Week 6 KPI Prologue: “Big Slate on Saturday”

KPI by divisionThere are seven games between two teams ranked in the KPI Top 25 this week, while four are matchups
between the 17 teams still undefeated.  TV has spread the games between Thursday and the early, mid-afternoon, and evening windows on Saturday for easy viewing, too!

This will be fun.

The games will also create major opportunities for some quality win
s and some separation in the rankings.  Three of the top six games come from the SEC West.  Get used to that.

Furthermore, I took a look at G-Score this week by TV network, averaging the values of all games on a given network scheduled through Week 6 (through October 4).  Certainly the numbers will change as the season progresses, but the results were interesting:

  • 17.6 CBS (4 SEC games at 3:30 p.m. ET, G-Scores of 11.8, 14.6, 21.4, and 22.4)
  • 28.4 FOX (MSU-Oregon best G-Score of any game already played, Oklahoma-TCU added this week)
  • 41.2 ESPN (By Window: Primetime 22.2, Noon 27.3, Late Afternoon 46.5, Note that ESPN’s number is 31.9 for only Saturday games)
  • 43.8 ABC (By Window: Primetime 28.2, Afternoon 41.1, Noon 56.5)
  • 49.5 NBC (All Notre Dame home games, two of four in primetime)
  • 53.6 ESPN2
  • 58.6 FOX Sports 1
  • 59.0 SEC Network
  • 61.5 Big Ten Network
  • 61.8 ESPNU
  • 65.0 Pac-12 Network
  • 69.0 CBS Sports Network
  • 72.2 FSN (Regional)
  • 78.1 ESPNEWS
  • 86.0 ESPN3

Market size and television ratings are not factored into this particular look (though they can and will be).  This exercise is designed solely to show the quality of games each network has aired (or will air this week).  Note also the ABC/ESPN2 Reverse Mirror windows only count for ABC.

A few notes on TV G-Scores:

  • Of the top 10 games by G-Score through Week 6, four air on ESPN, two on FOX, two on SEC Network, and one each on ABC and CBS.
  • CBS and FOX are helped by a more limited schedule than ESPN and even ABC. A few bad games can bring down the overall number.  Of ESPN’s ten worst games by G-Score, nine are weeknight windows (five on Fridays and four on Thursdays through six weeks).  ESPN averages a 31.9 G-Score for games played on Saturday compared to a 53.1 for games played on weeknights.
  • On both ABC and ESPN, the primetime windows have the best G-Score. We have had a few weeks already where the primetime windows have been inundated with the better games of the day while the early and mid-afternoon windows lack as much pizzazz.  (Yes, I used the word pizzazz!)

G-Score by Week:  Week 6 has the best collective G-Score among games scheduled.  Except from Week 3 to Week 4, the G-Score has improved week to week each week this season.

  • Week 1 (Aug 27-Sept 1) 6
  • Week 2 (Sept 4-6) 0
  • Week 3 (Sept 11-13) 0
  • Week 4 (Sept 18-20) 0
  • Week 5 (Sept 25-27) 7
  • Week 6 (Oct 2-4) 3

Fewer Non-Conference Games:  There are a total of eight non-conference games this weekend.  Four of the eight involve the four independent schools.  The other 4?  North Texas at Indiana, Tulsa at Colorado State, New Mexico at UTSA, and Hawaii at Rice.  There are 49 conference games being played in FBS.

Top 10 Games in Week 6, ranked by G-Score (entering Thursday’s games)

  1. #7 Arizona (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12) at #3 Oregon (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12): Thursday 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT, ESPN
  2. #13 Texas A&M (5-0, 2-0 SEC) at #6 Mississippi State (4-0, 1-0 SEC): Saturday 12 p.m. ET/11 a.m. CT, ESPN
  3. #11 Oklahoma (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) at #12 TCU (3-0, 0-0 Big 12): Saturday 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT, FOX
  4. #15 LSU (4-1, 0-1 SEC) at #4 Auburn (4-0, 1-0 SEC): Saturday 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT, ESPN
  5. #9 Nebraska (5-0, 1-0 Big Ten) at #16 Michigan State (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten): Saturday 8 p.m. ET, ABC
  6. #5 Alabama (4-0, 1-0 SEC) at #18 Mississippi (4-0, 1-0 SEC): Saturday 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT, CBS
  7. #21 Stanford (3-1, 1-1 Pac-12) at #24 Notre Dame (4-0): Saturday 3:30 p.m. ET, NBC
  8. #33 Miami-FL (3-2, 1-1 ACC) at #14 Georgia Tech (4-0, 1-0 ACC): Saturday 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
  9. #47 Ohio State (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) at #25 Maryland (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten): Saturday 12 p.m. ET, ABC
  10. #46 Wisconsin (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) at #36 Northwestern (2-2, 1-0 Big Ten): Saturday 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT, ESPN2

Enjoy a great weekend of football, and look forward to updated rankings with significant change come Sunday morning.

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