CHAMPAIGN — This year’s Braggin’ Rights game between Illinois and Missouri took on a bit of philosophical tilt Thursday once TV information for the game was finalized.
It became something of a thought experiment. If the Illini and Tigers play in an empty arena in Columbia, Mo., in a game broadcast on an alternate channel of the SEC Network, will said game have actually happened?
That’s where the 40th iteration of Braggin’ Rights sits. People can still watch Saturday’s 7 p.m. game at Mizzou Arena. In multiple ways. Some cable/satellite/streaming providers carry SEC Network and provide the alternate channel, too.
The game will also be available via streaming on WatchESPN for viewers that receive ESPN from their cable or satellite providers.
But there’s a percentage of both fan bases who won’t be able to watch No. 6 Illinois (4-1) face unbeaten Missouri (4-0) with Braggin’ Rights on the line.
Illinois fan Tod Meisner doesn’t fall into that group. The Illinois State graduate now lives in Auburn, Ala., and will be watching Saturday’s game via the ESPN app. Meisner pays for YouTubeTV, but he isn’t sure if the alternate SEC Network channel will be available to him.
“I don’t love watching my favorite teams on my iPad when I’m home with my big TV, but it is what it is,” Meisner told The News-Gazette on Thursday afternoon. “I know we’re in a pandemic and it’s amazing there’s any games at all, but the poor planning on both institutions’ parts to make sure a marquee game like this is available to fans of both schools is disappointing.
“You can televise/stream Andy Katz flipping a coin and make a big deal out of the venue choice, and then the game gets buried on a channel nobody gets? Just seems like a missed opportunity to showcase two good programs.”
Illinois has now made it through the first three Associated Press Top 25 polls of the 2020-21 season as a top 10 team. Missouri, which has a top 25 win on its résumé after taking down Oregon on a neutral court on Dec. 2, received votes in this week’s poll.
The Tigers also hold a two-game winning streak in the Braggin’ Rights series after the Illini won five straight before that. The rivalry was ignited ahead of the 2017-18 season when Illinois hired Brad Underwood and Missouri hired Cuonzo Martin.
At least for the respective fan bases. The 2018 and 2019 Braggin’ Rights games weren’t televised nationally, broadcast on Big Ten Network and SEC Network, respectively. The main channels, at least.
“We’re fortunate to have SEC Network with our cable package, but I’m not sure how many people do,” Illinois fan Jason Cunningham told The News-Gazette. “It does seem like a step back from when the game received prominent billing on ESPN or ESPN2 for as long as I can remember.”
Cunningham grew up in downstate Greenfield. The Illinois College and Western Illinois graduate now follows the Illini from afar from his home in Rhode Island.
“I worked as a basketball SID (at Ohio) at the dawn of streaming — remember ESPN360? — so I can appreciate the challenge of helping people find games on all these different networks,” Cunningham said.
The Illinois-Missouri basketball game wound up on the SEC Network alternate channel amid a full day of college football and basketball. The TV rights automatically flipped to the SEC, whose network is part of the ESPN family of networks, when the Tigers won the coin flip that determined home-court advantage.
Having Braggin’ Rights as a night game, Illinois sports information director Kent Brown said Thursday, was a result of a joint request from Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman and Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk. Both the Illini (at Northwestern) and Tigers (home against Georgia) have football games Saturday, too.
“Normally, this time of year, football games are not being played,” Brown said. “After the first weekend of December when most championship games are played, there’s really no football conflicts until the bowl games. This year happens to be totally different.
“Both athletic directors requested the basketball game be played at night so it wouldn’t conflict with the football games. That may have also limited the number of television opportunities available — especially when it went to the SEC Network. I know they were working with ESPN, with any of their linear networks as well, to try and see where it could fit in there.”
The 7 p.m. Saturday slate across the ESPN family of networks was full. That schedule includes Southern Cal at UCLA football on ABC, LSU at Florida football on ESPN, UFC 256 on ESPN2, Oklahoma State at Baylor football on ESPNU, Auburn at Mississippi State football on SEC Network and, to really cap off the night’s programming, the Johnsonville ACL Cornhole Championships on ESPNews.
Programming slots are filled in almost draft-like fashion in the agreements worked out between conferences and their TV partners. The SEC has five football games throughout Saturday on either its own network or ESPN. The SEC also has 11 basketball games Saturday, with morning games like Florida-Florida State and Notre Dame-Kentucky winding up on linear networks. More than just Braggin’ Rights found its way to the SEC Network alternate later in Saturday’s schedule, including No. 12 Tennessee’s home game against Cincinnati plus Auburn-Memphis and three other SEC nonconference matchups.
“The thing that makes it different this year is many of these basketball games are being scheduled within 24 or 48 hours of when they’re going to be played, and games are getting canceled within 24 hours of a game,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of juggling going on to have a plan in place to fill those windows should something open.”
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Braggin' Rights 2020 TV home is alternate SEC Network channel - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
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