BLOG: Minnesota's January 6th game broadcast on CBS Sports Network

One Gopher game this season will get the "Big Show" CBS Sports Network treatment.

Minnesota's road contest against St. Cloud State on January 6th is among 14 NCHC second-half games being broadcast nationally by CBS Sports Network. Coming the day after the World Juniors - where Huskies head coach Bob Motzko will try to lead Team USA to a second straight gold medal - Gophers-Huskies is both the lone non-conference contest and only regular season game broadcast by CBSSN on a Saturday.

CBS Sports Network is able to show it as part of the NCHC package because, with the game being in St. Cloud, SCSU controls TV rights.  This is usually why non-conference games with teams outside of the Upper Midwest go untelevised. Likewise, Minnesota will be able to decide when the two teams play in Minneapolis the following night.

In recent home-and-home series since the Huskies and Gophers joined separate conference in 2013-14, Fox Sports North broadcast with the home school's announcing team calling.

Although other Big Ten teams have been featured in non-conference games, Minnesota has yet to appear on CBSSN during the NCHC's run going back to 2013-14.

The rest of Minnesota's TV schedule should be announced in the next week.

Notre Dame's addition to the conference and existing NBCSN deal for home games brings in an additional possibility for Big Ten conference games. BTN, ESPNU and ESPNEWS all showed B1G games in 2016-17 on top of the Gophers regularly broadcasting on Fox Sports North.

I'm curious when the Gophers release its schedule to see how several conflicts get resolved. One such conflict sees both the Wild (on FSN+) and Timberwolves playing 7:00 pm games on October 20th, a day when Minnesota travels to Grand Forks to play North Dakota. (Again, as noted earlier, the Fighting Hawks control TV rights that weekend.) Another one is whether both Minnesota-Wisconsin games December 1-2 at Mariucci end up on FSN+. BTN has a basketball doubleheader that Friday night while the Timberwolves play on FSN/NBA TV. Saturday sees BTN with a 5 pm basketball game while the Wild play on FSN.

29 of Minnesota's 36 games last season were televised.