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This Is the Single Dumbest Piece of Sports Scheduling That You Will Ever See

College football, NBC and ABC can’t even figure out how to schedule a day with just two games.
Jimmy Traina|
Notre Dame will open its season against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.
Notre Dame will open its season against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. Congrats to college football, NBC and ESPN on winning the award for “Dumbest Piece of Scheduling You’ll Ever See.”

In Week 1, on Sunday, Sept. 6 (Labor Day weekend), there are only two college football games on the entire schedule: Wisconsin at Notre Dame (from Lambeau Field) on NBC and Louisville at Ole Miss on ABC.

A normal human being would guess one game would be played at 3:30 p.m. ET and the other at 7 or 7:30 p.m. You could even imagine a scenario where one game would start at 7 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m.

The NFL does not open its season until Sept. 9, so there are no conflicts with the two college games. There is a completely open day to schedule just two games.

But, because like I always tell you, leagues and networks absolutely hate their fans, BOTH GAMES WILL KICK OFF AT 7:30 p.m. ET.

My assumption is that neither NBC nor ABC wanted to move off the prime-time spot, so instead of one network trying to do what’s best for viewers, they instead decided to spit in the face of every college football fan.

2. NBC sent out a press release on Tuesday because it wants everyone to know that Sunday’s Timberwolves-Spurs game drew 7.9 million viewers, making it the second-most watched game of this year’s postseason.

What I find incredibly curious is that I never get press releases for games that air exclusively on Peacock or Prime Video. Hmmm….

3. There are so many dumb “unwritten rules” in baseball that I’ll never understand. Tuesday night, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes struck out the first six Rockies batters that he faced. So, the seventh batter, Willi Castro, tried to bunt for a base hit.

This seems like a totally smart and legit play to me. However, the Pirates’ broadcasters seemed to take issue with this, saying, “Yeah, of course you’re gonna bunt to break that up.”

So, Castro should try not to get on base so Skenes can continue his strikeout streak? I just don’t get it.

4. In Tuesday’s Traina Thoughts, I showed you the video of Giants outfielders celebrating a win by thrusting into each other. The clip got a lot of attention on the Internet, so on Tuesday night, the trio went in a completely different direction for their celebration.

5. I think this would be a pretty cool thing to have if you’re a soccer fan.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features segments with Richard Deitsch of Sports Business Journal and Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post.

The podcast kicks off with Deitsch discussing the latest sports media news. Topics include ratings for the NFL draft, NBA playoffs and Kentucky Derby, the status of Inside the NBA, CBS having interest in Russell Wilson, the future of Dianna Russini and much more.

Following Deitsch, Vaccaro joins the podcast to discuss the legendary career of John Sterling. The columnist details his relationship with Sterling while explaining what made Sterling unique and analyzing Sterling’s massive popularity among Yankees fans.

Following Vaccaro, Sal Licata, from SNY TV and The Sal Licata Show, joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include my review of Netflix’s Hulk Hogan documentary, the Kentucky Derby, the Knicks’ playoff run, Ben Stiller choosing the Met Gala over the Sixers-Knicks playoff game and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: If you are a big Veep fan (and you should be), you’ll enjoy this. On last night’s Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Julia Louis-Dreyfus had Veep writers give him some lines to read to Colbert as Selina Meyer.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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