On Black Friday, Western Kentucky and Louisville played a men’s basketball game in one of the premier sports venues in the Southeast. The Cardinals were undefeated and poised for a No. 1 ranking at the time, and the Hilltoppers were 6-1 as the home team Nov. 29 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
In football, WKU had a two-game swing against Florida Atlantic and Marshall, outcomes that would be critical in determining the race for the Conference USA East Division. Both of those games were available either through Facebook or the subscription-only streaming platform of ESPN+.
The crux of the issue is not necessarily the viewing options Conference USA has for its member schools, but rather where games that matter are placed within those platforms – especially in comparison to strategic approaches by other Group of Five conferences.