Way Too Early 2018 CFB TV Guesses: Weeks Zero & One

This is an early, way too early, guess at how the various TV networks might slot their college football games for Weeks Zero & One of 2018.  If you click on the links for the weeks below, you'll get the existing schedule for the week and any games already set for TV.

If I didn't list your game, assume its going to be available exclusively online.

Week Zero
* I don't know of any rumored overseas games at this time.  My best guess is that any other games involving schools playing at Hawai'i (Navy, Nevada, UNLV or Utah St.) could move to this date.  Rice, who is also playing at Hawai'i, has a game vs. Prairie View A&M on this date.

Jacksonville St. is contracted to be involved in the FCS Kickoff game again and is awaiting an opponent to be announced.  Maybe a second FCS game will be moved to this date.

Saturday
Duquesne at UMass, 6pm Eleven Sports
TBD vs. Jacksonville St., 6:30pm ESPN
Wyoming at New Mexico St., 8pm AggieVision

Week One
* I accounted for the following events:

• US Open tennis airing on ESPN2 all day on Saturday 9/1
• FS1 carrying at least one MLB game on Saturday 9/1 with a game already scheduled for 4pm ET.  I'm going to assume a 7pm ET game too.

* I made the call to move Houston at Rice to Friday night so I could get that game on CBSSN.  It was either to move that game or Indiana at FIU.  Since the 2016 matchup between the Hoosiers and the Panthers was moved to a Thursday night, I figured it wasn't feasible to move it to a weeknight again.

* I really struggle with what the decision will be for Oklahoma's member retained game.  I feel that neither FAU nor Army (9/22) deserve to be shown as PPV games.  Maybe the Army game ends up on FSN nationally as the member retained game.  For the FAU game, I gave that to FOX Sports.

* For conferences where ESPN and FOX share rights, I gave the top choices for the week from the Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 to FOX Sports.  For those of you scoring at home, that would mean I had FOX choose Oregon St. at Ohio St. over Texas vs. Maryland.

* I understand there's a report out there that CBS will be sublicensing West Virginia vs. Tennessee from Charlotte.  I was able to craft the schedule without the need for a CBS sublicense, but that likely depends on the ability to move multiple SEC games off of Saturday, such as what I did with a SEC Network doubleheader on Thursday.

* I am assuming existing C-USA rightsholders will remain the same.  beIN Sports was already contracted to air games in 2018.

* For FOX's top Pac-12 choice, I went with Cincinnati at UCLA over North Carolina at California, using the Chip Kelly curiosity factor.  For the FS1 choice, since both Arizona schools are at home and the FS1 opening I had was late evening, I assume one is one Pac-12 Networks & the other is on either FS1 or ESPN, therefore I went with BYU at Arizona.

Thursday
6pm CBSSN: UCF at Connecticut
6pm SEC: Coastal Carolina at South Carolina
8pm ESPN: Northwestern at Purdue
8pm BTN: New Mexico St. at Minnesota
8pm Pac-12: Weber St. at Utah
9pm SEC: UT Martin at Missouri
9:15pm CBSSN: Wake Forest at Tulane

Friday
8pm ESPN: Utah St. at Michigan St.
8pm FS1: Western Kentucky at Wisconsin
8pm CBSSN: Houston at Rice
10pm Pac-12: San Diego St. at Stanford

Saturday
12pm ABC: Texas vs. Maryland
12pm FOX: FAU at Oklahoma
12pm ESPN: Akron at Nebraska
12pm FS1: Appalachian St. at Penn St.
12pm FSN: Abilene Christian at Baylor
12pm ESPNU: Army at Duke
12pm SEC: Austin Peay at Georgia
12pm SEC: Eastern Illinois at Arkansas
12pm BTN: Texas St. at Rutgers
12pm CBSSN: Syracuse at Western Michigan
12:20pm ACC Network: Furman at Clemson
12:30pm ACC RSNs: Massachusetts at Boston College
2pm Pac-12: Bowling Green at Oregon
3:30pm ABC: Louisville vs. Alabama
3:30pm FOX: Oregon St. at Ohio St.
3:30pm ESPNU: Boise St. at Troy
3:30pm CBSSN: Colorado vs. Colorado St.
3:30pm BTN: Kent St. at Illinois
3:30pm FSN: Missouri St. at Oklahoma St.
4pm SEC: Stephen F. Austin at Mississippi St.
4pm SEC: Middle Tennessee at Vanderbilt
5pm Pac-12: North Carolina at California
5:30pm ESPN: Tennessee vs. West Virginia
6pm KStateHD.TV/ESPN3: South Dakota at Kansas St.
7pm CBSSN: Indiana at FIU
7pm beIN Sports: SMU at North Texas
7pm Jayhawk TV: Nicholls at Kansas
7:30pm FOX: Cincinnati at UCLA
7:30pm ESPNU: Central Michigan at Kentucky
7:30pm SEC: Northwestern St. at Texas A&M
7:30pm SEC: Charleston Southern at Florida
7:30pm BTN: Northern Illinois at Iowa
8pm ABC: Washington vs. Auburn
8pm Pac-12: UNLV at USC
8pm Cyclones.TV: South Dakota St. at Iowa St.
8pm FSN: Southern at TCU
9pm ESPN: Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech
10:15pm ESPNU: Washington St. at Wyoming
10:30pm FS1: BYU at Arizona
10:30pm CBSSN: Navy at Hawai'i
11pm Pac-12: UTSA at Arizona St.

Sunday
* At the moment, I don't have a good reason to move any game to Sunday for FOX.  There's a few reasons for this:

• I don't see FOX using three Pac-12 selections right off the bat.
• Both of the Arizona schools still set for playing on Saturday makes it tough for one of them to NOT be the FS1 late Saturday game.  Both schools strongly prefer to play in the evening in September due to heat concerns.  Because of how the Pac-12 Networks are programmed, a game airing on the national feed also airs on the regional feed, so they'd have to break the rule to show Arizona school on the national feed & another on the Pac-12 Arizona feed.
• Even if one of the Arizona schools moved off of a Saturday game date and Sunday was offered, the game moving would be UTSA at Arizona St. due to BYU's stance on Sunday competition.  In that case, you could see both BYU at Arizona (late Saturday) & UTSA at Arizona (Sunday) on Pac-12 Networks, with California at North Carolina moved over to FOX on Sunday or FS1 on Saturday.