Will the Rutgers/FIU broadcast be preempted?

Saturday's 8 pm game between Rutgers in Florida International is scheduled to air on SNY in New York, along with WPVI-DT2 in Philadelphia, and nationally via ESPN 3 and ESPN Game Plan. Considering past history, Rutgers fans might want to take necessary precautions and configure ESPN 3 in advance. Not every internet service provider has a deal with the service. Any viewers without a Comcast or Verizon subscription will need to find someone who has either, and have them set up the site's "Remote Access" feature.

Rutgers fans can be excused for their worries on this issue, considering that the beginning of one game last season was pre-empted to air a Mets presser. The Mets are SNY's flagship team and have a bigger audience. A little heads-up would have been nice though, as would have the various cable providers arranging to temporarily move the broadcasting to another network if anything were to happen (MSG Plus always seems to pick the Islanders over the Devils, with the latter relegated to the TV Guide network without the benefit of HD.) Even for the lesser games on the schedule, college football teams usually only have twelve or thirteen games a year, and this one is on the road.

There is an initial cause for alarm about last year's fiasco reoccuring. The Mets are scheduled to play the Braves on Saturday at CitiField at 4, with that game part of FOX's national broadcast. That is all fine and good, but SNY's schedule currently lists a post-game show at 7 pm. If the game runs long (Mets-Cubs on Sunday went 3:27), then there is a possibility that it could cut into the start of Rutgers-FIU. I have attempted to contact SNY about this issue, but they may not respond, and how many people are in the office on Labor Day anyway?

This post is intended more of a notice than a call for action, so don't reach for the torches and pitchforks just yet. There's no need to get upset over what is for now just a hypothetical issue, but it' s important to plan ahead and not get caught by surprise this time.