Monday Musings: TV, Kick Times Unveiled for WKU's 2023 Football Slate
Last week we got our first look at what life will be like under C-USA's new media deal.
If you’ve been waiting to plan your Saturdays this fall, now is the time. Conference USA and WKU unveiled kickoff times and TV information for all but one of the Tops’ games and there are a couple of unique opportunities for WKU to make waves on a national stage.
Big Red’s Reads
News to use regarding WKU, Conference USA and the collegiate athletic landscape as a whole.
It was a busy week in the transfer portal for the WKU baseball team. Ready? Okay, the following players announced they’ll be leaving the program ahead of the 2024 season: AJ Fiechter, Ty Batusich, Lukas Farris, Bryson Arnette, Brett Blomquist, Beau Coffman, Eli Watson and Andrew Delaney. That’s all? Simultaneously feels like a lot and not that many at the same time.
It was a strong weekend for C-USA in the NCAA regionals, but not strong enough with DBU and Charlotte losing in regional final matchups Sunday and future conference member Sam Houston St. falling in their second game Sunday. A couple of regionals are still to be decided, due to some poor weather across the southeast this weekend. Here’s the live-updating bracket.
Baseball isn’t the only program that lost players this week: Noah Stansbury has entered the transfer portal. I wonder where he’ll go next.
WKU signee Teagan Moore showed out Saturday at the Kentucky All-Stars game in Louisville, scoring a game-high 25 points on 10/14 shooting, including 4/6 from deep. He also added six boards and three assists.
I believe this is the first one of these we’ve seen this draft cycle: Emmanuel Akot is working out for the Indiana Pacers.
Tyson Helton got a commitment from Harvard transfer Mason Williams. You know, I’ve always referred to as WKU as the Harvard of South Central Kentucky, so it fits perfectly. Williams, a Murfreesboro native, was a two-star recruit out of high school and garnered First-Team All-Ivy League recognition last year.
Malachi Corely and WKU soccer’s Kenlee Newcom represented WKU at the NIL Summit this past weekend. On3 Sports ranks Newcom as the top women’s soccer brand in the NIL world. I’m not an NIL expert so I don’t entirely know what that means, but I know she has popped up on my TikTok page unprompted so the algorithm is definitely working.
Are you ready for Bowl Season?! The 2023/24 bowl schedule has been released. C-USA is locked into four bowl games this year: Bahamas, Armed Forces, New Mexico and New Orleans. They also could send teams to the Cure, Frisco, Boca Raton, First Responder, Camellia, Fenway, LendingTree, Myrtle Beach, Birmingham or Gasparilla bowls, if need be.
Set That Dial
On Wednesday, Conference USA unveiled its TV schedule and kickoff times for most of this coming season’s games. At least in WKU’s case, 11 of their 12 games now have a date and time, with the Sept. 23 game at Troy as the lone exception.
The biggest early takeaway for me from this unveiling comes in the third week of the season: The Hilltoppers head to Ohio State not only for a 3 p.m. kick, but will get damn-near top billing on the weekend, with the game being shown on Big FOX, as they used to say in the days of the regional Fox Sports networks, with Penn State at Illinois as the network’s noon lead-in. There isn’t much of a better chance the Tops can have to make a great first impression than this.
Outside of that, you can break the schedule into two halves regarding its broadcasts: The pre-ESPN slate and the all-ESPN slate.
Three of WKU’s first five games will be on either Big FOX or CBS Sports Network, including the conference opener against Middle Tennessee. Sept. 9’s matchup will be on ESPN+ (subscription) and the Sept. 23 game vs. Troy will almost assuredly be on an ESPN property, if not relegated to ESPN+ like it was last year.
After the MTSU game, the Tops will close the year on the four-letter, including three straight games on ESPNU.
With TV to still be decided in the final four weeks of the year, there’s a chance the Tops could play each of their final seven games of the season this year on ESPNU, though I doubt that’s likely (but would be a heck of a coincidence).
While I’m not at all upset with the Tops’ ESPN presence, I can’t help but wonder why they were given the U as opposed to ESPN2. The week of Oct. 17, WKU gets the Tuesday night U game while New Mexico State and UTEP square off on Wednesday on ESPN2.
The following week, Liberty comes to Bowling Green for the first C-USA meeting between the Flames and the Tops, widely considered to be two of the favorite programs for years to come in the new alignment, in another Tuesday night ESPNU game. On Wednesday, ESPN again opts for UTEP, who will travel to Sam Houston State, on the duece.
With the rest of the league schedule being played on Saturdays, be prepared for a lot of ESPN+ down the home stretch of the season. That being said, if UTEP gets hot or one of the newcomers are better than expected (maybe Sam Houston State can be at eight or nine wins come their trip to the Houch), a game can always get bumped to the deuce, the U or even prime ESPN.
I know a lot of WKU fans - I suspect mainly older - will bemoan that games are not only streaming but there’s a high likelihood you’ll need an extra subscription for ESPN+ to watch. However, while it’s just theoretical at this point, I like the shape of the schedule and the potential it brings for not only ease of watching the Hilltoppers (though, I’ll be honest, as a noted hater of CBSSN, last year was far from difficult) and for them getting more exposure than they have in previous years, especially if the offense does what we’re all expecting it to do this year.