The Cincinnati Bearcats football game with the Tulsa Golden Hurricane will kick off at 7:30 pm on ESPNews, the AAC announced today.
TV Selection Updates 11/14@TulsaFootball at @GoBearcatsFB 7:30pm ET/6:30pm CT on ESPNews
— American Football (@American_FB) November 2, 2015
Color me surprised on that slotting.
Neither the Bearcats nor the Golden Hurricane are particularly sniffing their respective division titles, making this mid-November game fairly meaningless in the grander terms of the AAC championship race. Those are reserved for the likes of Memphis, Temple, Houston, and Navy. UC and Tulsa, unfortunately but honestly, are but stepping stones for those teams to claim the inaugural American Conference title in the new 12-team era.
So the fact that ESPN slotted this game at night and on network television, when UC and UCF were pitted at noon, says something. I’m not quite sure what that something is but perhaps it’s the fact that these teams are among the most exciting teams in college football.
The Bearcats’ offense ranks 16th in college football averaging 39 points per game with the 6th most prolific passing offense in the country. Tulsa, meanwhile, owns the 36th best scoring offense in college football, averaging 35 points per game, and the 9th best passing offense. And if there’s anything we know as fact about Cincinnati’s defense, they can’t stop any team that knows how to operate their offense even remotely effectively (sorry, UCF).
Perhaps that lends itself to ESPN’s craving for all things entertainment (the “E” in ESPN), as they’d like to pander to an audience that generally enjoys high scoring affairs. That’s what they’ll get if they tune into ESPNews on that Saturday night as I’d anticipate this game approaching triple digits in combined points.