Thoughts on Early Season CFB TV selections for 2026

* SEC game slotting will be announced on 6/10 and as part of this, the remaining SEC+ games will be set.  These should be the remaining games to be set for the streaming platform:

• 9/26: Tulsa at Arkansas
• 10/17: The Citadel at Texas A&M
• 11/21: Wofford at Ole Miss, Tennessee Tech at Mississippi State, Chattanooga at Alabama & Samford at Auburn

* I wasn't surprised that Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame was scheduled for primetime on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.  What did catch me out was that the Apple Cup was moved to Sunday to precede the game as NBC previously planned to carry Braves-Phillies that afternoon.

I was surprised that Purdue at UCLA was put in the late evening slot on BTN on 9/19.  When looking at places to juggle time and TV that day, if the desire was to have that game on BTN, it could have been flipped with Eastern Washington at Washington and the North Dakota at Nebraska game could have stayed at 7:15pm.

* Why was North Dakota State at Sacramento State given such a high profile slot as the ESPN "After Dark" slot? They can certainly lean into the storyline of two schools moving up to FBS and put a lot of focus on that.  The reality is that the Big 12 and ACC weren't offering many games. For the two other games that are available matching up FBS school, both from the Big 12, other TV partners gobbled them up: Utah State at Utah on FOX and Northern Illinois at Arizona on TNT.

I don't know where TNT would have been picking on 9/19. I'd assume they were 5th at the max. If they were lower, then ESPN could have had the ability to choose NIU-Arizona. Either way, a nice pickup for the MAC to get on ESPN.

* The American getting two games on ESPN on Black Friday is surprising from the standpoint that ESPN has eight games from the Players Era 16 to fit in. Knowing that two arenas will be in use, ESPN2 will likely get the majority of games that afternoon and evening. ESPN will probably pick up a game or two from that event after football and likely one more men's basketball game, such as West Virginia vs. North Carolina in the Dick Vitale Invitational from Charlotte.

* The MAC's TV schedule release accounted for nine of their ten game windows on CBS Sports Network. CBS Sports PR didn't release a schedule of game windows for CBS nor CBSSN, but piecing together everyone else's TV schedule left the 12pm window open on both 9/26 and 10/24.

9/26 has plenty of quality non-conference games hosted by the MAC to choose from and seems like the better date, both for ESPN to take a game for ESPNU and for CBSSN: 

UConn at Miami (OH)
San Diego State at Toledo

Boise State at Western Michigan

South Florida at Bowling Green

UNLV at Akron

* The Pac-12 didn't provide a lot of details on how TV would be set up for the final week of the season knowing that the matchups they set up were tentative, but we do know the following from their TV release and from one partner's release

• USA and the CW will carry two games each
• USA's games will air at 6pm and 9:30pm ET.  
• The CW games are TBD, but we do know that the Mountain West will not have a game on Saturday 11/28 on the CW.  I'd expect the ACC to have a football game that week.  Its possible that a basketball game could be mixed in too.

The conference also had five games noted as potentially moving to either a Thursday or Friday night, and I expected all of them to end up on one of those two nights, but ended up only moving two of those games off Saturday.

* I am not well versed on the programming schedule of The CW, but I didn't expect to see three games played on Friday nights (a fourth Friday game is the afternoon of Black Friday).  Two of those are weeks where a Saturday window is taken up by a NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race.

* With The CW taking an ACC game for week 0, at least one week during the season the CW will be skipping an ACC game. I'd assume a week to skip would be potentially in October (there's 3 weeks with 5-6 games on Saturday) or November 7th. With the MW and Pac-12, plus NASCAR through early November, taking up other programming hours on Saturdays, it doesn't feel as likely that they would skip two weeks and do two games in a given week.

* Kansas State at Arizona State game claimed in advance by ESPN for 10/24 had to be for a particular reason that I imagine will be more visible later in the season.  The first thing I checked was to see if ESPN had no other options for the "After Dark" window, and they have two other options for the Big 12.  FOX Sports might have the top two choice this particular week and both games that may interest them could be hosted by schools that could occupy the late evening window (Houston at Utah & Iowa State at Arizona).

