FS2 is such an underutilized entity by FOX Sports that it is easy to bet that plenty of people don’t even know it exists. If you’re a college football fan though, this might be the year you become familiar with the network.
It doesn’t need to be stated how strange of a college football season this is. By now you know that. The staggered start of a number of conferences have hit FOX hard, because the network has deals with the Big Ten, PAC-12, and the Mountain West, three leagues that are yet to kickoff.
That means that when all three conferences do come back and FOX is still broadcasting games from the Big 12, there will be a lot of inventory and it all has to go somewhere.
When the Mountain West released its television schedules on Tuesday, it highlighted eight games that have the potential to end up on the seldom discussed network. Most of those games feature matchups of the conference’s perennial bottom dwellers, but Boise State does show up once on the list and Fresno State shows up twice.
Since launching in 2013, FS2 has been built largely on replays and low level motorsports action. The network will also carry live coverage of international sports like Australian rules football and smaller European soccer leagues. It has been used in the past for some overflow coverage of college basketball and NASCAR.
No indication exists that the PAC-12, Big Ten, or Big 12 will see any of their teams playing on FS2. Those are three of the so-called “Power 5 Conferences”. The Mountain West has a significantly less valuable TV contract and thus takes lower priority with FOX.
It is possible that some PAC-12 games could make their way to FS2. As previously reported, a story in The Oregonian states that the conference-owned PAC-12 Network may not be set up to carry much football this season.
