1. Other time slots for ESPN broadcast windows were already scheduled. Games on the ESPN mothership, ABC Sports and ESPN II (little Bro Network) are contracted times, usually 14 days ahead of the game. ESPN only changes games if one is bumped off/cancelled.

2. College Game Day is on the Mothership; always has been, always will be. It is a show, not a game. ESPN will be slotting in that show and updates from CGD and CC over the course of their 18 hour day. Nothing is unusual about this.

3. ESPNU is a fourth leg of the ABC Sports network and usually the mainstay of "lesser games" for which ESPN provides great storyline coverage to teams not usually garnering the attention of national media. It's a niche network. But it is also a profit center and requires eyeballs and ad revenue to function. By putting this game on ESPNU, the mothership knows it will be driving additional viewer interest over to this game, the second national broadcast featuring a team from South Carolina (Clemson) in an overlapping timeslot. Not everyone will care about Clemson vs. VaTech. But much of the nation after so much hype might be tempted to tune into this competitive "Cinderella Story" to see if BYU is for real, or if CC can knock off the dreaded Pirate Robert's. This matchup will drive up viewership scores for ESPNU and that's a win-win-win all the way around.

Also. Just a sidebar. BYU and ESPN are tight. The new media rights contract signed last year began this year and BYU has delivered every bit as much as BYU. While the details are not public, BYU got a much sweeter contract in its second contract term that runs probably 6 years. The way in which ESPN has been covering BYU this year looks and feels a LOT MORE like NBC's pride in Notre Dame. I am not alone in noticing this.
BYU gets way more publicity currently than it did before. ESPN is hyping its product, probably because it spent much more money on it.

Moving Game Day from CC to Va Tech would have been expensive. I think ESPN wins big time with the storyline and the Gameday producers. Yes BYU has a $20mm shortfall. Yes BYU has made up about $3mm in the last two weeks. But U am guessing the cost of moving BYU to this game was a huge tab pick-up for BYU because there is no way based on gate and media revenue under normal contract terms BYU would have afforded to squander a game to play CC no matter how good they were or how high they were ranked. In a normal year, this game could never gave been a home-and-home game, let alone a one-off at CC.

The fact is, Fox and CBS were much more active in pursuing CFB media rights from MWC and MAC teams and the MAC took ESPN's offer. Do did the Sun Belt, but the point is, when we all thought media Rights were overpriced, we were at least a little wrong. ABC needs content, programming properties. ABC decided it needed more fans from outside the P5's because it meant more viewers and more national advertising contracts based on more channels picking up viewers that care about Tulsa, Georgia Southern, UCF, etc.

Look at it this way, Ford, CP and GM all discovered you can sell more vehicles if you get in front of more people besides the wine and cheese tasting PAC or brat eating B1G. Thise companies were driving the push for adding content in more aggregated multiple markets. It's not like the only car or beer buying goes on in only 64 P5 locations.