* Seems like the Big Ten schools have loosened their grip on their homecoming games being pinned to a specific TV window or a narrow range of TV windows, like the noon and afternoon windows.  Only one game, Indiana at Rutgers on 10/3, was pinned to a specific start time and that time is 8pm ET.  Don't know if Rutgers did that by design to get their 3rd home game locked in as a night game so they wouldn't have to host any others at night. 

If I recall correctly, there are some limits around the homecoming games being set aside for six day holds and TV partners, if a game is held, may have to put further limits or confirm a start time for the game.

A Few CFB Odds and Sods for CFB TV in 2026

Early season and special date kickoff times and TV will be announced this coming Wednesday, May 27th.  Last year they showed up at 12pm ET.  Here's some other considerations beyond the those dates.

* Let's start with the SEC.  We know each school is supposed to have one non-conference home game per season on the SEC+ streaming companion to SEC Network.  I tried to take this into account for the guesses for Weeks 1-3.  Here's my guesses for the season of the SEC+ games:

Week 1 (9/5)
Austin Peay at Vanderbilt, Youngstown State at Kentucky, Tennessee State at Georgia, North Alabama at Arkansas, Furman at Tennessee

Week 2 (9/12)

Towson at South Carolina, Campbell at Florida

Week 3 (9/19)

New Mexico at Oklahoma, Troy at Missouri, UTSA at Texas

Week 5 (10/3)

McNeese at LSU

Week 7 (10/17)
The Citadel at Texas A&M

Week 12 (11/21)

Wofford at Ole Miss, Tennessee Tech at Mississippi State, Samford at Auburn, Chattanooga at Alabama

Since 2021 when SEC+ streaming was added as an option, 71.2% of the games chosen for the platform have been the game vs. a FCS opponent.  Certainly possible that I've overloaded the schedule with FCS games.

* The Big Ten allows their schools to put start time parameters around their homecoming games, if they so choose.  Here's the known homecoming games for 2026:

TBA: UCLA, Washington (listed as a November weekend)

Week 4 (9/26)

Wisconsin at Penn State

Week 5 (10/3)

Purdue at Illinois, Maryland at Nebraska, Indiana at Rutgers, Washington at USC, Michigan State at Wisconsin

Week 6 (10/10)

Illinois at Michigan State, Ball State at Northwestern, Maryland at Ohio State

Week 7 (10/17)

Rutgers at Maryland, Penn State at Michigan

Week 8 (10/24)

Iowa at Minnesota

Week 9 (10/31)

Wisconsin at Iowa, Minnesota at Indiana, Northwestern at Oregon

Week 10 (11/7)

Maryland at Purdue

* Compared to the first two seasons of the Big Ten rights agreement, 2026 will be a more compressed season with one less week of TV windows, and really every conference will be dealing with this to some degree.  Here's hoping we don't see any major weather rescheduling.  

Think of it as a couple more places where BTN might have to double up on games or have a late evening TV window.  CBS's agreement calls for 14-15 games, so its possible they'll have one less game.  NBC's schedule calls for 14-16 games on the broadcast network and we know they'll have one extra regular season game by selling the Big Ten Championship game back to FOX.

* We know ESPN leans heavily into the SEC to fill the ABC football schedule.  What games from the ACC. Big 12 and American could help fill out that schedule, excluding games not already set for ABC?  I look at these five games:

• SMU at Louisville (Week 3, September 19th) - Its a stretch, but both could end up as ranked coming into the week.  I had this as on ACCN, but it might be worth a push.
• Notre Dame at BYU & Miami (FL) at Florida State (Week 7, October 17th) - For the Big 12 game, might need to work on whether this ends up at 12pm ET / 10am local time.
• Notre Dame vs. Navy from Foxborough, MA (Week 9, October 31st) - Would expect Florida vs. Georgia to occupy one ABC slot.  
• BYU at Utah (Week 10, November 7th) - Georgia at Ole Miss and Alabama at LSU will likely occupy the other two ABC.  Could be another 10am local start.
  

