CBS Toys With SEC Fans

There's a ton of upside for just airing one conference's games for College Football, and especially if it's the best conference in the country at the moment (don't even give me that Pac-10 nonsense). Well there's also a ton of downfalls as well and one of those is becoming a big issue with SEC fans.

CBS has a pre-determined schedule but is allowed to have up until 12 days before a Saturday to change what matchup they'll be setting up shop at (which doesn't seem like a lot of time at all). The SEC also allows the network two times a year to have a 6 day cushion to say whether they are switching games for the weekend. This weekend is one of those times and Georgia fans who were planning on heading to the stadium at 3ish now have to wait until 7pm.

That's why Georgia fans like Walter Corish did not learn until Sunday night that Saturday's game at Alabama would start at 7:45 p.m. CBS took South Carolina-LSU at 3:30 p.m. and left the Bulldogs for prime time on ESPN.

"I don't like it a bit," the Savannah native and long-time Georgia season ticket holder said. "It's incredibly disruptive for a lot of people."

CBS, in fact, has exercised its second six-day option for next week because it wants to wait until Sunday before choosing between Auburn at Florida and Alabama vs. Florida State in Jacksonville.

"I understand that television pays a lot of money, but when this happens I just don't think college football is serving its customers well," Bruce Dixon of St. Simons said. "It's difficult making travel plans 12 days from the game. To get a hotel you really have to book almost a year in advance. And when they move the game to night you end up with a hotel room you might only use for one night, but you'll have to pay for two. It's just not fair."

I never said network programming and the industry was easy, but you can only piss off fans for so long. The article goes on to say that the whole decision really didn't even make sense. They waited until after the Alabama-Arkansas game and still chose South Carolina-LSU. Thus the Alabama-Georgia game is pushed to 7:45pm and ESPN on Sunday. It's a tough spot to be in, but you need to be smart about which two times you use the extra six days. Last week really made no sense.

SEC fans subject to whim of CBS (Atlanta Journal Constitution )