The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
How ESPN is constructing its women’s basketball schedule during a pandemic
UConn-Notre Dame and Louisville-Kentucky are two of the most anticipated games on the women’s basketball calendar year in and year out.
But neither rivalry will air on ESPN this season — or anywhere else for that matter.
With 35 days left until the Nov. 25 start date for college hoops, scheduling remains a bit of a jigsaw puzzle for the Worldwide Leader because of challenges related to COVID-19.
“It sort of reminds me of that because you put a piece together and you put it in and you think, ‘Wow, that fits perfectly.’ Onto the next,” Carol Stiff, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions, said last week. “Then you start looking for the next piece and sure enough, it really didn’t fit, and it falls out.”
For Stiff, never in her three decades with the network has work been so complicated. In a normal year, the broadcast slate for women’s basketball would be “pretty much buttoned up, locked, and loaded” in September and unveiled in October.
But in 2020, scheduling across the sport has been a mess, lacking any semblance of order or structure due to the uncertainty and complexity of the pandemic. As teams begin their first full week of practice, so much remains in flux.
Some conferences, including the CAA and MAAC, have already announced their plans for the upcoming season, while others have either yet to decide or make anything official. On top of that, there’s a scramble nationwide to fill non-league schedules.
“It’s been really unique where, for the first time, we’re sort of backing into scheduling this season,” Stiff said. “What that means is we understand where the NCAA Tournament dates will be, and to our knowledge they’re not moving. So, March is all set, early April
is all set.”
“We’ve been working with several conferences that we have the rights to, and they’re telling us they’re going to play a 20game schedule or a 22-game schedule,” she continued. “They’re sort of locking into their January and February dates knowing COVID is upon us. It’s really this November, December which is in flux and very fluid and complicated, which is a challenge. It’s been an extremely complicated process.”
A challenge requiring a bit of matchmaking and
problem-solving. UConnNotre Dame and LouisvilleKentucky, for example, were penciled in for the first weekend in December. But once it became obvious that neither would be played, Stiff went looking for a game to fill the void. She ultimately was able to coordinate one between the Huskies and Cardinals, two national powerhouses, for Dec. 4 at Mohegan Sun.
Stiff said she’s trying to pair South Carolina and NC State as well following the cancelation of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. And then there’ll be more work when that’s done (assuming it isn’t already).
“Just putting those two games together, those are all
Top 25 ranked preseason teams,” Stiff said. “So, then the second part of all of that is now let’s try and work it into our TV schedule. So, you have men’s basketball at this time of year, along with a lot of other competition with NFL and who knows about college football.
“Then you have to work with peers in your department with puzzle pieces and see how they can all just get along and fit together to make this wonderful picture at the end.”
Amid all the maneuvering, Stiff was relieved to learn that another marquee game, UConn at Tennessee, will be staying in its original time slot — in primetime
during “We Back Pat” week. The matchup is scheduled for Jan. 21 on Tennessee’s website, though it hasn’t officially been announced.
“We were hearing that the SEC might not allow that to happen, and so rumors start flying,” Stiff said. “We just found out this week that nope, that’s going to stay.”
SNY, meanwhile, is slated to air up to 18 UConn women’s games, as well as preand postgame shows. Fox Sports, which owns Big East broadcast rights, will likely land the game against South Carolina at Gampel Pavilion.