EDIT: I ommitted Tennessee at Georgia Tech which I guessed would be an ABC game in Week 2.  Forgot about that one probably because its a SEC school on the road.  Its an ACC controlled game, but I was thinking of games where the SEC didn't have a school playing at all in the game.

A Breakdown of Weeknight College Football on TV for 2026

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

CUSA, the MAC and the Sun Belt will comprise the football schedule these nights in October and November.  I'll put the games or conference involved, with where I think it will end up.  Its not rocket science since CBSSN has CUSA and MAC options where the Sun Belt is only ESPN.

Tue 10/6: Southern Miss at Troy

Wed 10/7: One CUSA on CBSSN & one on ESPN2/ESPNU

Tue 10/13: One CUSA on CBSSN & one on ESPN2/ESPNU

Wed 10/14: One CUSA on CBSSN & one on ESPN2/ESPNU

Tue 10/20: South Alabama at Marshall (likely ESPN2), one CUSA on CBSSN & one on ESPNU

Wed 10/21: One CUSA on CBSSN & one on ESPN2/ESPNU

Tues 10/27: One CUSA on CBSSN & one on ESPN2/ESPNU

Wed 10/28: One CUSA on CBSSN & one on ESPN2/ESPNU

Tue 11/3: One MAC on ESPN2/ESPNU and one on CBSSN

Wed 11/4: Two MAC on ESPN2/ESPNU and one on CBSSN

Tue 11/10: Two MAC on ESPN2/ESPNU and one on CBSSN

Wed 11/11: Two MAC on ESPN2/ESPNU and one on CBSSN

Tue 11/17: Two MAC on ESPN2/ESPNU and one on CBSSN

Wed 11/18: Two MAC on ESPN2/ESPNU

Thursdays

Thursdays used to be ESPN's premier weeknight game.  Over the past decade with the NFL occupying Thursdays permanently throughout the season, its reasonable to assume that the prestige of Thursdays and Friday nights have flipped.  

Here's what ESPN's Thursday night schedule looks to be.  Expect ESPN2 to have games too with the occasional ESPNU game.  I'd expect a few HBCU games on Thursday nights too, likely on ESPNU.

9/3: Colorado at Georgia Tech

9/10: Skip for US Open tennis (and NFL opening Thursday night)

9/17: Syracuse at Pitt

9/24: Liberty at Coastal Carolina

10/1: North Texas at Tulsa

10/8: One of South Florida at UTSA, South Alabama at Arkansas State and either Missouri State at WKU or Sam Houston at Liberty.  I would expect games on ESPN2 and ESPNU too.

10/15: East Carolina at UAB & Georgia Southern at Old Dominion (one on ESPN2/ESPNU)

10/22: East Carolina at Memphis & James Madison at App State (one on ESPN2/ESPNU)

10/29: Florida Atlantic at North Texas & Troy at James Madison (one on ESPN2/ESPNU)

11/5: UTSA at Florida Atlantic & James Madison at Southern Miss (one on ESPN2/ESPNU)

11/12: Memphis at South Florida & Louisiana at ULM (one on ESPN2/ESPNU)

11/19: Rice at Temple (Arkansas State at Louisiana Tech might move to this date too and if it does, one on ESPN2/ESPNU)

11/26: TCU at Texas Tech (Thanksgiving)

It looks like CBSSN might televise a pair on Thursday night games in mid-October.  One on 10/8 would be a CUSA game (either Missouri State at WKU or Sam Houston at Liberty) and the second could be on 10/15 if Colorado State at Texas State is moved. 

Fridays

We know a decent portion of the Friday night football schedule, so what might it look like for ESPN, ESPN2, FOX Sports and CBS Sports Network?  

