Cincinnati v. South Florida Will Air On CBS Sports Net

What might be news to some and definitely to me is that the Cincinnati Bearcats and South Florida Bulls game on November 21st will be aired on CBS Sports Net.

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• Cincinnati Football: Players of the game from the Bearcats recent loss to rival Miami
• Cincinnati Football: Defensive standouts from the disappointing Battle for the Victory Bell loss
• Cincinnati Football: Can the Bearcats bounce back from frustrating loss against Miami?

This is the bed UC’s laying in. The American Athletic Conference signed a television deal with ESPN. That’s good. After all, the Worldwide Leader in Sports is the worldwide leader for a reason. Their channels are in more homes than any other sports package allowing the young AAC to get their brand in as many eyes as possible. This as opposed to the new Big East who’s locked into a contract with Fox Sports and are buried in the 700’s somewhere most of the time.

But ESPN was able to take certain games, certain “less desirable” games, and ship them off to CBS Sports Net in a sub-rights deal. That’s why the Crosstown Shootout was on ESPN 2 this year and both games against Central Florida were on CBSSN. These rights pump the network with the live content it’s starving for while allowing the AAC to claim they’re on television instead of relegated to WatchESPN.

In theory it’s a win-win for everyone and quite honestly I’m fine with the arrangement.

The fact that most lower-tier cable packages will allow us to watch UC games is a good thing. It’s just a little bit a nuisance to try to find CBS Sports Net in your listing only to realize you don’t subscribe to the more premium sports package. It would also be nice if CBS streamed the games like they did with the most watched basketball event of all time. But it is what it is.