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ESPN College Sports Update – Sept. 17

Rachel Margolis Siegal September 17, 2013

On ESPNU This Week:

ABC Saturday Night Football Wins the Night

ESPN’s 17 Hours of College Football Averages Nearly Two Million Viewers
ESPN & ABC Posting Increases Over 2012
ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU Televise Seven of Top Eight Prime-Time Games
Millions Go to ESPN Mobile Offerings
Indianapolis Top Market for Saturday Night Football – Notre Dame at Purdue

The September 14 ABC Saturday Night Football Presented by Windows telecast – Notre Dame over Purdue 31-24 – helped ABC win the night across all networks among households, viewers and in all key male and adult demographics (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54). The matchup averaged 4,789,000 viewers and a 3.0 rating. ABC also averaged 3,164,000 viewers and a 2.0 rating for its Saturday afternoon matchup of Oregon over Tennessee 52-14.

In addition to ABC, ESPN averaged a significant 1,917,000 viewers for more than 17 consecutive hours of college football studio and game content on Saturday – beginning at 9 a.m. ET with the three-hour College GameDay Built by The Home Depot to the last whistle of Wisconsin at Arizona State at 2:10 a.m.

Full Release

College Football: Seven of Top 10 Teams across ESPN Networks
ESPN networks will combine to cover seven of the top 10 ranked programs in action during the fourth week of the season, beginning with No. 3 Clemson at undefeated ACC Atlantic division rival NC State on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN Radio. Highlights for Saturday, Sept. 21:

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will each televise a prime-time matchup featuring an SEC team in the top 10: No. 1 Alabama against Colorado at 7 p.m. on ESPN2; No. 6 LSU against SEC foe Auburn at 7:45 p.m. on ESPN; and No. 10 Texas A&M against SMU at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
ESPN3 will provide coverage of three top 10 teams: No. 7 Louisville against Florida International at noon, No. 9 Georgia against North Texas at 12:21 p.m. (also available on SEC TV) and No. 8 Florida State against Bethune-Cookman at 6 p.m.
Saturday Night Football Presented by Windows on ABC at 8 p.m. will include two games in a split national telecast: Kansas State at Texas and No. 15 Michigan at Connecticut.

Full Release

ESPN College GameDay Headed to Fargo, N.D.
ESPN’s iconic college football pregame show College GameDay Built by The Home Depot will travel off its usual course – visiting two-time defending FCS National Champion North Dakota State in Fargo, N.D., on Saturday, Sept. 21. The show will originate from Downtown Fargo, located near the Fargo Theatre on Broadway.

The three-hour show (9 a.m.–noon, ESPN) of features and analysis will arrive prior to the Delaware State at No. 1-ranked NDSU game (3:30 p.m., ESPN3).

Hosted by Chris Fowler, the GameDay crew consists of analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack with reporting by Samantha Ponder, Tom Rinaldi, Scott Van Pelt and Gene Wojciechowski.

College GameDay has visited three other FCS matchups in recent history: Hampton at Florida A&M on Nov. 15, 2008 – the shows first HBCU site; Grambling vs. Southern at the Bayou Classic on Nov. 26, 2005; and at Penn for the Harvard game on Nov. 16, 2002.

ESPN.com and College Football: Recapping Alabama-Texas A&M, What’s Ailing in College Football and More
ESPN.com has everything college football covered with game previews and recaps, expert analysis, blog posts and more. This week’s highlights:

Monday, Sept. 16

On The Mark – No one wins the crystal football with the kind of defense played in the Alabama-Texas A&M game
Power rankings

Tuesday, Sept. 17

BMOC looks back at Alabama-Texas A&M, where Texas stands, a look ahead to week 4 and more (Gene Wojciechowski)

Wednesday, Sept. 18

What’s ailing college football (Ivan Maisel)
What ails these conferences and what’s the cure? (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC)

Thursday, Sept.19

GameDay Kickoff – some teams already playing with house money (Rece Davis)
The rise of Oregon (Ted Miller)
Is Baylor trying to be Oregon of the Southwest (Jake Trotter)

ESPN Viewership up 13 Percent since August 17
As ESPN heads towards the final quarter of the calendar year – traditionally its strongest with a schedule full of NFL and college football games and studio programming, plus the start of NBA and college basketball – the network is riding a wave of momentum with viewership up 13 percent (an increase of 138,000 viewers in the average minute) in the last month, according to Nielsen.

Since August 17, ESPN has averaged 1,217,000 viewers (P2+) on a 24-hour basis, up 13 percent compared to the same four weeks a year ago (1,079,000).

In prime time, the network has enjoyed even stronger growth during this time span, rising 20 percent over 2012 with an average of 2,894,000 viewers (2,417,000 last year).

Additional highlights

ESPN The Magazine: Story of the Season
For four months, ESPN The Magazine will follow the march to the Vizio BCS National Championship, moment-by-moment, culminating in our Story of the Season double issue on Friday, Dec. 27. Each Tuesday, ESPN The Magazine senior writer Ryan McGee will pick the previous week’s biggest moments and tell you why they’ll have the most impact on potential BCS title matchups. If you disagree, send a tweet to @ESPNMag and tell us why your moment matters more, using the hashtag #StoryoftheSeason. Who knows? Your moment (and tweet) might just end up in our issue.

Week 3: https://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/category/_/name/storyoftheseason
Week 2:https://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/59905/week-2-did-acc-tilt-balance-of-power
Week 1: https://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/81873/story-of-the-season-week-1

ESPN Images: Slideshow of the Week

ESPN Films The Book of Manning Conference Call Transcript: https://es.pn/1guV5fO

ESPNU Road Trips across Texas Wednesday
ESPNU Road Trip: Lubbock & Austin Texas – airing Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m. — is taking its name to a whole new meaning as viewers truck along with co-hosts Niki Noto and Ali Nejad during last Thursday’s Texas Tech at TCU game, then onto the Ole Miss at Texas game last Saturday. On their drive across the Lone Star State the crew makes stops in Frisco to visit The Big Game factory and quenches its thirst in Baylor’s backyard at the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco.

Viewers will relive moments of the Red Raiders upset, hang-out on the Texas sidelines with the NBA’s Kevin Durant and be a part of the many “smokey” and loud Longhorn game day traditions.

All-Access: Arkansas on ESPNU Wednesday
ESPNU will air All-Access: Arkansas prior to their game at Rutgers (Saturday, Sept. 21, at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN). ESPNU takes fans inside coaches meetings, the weight room and has the coaches wired at practice. Viewers will take a morning drive with head coach Bret Bielema and walk to class with running back Jonathan Williams on Wednesday’s show airing at 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

In addition, ESPNU will re-air All-Access specials featuring Penn State, Oregon, Baylor and Arkansas beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday in preparation for the weekend’s games. Next week, ESPNU goes All-Access: Syracuse.

ESPN Recruiting: Arizona State and Texas A&M Commits to Play on ESPNU Friday
Week seven of the ESPN High School Showcase series on ESPNU will feature ESPN 300 recruits facing off in an Arizona high school football matchup Friday at 10 p.m. Chaparral cornerback Tyler Whiley – No. 71 on the ESPN 300 and committed to play football at Arizona State – will face Desert Mountain quarterback Kyle Allen, No. 74 and No. 3 at the quarterback position. He is committed to play at Texas A&M.

Analyst Rene Ingoglia will join play-by-play commentator Adam Amin in the Arizona booth.

Full ESPN high school football schedule

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Rachel Margolis Siegal

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