Unless designated, main ESPN should air these games.  All times Eastern and I've skipped Black Friday for all networks listed.

ESPN/ESPN2

For 10/23, 10/30 & 11/6, multiple ACC games were designated as "may move to Friday", so I picked one.

9/4: Miami (FL) at Stanford (9pm)

9/11: Rutgers at Boston College (7:30pm, ESPN2)

9/18: Miami (FL) at Wake Forest (7:30pm)

9/25: Army West Point at Temple (7pm), Navy at UAB (8pm, ESPN2) & Clemson at California (10:30pm)

10/2: Pitt at Virginia Tech (7:30pm)

10/9: Florida State at Louisville (7pm) & Iowa State at BYU (10:15pm)

10/16: App State at Coastal Carolina (6pm) & Memphis at Tulane (9:15pm)
10/23: Duke at Virginia (7:30pm) & Army West Point at Tulsa (8pm, ESPN2)

10/30: Tulane at Charlotte (7pm, ESPN2), SMU at Syracuse (7:30pm)  & Kent State at Sacramento State (10:30pm, ESPN2)

11/6: South Florida at East Carolina (7pm, ESPN2) & Virginia Tech at SMU (7:30pm)

11/13: Florida State at Pitt (7pm) & Houston at Colorado (10:15pm)

11/20: Virginia Tech at Miami (FL) (7:30pm)

FOX/FS1

For FOX, I expect them to skip a few weeks on the broadcast network for other events like the World Series and other MLB playoffs.

Please note that I'm guessing which Big Ten games will move to Friday nights.

9/4: Toledo at Michigan State (7pm, FS1) & UNLV at Hawai'i (11pm, FS1)

9/11: Missouri at Kansas (8pm, FOX)
9/18: Houston at Texas Tech (8pm, FOX)

9/25: Northwestern at Indiana (8pm, FOX)

10/2: Penn State at Northwestern (8pm, FOX)

10/9: Minnesota at Purdue (8pm, FS1)

10/16: Rutgers at Maryland (8pm, FS1)

10/23: Completely skip or MW on FS1

10/30: Baylor at UCF (8pm, FS1)

11/6: UCLA at Minnesota (8pm, FOX)

11/13: Illinois at UCLA (9pm, FOX)

11/20: Iowa State at UCF (8pm, FOX)

CBSSN

I'm expecting the five Pac-12 games that were marked as possibilities for moving to Thursday & Friday to be moved.  Also don't think they'll carry games every Friday. 

Just about everything in here is a guess in terms of which games move.

9/4: Bryant at Army West Point

10/2: Liberty at Delaware & Fresno State at Washington State

10/9: Washington State at Utah State

10/16: Skip

10/23: Air Force at Wyoming

10/30: Oregon State at Fresno State

11/6: Skip for Veterans Classic

11/13: UNLV at New Mexico

11/20: San Diego State at Boise State

I'm less certain the Army game on 9/4 gets moved now that a 2nd Army road game has been set for a Friday night, but Army has regularly moved their Labor Day weekend opener to Friday to allow cadets a weekend away.

CFB TV Guesses for 2026 Week 3

* If a game isn't listed assume streaming such as ESPN+, SEC+, ACCNX, the MW app or local TV.

* Games in green are games that time and TV network have been set.  Games in blue have been set for the TV network, but not yet the time.  Games listed in italics are games I moved to a new date with no knowledge if that date change is actually happening.
* Using last year as a guide when Notre Dame plays at night, I deleted NBC's primetime Big Ten window in favor of a primetime Peacock exclusive.  The Big Ten schedule this particular week is not a great one for the rightsholders.

