Havoline Football Saturdays like Addazio

Raycom puts together a series of summer preview shows that you might catch on your local stations. BC is rarely featured, but the producers clearly like Addazio. They already released this clip of him firing up the team last year. 

If BC just won a little more, Addazio would be a star. TV eats this fired up, run through a wall type locker-room stuff up. But you need to back it up with wins.

How the ACC's dumb Raycom deal turned out to be smart

During the last ACC TV rights deal, ESPN bought the rights to all the conference's content. However, the old guard on Tobacco Road didn't want to leave their long-time media partner Raycom out of the package. So all agreed that ESPN would resell certain games back to Raycom for Raycom to then produce and distribute. (When you see the ACC Games on regional sports networks or your local broadcast station, those are Raycom productions.)

At the time many critics found the Raycom deal outdated and provincial. The ACC was keeping old friends happy at the expense of more dollars from ESPN and should have spent that energy pushing for its own ACC Network. ESPN didn't care. They got to resell games and reserved the right to all the content if and when the ACC put together a plan for the ACC Network. Basically the ACC Network couldn't happen during this contract without ESPN's involvement. 

But I don't think anyone truly anticipated the rush to cord cutting. Cable companies are bleeding traditional subscribers and ESPN is suffering from it. ESPN's rights fees and those expensive Network deals with Texas and the SEC are partially to blame. With a cloudy future and questionable business model the ACC Network seems less likely by the day.

But that is where the Raycom deal comes back into play. Because of that deal, the ACC is the only Power 5 conference with a traditional "over the air" syndicated distribution package [UPDATE: I forgot to mention the SEC's CBS deal. So the ACC is the only Power 5 where their secondary games are syndicated over the air. Pac 12's Fox deal is based on Fox powering their Network. All ABC games are part of ESPN cable deals. Notre Dame is not in a conference.]. You don't have to worry about cord cutting when there is no cord to cut. By having a traditional model for games the ACC/Raycom can sell advertisers consistent ratings and a growing audience. Right now the typical ACC Raycom advertiser is Carolina-centric (Bojangles, Food Lion, etc.) but that will change. I imagine the growing footprints and over the air aspect will get more national ads in the next few years. 

The Raycom games that are not over the air, are carried on regional sports networks (Fox Sports Whatever, NESN, etc.). This is also good for distribution. Those networks are not going away immediately and need content on late fall Saturdays after baseball ends. They are exposed to cord cutters but are not as controversial or as expensive as the new college network startups or any of the ESPN channels. 

Would the ACC like to have the SEC's or Big Ten's money right now? Of course. But what was once the table scrapes of the college football media world, now looks a whole lot better than it did at deal time. I still think there will be an ACC Network in the future, but I think the Raycom experience will change the way the channel is created and distributed. 

There are gaps in the ACC Network this week

Even as the season fell apart, there was generally easy access to BC games. We haven't had an ESPN3 game in weeks. This week it gets a little complicated. The ACC Network game is split between BC-NC State and Louisville-Syracuse. If you are in New England or the traditional ACC territories (Virginia, the Carolinas, etc.) you are fine. If you are in any market that might prefer Syracuse, you are watching online.

Here is the list of affiliates for the game. All of you in the Midwest, New York, New Jersey, and even the West Coast who watched BC locally last week are now stuck watching the stream. The good news is that the stream can come via ESPN3 or TheACC.com. I've never streamed using the ACC's feed, but I have heard it is better.

Now let's just hope the game is worth watching.

VT kickoff time and other links

The Virginia Tech game will kickoff at noon. It will be syndicated on the Raycom/ACC Network. Good news for the Parent's Weekend crowd. Now Parents can take kids to dinner Saturday night. Not great news for those BC fans outside of ACC markets who will either go to a sports bar, buy ESPN Gameplan or watch on ESPN3.com.

Although talk seems to focus on Duke and Florida, BC remains a player for basketball recruit Alex Murphy. Some of Murphy's teammates are also gaining attention.

John Loughery is considered one of the best QBs in the Philly area. He has interest in BC but doesn't have an offer.

Does Marc Colombo have one more comeback left in him?

Basketball media guide and other links

BC released the media guide for the basketball team.

Here is the affiliate list for the BC-UNC game. Steve Martin and Doc Walker will call the game. Get ready for plenty of "Raja," "Brice" and cheeseburger mentions from the good doctor.

The Globe/Boston.com has not updated its college page in months. Someone finally noticed once their dated story on Toal became very ironic.

Dr. Saturday thinks the ACC has taken on a surrealist vibe.

Herzy won defensive player of the week honors.

CBS Sports is getting on the BC bandwagon.

Mass running back Alex Scyocurka has interest in BC.

Noon for North Carolina

The North Carolina game will be a Noon ET game on Raycom. Get your game watches ready. I am surprised by the time. I thought Carolina's recent run would make this an ESPN night game. I guess the guys in Bristol are expecting us to lose to the Hokies and therefore remain unranked.