Indiana’s 8-0 starts just one piece of the puzzle the Big Ten must work on with TV games

Indiana made just two television appearances in the first season of the Big Ten’s media deal with Fox, NBC and CBS.

Still, the Hoosiers should get more national recognition with crucial games against Michigan on Saturday and Ohio State on Nov. 23.

Indiana’s first 8-0 start since 1967 is one of many pieces the conference and networks have to work with when determining which games to put in prime spots.

Fox has the afternoon kickoff window, while CBS is in its first season at 3:30 pm ET after many years of carrying the SEC. NBC is in its second season with the prime-time package. It is the first time a conference has a weekly package with three broadcast networks.

“The whole design here was to have the first three weekly games televised. And as we know, television continues to garner massive amounts of eyeballs for these high-profile live events,” said CBS Sports Executive Vice President of Programming Dan Weinberg. “I think the conference has recognized the potential advantage of this model with how successful the NFL has been. I think the structure of what they’ve tried to create is what we’re seeing in practice and we see it as a positive, with even more benefits to come in the next few years.”

There was already plenty of intrigue going into the season with the addition of Oregon, Southern California, UCLA and Washington. The Ducks reaching No. 1 in the AP Top 25 was another benefit of the expansion.

Oregon, Penn State and Ohio State occupy three of the top four spots in this week’s poll, with the Hoosiers ranked 13th.

“I think the depth and breadth of matchups with these four additional teams coming in provided an opportunity to spread the proverbial peanut butter a little bit more,” said Justin Byczek, senior vice president of programming for NBC Sports. “We’ve managed to get the best matchups every week in our respective windows.”

Oregon makes its second straight CBS appearance Saturday when it visits Michigan. It will be the fifth time in seven weeks that CBS has a matchup with one of the Big Ten’s West Coast schools.

Last Saturday marked the first time since the 2007 Sun Bowl that the Ducks were on CBS.

“We talked about it before the start of the season when we were looking at the compound schedule. On any given week, there are matchups on paper that would be Rose Bowls in previous years. And that’s just exciting,” Weinberg said.

Oregon, however, will not be on television on Nov. 9, with their game against Maryland already scheduled for the Big Ten Network.

Each team is guaranteed at least two games on the Big Ten Network, one of which must be a conference game.

All three networks have taken a collaborative approach to securing matches. Fox has the first three picks in the televised preseason draft each year, but traded the third pick to NBC, which selected the Oct. 12 game between Ohio State and Oregon. Instead, Fox got last Saturday’s Nebraska-Ohio State game and Saturday’s Ohio State-Penn State game.

Fox owns the top three selections as the conference’s primary media partner and through its ownership of the Big Ten Network.

In addition to the “Big Noon Saturday” slot, Fox featured the Big Ten with nine games on Friday nights. All four West Coast schools have at least one Friday night home game, while the Bruins, Ducks and Huskies have two appearances.

“We wanted to use Friday to showcase the new schools on the West Coast and Saturday to go a little deeper and not always be Ohio State and Michigan,” said Mike Mulvihill, Fox’s president of information and analytics.

Ironically, Indiana is one of five conference schools not scheduled for a Friday night game.

The Hoosiers were on NBC on Sept. 14, upsetting UCLA’s conference debut. They appeared on Fox on Oct. 19 when they beat Nebraska 56-7. Indiana’s other three conference games were on the Big Ten Network.

However, Indiana has a national window on Saturday, with its game against Michigan State airing on the Peacock.

The kickoff and gridiron for the Michigan game will be determined after Saturday’s action is complete.

Indiana-Michigan isn’t the only interesting matchup next Saturday. The third-ranked Nittany Lions host Washington in their annual game, and Ohio State No. 4 against Purdue.

The outcome of Saturday’s Ohio State-Penn State matchup should go a long way in determining where all three games end up.

NBC will have an afternoon Big Ten game next Saturday as it has Florida State-Notre Dame in prime time. It also has a Peacock exclusive game that day.

All 18 Big Ten schools have been on Fox this season, either Friday night or “Big Noon Saturday.” Half have been on CBS at least once, with USC and Michigan tied at three each.

All but four schools — USC, Northwestern, Rutgers and Maryland — appeared on NBC or the Peacock.