Thursday
7:30pm ESPN: Syracuse at Pitt

Friday
7:30pm ESPN: Miami (FL) at Wake Forest

9pm 8pm FOX: Purdue at UCLA Houston at Texas Tech

9pm BTN: Portland State at Oregon

Saturday
12pm ABC: Georgia at Arkansas

12pm FOX: Virginia Tech at Maryland
12pm ESPN: Arizona State vs. Kansas

12pm ESPN2: NC State at Vanderbilt

12pm FS1: Bowling Green at Iowa State

12pm CW: Maine at Boston College

12pm TNT: Arkansas State at TCU

12pm BTN: Kent State at Ohio State
12pm BTN: North Dakota at Nebraska

12pm ESPNU: Cincinnati vs. Miami (OH)

12pm ACCN: Stanford at Duke

12pm CBSSN: Wyoming at Central Michigan

12:45pm SECN: Kennesaw State at Tennessee

2pm USA: Montana at Oregon State

3:30pm ABC: Florida State at Alabama

3:30pm CBS: USC at Rutgers

3:30pm FOX: Houston at Texas Tech Utah State at Utah

3:30pm ESPN: West Virginia vs. Virginia

3:30pm FS1: Colorado at Northwestern

3:30pm BTN: UTEP at Michigan

3:30pm BTN: UNI at Iowa

3:30pm ACCN: North Carolina at Clemson

3:30pm CBSSN: South Dakota at Boise State

3:30pm Peacock: Eastern Michigan at Wisconsin

4pm ESPN2: Georgia State at UCF

4pm CW: Fresno State at San Jose State

4pm ESPNU: UConn at Southern Miss

4:15pm SECN: Mississippi State at South Carolina

6pm USA: North Texas at Texas State

7pm FOX: Buffalo at Penn State

7pm ESPN: Florida at Auburn

7pm FS1: Akron at Minnesota

7pm CBSSN: Georgia Southern at Jacksonville State

7:30pm ABC: LSU at Ole Miss

7:30pm NBC: Michigan State at Notre Dame

7:30pm CBS: BYU at Colorado State

7:30pm BTN: Southern Illinois at Illinois

7:30pm BTN: Portland State at Oregon

7:30pm ESPNU: FIU at Florida Atlantic

7:30pm ACCN: SMU at Louisville

7:30pm Peacock: WKU at Indiana 

7:45pm SECN: Kentucky at Texas A&M

8pm ESPN2: Tulane at Kansas State

8pm CW: James Madison at San Diego State

10pm USA: Duquesne at Washington State

10:15pm ESPN: Northern Illinois at Arizona

10:30pm FOX: Utah State at Utah Purdue at UCLA

11pm BTN: Eastern Washington at Washington

CFB TV Guesses for 2026 Week 2

* If a game isn't listed assume streaming such as ESPN+, SEC+, ACCNX, the MW app or local TV.
* Games in green are games that time and TV network have been set.  Games in blue have been set for the TV network, but not yet the time.  Games listed in italics are games I moved to a new date with no knowledge if that date change is actually happening.

* Thursday night is traditionally the NFL's opening Thursday night.

* ESPN will carry the US Open men's semifinals on Friday night and the women's championship on Saturday afternoon.

* The CW has a primetime O'Reilly Series race on Saturday

Thursday

7pm ACCN: Florida A&M at Miami (FL)

