ESPN decided to air Kentucky at Texas A&M on ESPN next Saturday and leave SMU at Louisville on ESPN2.
The games kick in the same afternoon window, one of them is a ranked ACC matchup, and the other includes an unranked Wildcats team going into Kyle Field as a 15.5-point underdog.
This kind of decision, while it appears harmless in the grand scheme of things, really shows the conference discrepancy in college football.
ESPN puts ranked SMU-Louisville matchup on ESPN2
SMU and Louisville are two of the ACC's better offenses and the result of this game will impact the CFP race (and the ACC championship game race) for the rest of the season.
The ACC has spent years watching this type of scheduling go down. Miami is the No. 5 team in the country right now and still play multiple early-season games on Friday nights. Part of that is their choice, and plenty of teams opt to play on a Friday later in the season (such as Black Friday).
But if you take Miami out of the equation for just a moment, the ACC is still producing high-quality football that has serious CFP implications, and networks keeps finding an SEC opponent with a larger brand to put on the main channels.
ESPN owns the SEC's media rights and has a financial reason/every right to put that product wherever it wants. But if you swapped an ACC No. 16 vs. ACC No. 23 with an SEC No. 16 vs. SEC No. 23, there is no doubt this airs on ESPN or ABC. And that's just the reality that the ACC, and sometimes even Miami, have to deal with.
It is also tough to fault ESPN for the decision. A&M-Kentucky projects to pull in better ratings and it's a business at the end of the day.
Viewers who want SMU-Louisville will still be able to find it since ESPN2 is paired with ESPN, so it's not the end of the world. It's just one extra click away.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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