Pac-12 Football Fridays

The Big East has used Friday for several regular season telecasts, and now the Pac-12 appears to be ready to try it out.  During the week, rumblings appeared that USC-Colorado in early November could be moved to a Friday slot and now we've seen the Missouri-Arizona St. game moved to a Friday evening start. 

In the case of Missouri-Arizona St., there may have been considerations made due to both Arizona schools preferring night games during the 1st month of the season.  The schools want night games due to the extreme temperatures in Arizona at that time of year.  Quite possible that ABC/ESPN wanted the game, but with several choices available for Pac-12 TV partners (Cal-Colorado, Hawai'i-Washington, Utah-USC), its possible that they could not agree on an ideal time for a Saturday game, so moving it to Friday was acceptable, particularly since they could play it in the evening in Tempe after the FIU-Louisville game.

The possible Friday move of USC-Colorado is also interesting.  Friday has been the preferred date among the few fans that have commented about it online and seems to be preferred by the administration due to the congestion around campus due to night classes.  It is still possible that the game could move to Thursday, but ESPN is inquiring about moving the game and a Thursday night game (Florida St.-Boston College) is scheduled for a 8pm start.  So unless it is put on ESPN2, I think Friday is more likely.  Network may be in question for a move to Friday and that may be the opening Friday of the NBA season and the game could be on ESPN2.

So ESPN/ESPN2 Friday schedule looks like this

9/2 - TBA (possibly Marshall-WVU or Wake Forest-Syracuse)
9/9 - FIU-Louisville 7pm ESPN, Missouri-Arizona St. 10:30pm ESPN
9/16 - Iowa St.-Connecticut 8pm ESPN/ESPN2
9/23 - UCF-BYU 8pm ESPN
9/30 - Utah St.-BYU 8pm ESPN
10/7 - TBA (possibly Boise St.-Fresno St.)
10/14 - TBA (possibly a WAC conference game)
10/21 - Rutgers at Louisville 8pm ESPN
10/28 - BYU vs. TCU @Arlington 8pm ESPN
11/4 - TBA (possibly USC-Colorado)
11/11 - USF-Syracuse 8pm ESPN2
11/18 - TBA (possibly WAC or Pac-12 game)
11/25 - Leaving this day alone since it often involves a large schedule of games
12/2 - MAC Championship @Detroit 8pm ESPN2

For Black Friday we know that there likely be a Big East-Big Ten doubleheader on ABC with either Louisville-USF or Pittsburgh-WVU, with the other on ESPN/ESPN2, followed by Iowa-Nebraska.  The WAC has often placed a late evening game here and there been some discussion that ESPN would like a late evening WAC game for that date.