Friday

7pm ACCN: Villanova at Louisville

7pm ESPNU: Norfolk State at Virginia

7:30pm ESPN2: Rutgers at Boston College

8pm FOX: Duke at Illinois Missouri at Kansas

8pm CBSSN: Tulsa at Sam Houston

Saturday

12pm ABC: Tennessee at Georgia Tech

12pm FOX: Oklahoma at Michigan

12pm ESPN: Oregon at Oklahoma State

12pm ESPN2: California at Syracuse

12pm CW: Norfolk State at Virginia ETSU at North Carolina

12pm FS1: Washington State at Kansas State

12pm TNT: UT Martin at West Virginia

12pm BTN: Eastern Michigan at Michigan State

12pm BTN: Howard at Indiana

12pm ESPNU: UNLV at North Texas

12pm ACCN: UCF at Pitt

12pm CBSSN: South Florida at Army West Point

12:45pm SECN: Charlotte at Ole Miss

3:30pm ABC: Alabama at Kentucky

3:30pm CBS: Utah State at Washington

3:30pm NBC: Rice at Notre Dame

3:30pm FOX: Arkansas at Utah

3:30pm CW: UTSA at Texas State

3:30pm FS1: Wake Forest at Purdue

3:30pm BTN: Western Illinois at Wisconsin

3:30pm ESPNU: Navy at Florida Atlantic

3:30pm ACCN: Old Dominion at Virginia Tech

3:30pm CBSSN: Memphis at Boise State

3:30pm Peacock: Mississippi State at Minnesota

4pm ESPN2: Penn State at Temple

4:15pm SECN: Southern Miss at Auburn

6pm USA: Southern Utah at Colorado State

7pm FOX: Missouri at Kansas Duke at Illinois

7pm ESPN: Arizona State at Texas A&M

7:30pm ABC: Ohio State at Texas

7:30pm NBC: Iowa State at Iowa

7:30pm CBS: Texas Tech at Oregon State

7:30pm BTN: Bowling Green at Nebraska

7:30pm ESPNU: Delaware at Vanderbilt

7:30pm ACCN: Georgia Southern at Clemson

7:30pm CBSSN: Maryland at UConn

7:45pm SECN: Louisiana Tech at LSU

7:30pm ESPN2: WKU at Georgia
10pm USA: Sacramento State at Fresno State

10pm CW: North Dakota State at Air Force

10:15pm ESPN: Arizona at BYU

10:30pm FOX: San Diego State at UCLA

11pm BTN: Louisiana at USC

11pm CBSSN: NM State at Hawai'i

CFB TV Guesses for 2026 Weeks 0 and 1

NOTE: This has been edited with the announcement of the 2026 Mountain West football schedule.  Edits will be in red.

* If a game isn't listed assume streaming such as ESPN+, SEC+, ACCNX, the MW app or local TV.
* Games in green are games that time and TV network have been set.  Games in blue have been set for the TV network, but not yet the time.  Games listed in italics are games I moved to a new date with no knowledge if that date change is actually happening.

Week 0 FBS

* FCS is going to start its season over Week 0.  I'm only going to go through the games involving FBS schools with the exception of the MEAC/SWAC Challenge.

* ABC should be carrying the Little League World Series semis on this day.  I expect them to carry the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in primetime as they have the last couple years.

* FS1 will have LIV Golf in the early afternoon

* FOX will have IndyCar in the afternoon and MLB in the evening.

* Without the full MW schedule, its hard to say if any other networks would pick up a game.

12pm ESPN: North Carolina vs. TCU

3pm CBSSN: Sacramento State at Eastern Michigan

5pm 3:30pm ESPN: Virginia vs. NC State

6pm ACCN: NM State at Florida State

6:30pm CBSSN: Jacksonville State at North Dakota State

7:30pm ABC: Howard vs. Alabama State

8pm BTN: San Jose State at USC

9:30pm ACCN: Hawai'i at Stanford

10pm CBSSN: Memphis at UNLV

Week 1

Thursday

6pm BTN: UMass at Rutgers

7pm ACCN: Akron at Wake Forest

7:30pm 8pm ESPN: Colorado at Georgia Tech

8pm SECN: UAPB at Missouri

9pm BTN: Eastern Illinois at Minnesota

Friday

* UNLV at Hawai'i is not guaranteed to be a Week 1 game, but neither school is currently scheduled for this week.  North Dakota State at UNLV or North Dakota State at Hawai'i could also be a late evening option depending on the Bison's non-conference plans. UNLV at Hawa'i is officially a Week One game.

6pm CBSSN: Bryant at Army West Point

7pm ESPN: Oklahoma State at Tulsa

7pm FS1: Toledo at Michigan State

9pm FOX: Fresno State at USC
10:30pm 9pm ESPN: Miami (FL) at Stanford

11pm FS1: UNLV at Hawai'i

Saturday

* No ESPN2 all day due to US Open tennis.

