CW has programmed on a Saturday night.

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The college football games on Freeform would be time-buys by ESPN. It is ESPN who would run the show when Freeform airs these games. ESPN knows that fans will watch any college football on any network airing it. So, it would program Freeform for 12 hours noon to midnight each Saturday to give G5 conferences more exposure. Freeform is one of the more widely-distributed cable channels. It is in more homes than ESPN U or ESPNews.

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