When ESPN launched the SEC Network several years ago, I was initially thrilled. I thought they would use the channel for the bulk of their SEC broadcasts and the main channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) would be more 'neutral' platforms. However, that didn't seem to happen. Maybe it was just my perception, but it seemed like those three channels were still showing a lot of SEC events, and of course the SEC network is 100% full of SEC teams.
I wanted to do some research to see if my anecdotal observations were accurate. I found a way to download ESPN's past broadcast schedules, though it only went back for 30 days (i.e., no way to research the games they broadcast during football or basketball schedule). The link to that tool is here: https://espnmediazone.com/us/programming/program-schedules/
So for the past 30 days, here is a comparison of ESPN's broadcasting on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. I've only counted live events (i.e., no replays) and to make matters simpler, I've only kept track of SEC and ACC events. The exact date range here is 4/16/2018 - 5/15/2018.
Baseball: 8 SEC games, 4 ACC games.
Spring Football: 2 SEC games, 0 ACC games
Softball: 7 SEC games, 3 ACC games
Beach Volleyball: 4 SEC matches, 3 ACC matches (Note: all are NCAA tournament games)
Lacrosse: 0 SEC games, 9 ACC games (Note: 5 of these are NCAA tournament games)
In summary, my hunch was correct. Among baseball, softball and spring football, ESPN aired 17 SEC events compared to 7 for the ACC on their non-SEC networks. Obviously, if one were to count the events on the SEC network, the numbers become even more skewed.
There is really no reason to expect this to change when (or if) the ACC Network launches in 2019. In fact, it would make more sense for ESPN to be currently pushing ACC teams on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU ahead of the ACC Network launch. Instead, they are choosing to minimize ACC exposure.
If someone knows of a way to find ESPN's broadcast schedule during football and basketball seasons, please respond. I manually tracked those broadcasts for a few weeks in February before giving up, but even in the height of college basketball season, ESPN was still tilting their non-SEC Networks away from the premier basketball conference and airing more SEC games than ACC games.
-Neon
I wanted to do some research to see if my anecdotal observations were accurate. I found a way to download ESPN's past broadcast schedules, though it only went back for 30 days (i.e., no way to research the games they broadcast during football or basketball schedule). The link to that tool is here: https://espnmediazone.com/us/programming/program-schedules/
So for the past 30 days, here is a comparison of ESPN's broadcasting on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. I've only counted live events (i.e., no replays) and to make matters simpler, I've only kept track of SEC and ACC events. The exact date range here is 4/16/2018 - 5/15/2018.
Baseball: 8 SEC games, 4 ACC games.
Spring Football: 2 SEC games, 0 ACC games
Softball: 7 SEC games, 3 ACC games
Beach Volleyball: 4 SEC matches, 3 ACC matches (Note: all are NCAA tournament games)
Lacrosse: 0 SEC games, 9 ACC games (Note: 5 of these are NCAA tournament games)
In summary, my hunch was correct. Among baseball, softball and spring football, ESPN aired 17 SEC events compared to 7 for the ACC on their non-SEC networks. Obviously, if one were to count the events on the SEC network, the numbers become even more skewed.
There is really no reason to expect this to change when (or if) the ACC Network launches in 2019. In fact, it would make more sense for ESPN to be currently pushing ACC teams on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU ahead of the ACC Network launch. Instead, they are choosing to minimize ACC exposure.
If someone knows of a way to find ESPN's broadcast schedule during football and basketball seasons, please respond. I manually tracked those broadcasts for a few weeks in February before giving up, but even in the height of college basketball season, ESPN was still tilting their non-SEC Networks away from the premier basketball conference and airing more SEC games than ACC games.
-Neon