* CW has a NASCAR race on Saturday evening.

* I'm expecting a portion of FS1 in mid-afternoon to be set aside for IndyCar qualifying, though it could be moved to FS2.

* FOX has a 7pm MLB window.

12pm ABC: Baylor vs. Auburn East Carolina at Alabama

12pm FOX: North Texas at Indiana

12pm ESPN: Missouri State at Texas A&M

12pm ESPNU: Arkansas State at Memphis

12pm FS1: Coastal Carolina at West Virginia

12pm TNT: Boston College at Cincinnati

12pm CW: Miami (OH) at Pitt

12pm BTN: Marshall at Penn State

12pm BTN: South Dakota State at Northwestern

12pm ACCN: New Hampshire at Syracuse

12pm CBSSN: Towson at Navy

12:45pm SECN: Kent State at South Carolina

12:45pm SECN: Tennessee State at Georgia

3:30pm ABC: East Carolina at Alabama Baylor vs. Auburn

3:30pm CBS: Ball State at Ohio State

3:30pm FOX: Oregon State at Houston

3:30pm ESPN: UTEP at Oklahoma

3:30pm ESPNU: Liberty at James Madison

3:30pm CW: Portland State at San Diego State

3:30pm BTN: UAB at Illinois

3:30pm BTN: Hampton at Maryland

3:30pm ACCN: Tulane at Duke

3:30pm CBSSN: Central Michigan at New Mexico

4pm USA: Idaho State at Utah State

4:15pm SECN: ULM at Mississippi State

6pm FS1: Washington State at Washington

7pm ESPN: Texas State at Texas

7pm CBSSN: Wyoming at Colorado State

7pm Peacock: Northern Illinois at Iowa

7:30pm ABC: Clemson at LSU

7:30pm NBC: Western Michigan at Michigan

7:30pm BTN: Ohio at Nebraska

7:30pm BTN: Indiana State at Purdue

7:30pm ESPNU: FIU at South Florida

7:30pm ESPNU: Kent State at South Carolina

7:30pm ACCN: VMI at Virginia Tech

7:45pm SECN: Florida Atlantic at Florida

9:30pm FS1: Fresno State at USC

10:30pm ESPN: UCLA at California

10:30pm CW: WKU at Nevada

11pm BTN: Boise State at Oregon

Sunday

* No mid-afternoon ABC due to the US Open

* NBC has MLB at 3pm ET.

* Louisville vs. Ole Miss from Nashville is currently either Friday or Saturday.  I'm going to assume Sunday. Louisville vs. Ole Miss is officially a 7:30pm ET start on ABC on Sunday.

3pm ESPNU: South Carolina State vs. Florida A&M

7:30pm NBC: Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame

7:30pm ABC: Louisville vs. Ole Miss

Monday

8pm 7:30pm ESPN: SMU at Florida State

The 2025 CFB TV Schedule Revealed: Which Conferences Dominated the Network Selections and Why?

Everything's in.  No more 12 day selections.  No more 6 day hold angst.

I did some tracking around 6 day holds, who I thought had the top pick for a few of the conferences, and tracked some appearance related items in this article, and I'd appreciate it if you read it alongside this one.

* Broadcast television still brings home the bacon when it comes to how prestigious your program looks and your conference is showcased.  In terms of the Big Four networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX), here's how things break down by conference using the home team's conference as the conference of record.  Also adding in Notre Dame since they do take up a chunk of broadcast network time.  I've excluded any Army or Navy home games airing on CBS from the American's count since those schools' home games have been mostly set outside of the American's TV contracts, and conference championship games are also excluded.  

No doubt that the SEC takes up a ton of real estate on ABC alone.  I knew the Big 12 would have a good number because it gets several doubleheaders on FOX.  The Big 12 getting a decent number of broadcast network games on FOX and a token number on ABC reminds me a bit of how the previous Pac-12 contract tended to work.  ESPN and ESPN2 aired the majority of their set of Pac-12 games, while FOX and FS1 were a closer split.

The ACC number of 8 sticks out like a sore thumb since they're only a couple ahead of Notre Dame, who by contract gets nearly every home game on NBC.  If you add the CW as a network, the gap closes to the Big 12 (21 for the ACC), but the games on the CW are usually towards the back end of the selection process and not meant to be showcase games for the conference.  They do contribute a tangible number towards the ACC's success metrics pool, but they don't come close to what the ABC games provide.

* Which school showed up the most on the Big Four broadcast networks?  Including the top 20 schools plus ties (21 schools total), Alabama gets the nod.  The Big Ten (11) and SEC (7) naturally dominate this list (those whose conference appears on TV the most has more appearances to offer its members).

Notre Dame being near the top isn't a big surprise either.  They get a head start at 6 games when you start with home games NBC, but ABC loves to show them as much as they can too with 3 road game appearances.  I imagine that if Boston College or Stanford were mediocre, the Fighting Irish could have had the lead in this category.

The Big 12 contributes just 2 schools, but the conference has quality with respect to conference depth.  Not pictured here are 4 schools who made 4 broadcast network appearances (BYU, Utah, Arizona State and Iowa State).

* One topic of discussion is how often FOX leans into certain Big Ten schools in the noon window, which is their highest rated window.  And no one will be surprised by this result, which lists every school that made at least 2 appearances in the Saturday noon window on FOX.

No surprises.  They lean hard into Ohio State and Michigan.  Might have leaned into Penn State more if they had not had their midseason mess.  Did take them a while to trust in Indiana though.

But overall, the schools that appeared on FOX the most came from the Big 12, though it must be understood that the Big 12 has more games on FOX (25) than the Big Ten does (20) when you include all games on the broadcast network on all days of the week.  That said, Texas Tech had all of their FOX games on Saturdays (TCU had 1 Friday game).  Here's everyone who had at least 3 appearances on FOX:

* Since FOX clearly favored getting Ohio State and Michigan as much as they could, who did CBS and NBC end up with most often for their Big Ten selections?  We do know that they would have the full range of the conference's schools as nearly all of their games were at times acceptable to choosing a west coast school to host:

CBS is first, and them having Oregon as a regular choice should surprise no one.  Everyone listed made at least 2 appearances on CBS.

NBC's choices are much more spread out.  They did have 2 noon windows in addition to their mostly primetime schedule.  I'll say that it interesting that Oregon only appeared on NBC once, NBC's marquee (at the time) game between Oregon and Penn State.

You might be asking yourself regarding Indiana who took them the most, and the answer is nobody.  They had 2 appearances on each of the 6 platforms that carry the Big Ten (FOX, NBC, CBS, BTN, FS1 and Peacock).

* Yes, the ACC does miss out on a decent number of broadcast network opportunities as we mentioned earlier, but how do they do on ESPN, specifically Saturday on main ESPN once we get into the 12 day selection process that encompasses weeks 4 through 14? Not bad as they seem to be a priority to get on ESPN, regardless of the day of the week and in particular as the season progresses.

I wasn't completely surprised that 3 Power 4 conferences made up nearly all of the main ESPN Saturday selections once you get to the 12 day and 6 day selection weeks.

* ESPN2 is where more variability occurs.  Its where you'll see Power 4 and Group of 5 conferences mix together on a Saturday.  How does it look?  A bit different:

A quick caveat: the Saturday FCS games from the Southland and Big Sky come from games that were preselected.  They weren't placed as part of the 12 day process.

The American seems to get preference after the Big 12 and ACC where possible on Saturday, and that makes sense as they've been near the front all season with respect to the Group of 5 conference champion representative whether its been South Florida, Memphis, North Texas or Tulane, but the ACC and Big 12 continue at the top when it comes to Saturday selections.