Thursday, February 25, 2021

Sketching out Week 0 & Week 1 for CFB 2021

I have to admit that I haven't given these a lot of thought, and frankly, I don't know what sports will be having conflicting events.  Normally there might be conflicts with the WNBA, Fireball3, Little League World Series, motorsports, boxing, MLB, US National Team Soccer and the US Open, along with others that I have forgotten about.  Let's try to have fun with this and you tell me where I'm off my on my choices.

I did assume that ESPN2 will be unavailable due to US Open tennis.  FS1 also has MLB on Saturday after 4pm ET.

If I don't list a game, assume it is being streamed through ESPN Digital or the MW Network.  One thing to remember is that the SEC can now place one football game per school on ESPN+ per season and I do expect it to get used early in the season in select cases.

4pm FOX: Nebraska at Illinois
8pm FOX: Hawai'i at UCLA
10pm CBSSN: UConn at Fresno State
10pm AggieVision: UTEP at NM State


Thursday
I expect one SEC game to move to Thursday night along with an additional Pac-12 game.  Weber State at Utah was already set for this evening.

7pm ESPNU: ECU vs. Appalachian State
7:30pm ACCN: USF at NC State
8pm ESPN: Ohio State at Minnesota
8:30pm SECN: Kent State at Texas A&M
9pm Pac-12: Weber State at Utah
10pm FS1: Fresno State at Oregon 

Friday
An option exists to move North Carolina at Virginia Tech to Friday and I expect it to be used.

7pm ACCN: Old Dominion at Wake Forest
8pm ESPN: North Carolina at Virginia Tech
10pm Pac-12: Northern Colorado at Colorado 

Saturday
12pm ABC: Oklahoma at Tulane
12pm FOX: Indiana at Iowa
12pm ESPN: Texas Tech vs. Houston
12pm FS1: West Virginia at Maryland
12pm ESPNU: Syracuse at Ohio
12pm SECN: Central Michigan at Missouri
12pm SECN: Bowling Green at Tennessee
12pm BTN: UTSA at Illinois
12pm BTN: Western Michigan at Michigan
12pm CBSSN: Marshall at Navy
12pm ACCN: Colgate at Boston College
12:30pm ACC RSN: Northern Illinois at Georgia Tech
2pm Pac-12: Nevada at California
3:30pm ABC: Alabama vs. Miami (FL)
3:30pm ESPN: Boise State at UCF
3:30pm BTN: Temple at Rutgers
3:30pm BTN: Oregon State at Purdue
3:30pm CBSSN: Holy Cross at UConn
4pm FOX: Penn State at Wisconsin
4pm ESPNU: Akron at Auburn
4pm SECN: Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State
4pm SECN: Rice at Arkansas
4pm ACCN: William & Mary at Virginia
5pm Pac-12: Montana at Washington
7pm ESPN: Stanford vs. Kansas State
7pm CBSSN: Duke at Charlotte
7:30pm ABC: Georgia vs. Clemson
7:30pm SECN: Florida Atlantic at Florida
7:30pm SECN: ULM at Kentucky
7:30pm BTN: Michigan State at Northwestern
7:30pm ACCN: UMass at Pitt
8pm FOX: BYU vs. Arizona
8pm ESPNU: Baylor at Texas State
8pm Longhorn: Louisiana at Texas
8pm Pac-12: San Jose State at USC
10:30pm ESPN: LSU at UCLA
11pm Pac-12: Utah State at Washington State
11pm Pac-12 AZ: Southern Utah at Arizona State

Sunday
7:30pm ABC: Notre Dame at Florida State

Monday
8pm ESPN: Ole Miss vs. Louisville

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Matt:

For the last few years Wisconsin and Purdue have opened on Thursdays and Fridays. Why do you think they won't do that this year? Michigan St has also been doing that for about a decade but they open on the road this year. As my Nittany Lions open on the road this year against Wisky and Purdue next year I've been expecting both of those games to be Thursday & Friday.

Thanks again for doing the schedules every year. They're invaluable.

Jim J

Anonymous said...

You have UTSA/Illinois listed twice on 9/4. I agree with Jim that it seems likely that the Big Ten will play a Friday night game in Week 1 again this year.

And also second his thanks!

Matt Sarzyniak said...

@Jim - So I looked at a couple things. Ohio State-Minnesota is a weeknight game and I placed it on ESPN because ESPN has very little room on Saturday to take any Big Ten games, so I gave FOX the chance to take up the inventory on Saturday and not move games to other days of the week.

Maybe one of the BTN games moves over to Friday night (UTSA-Illinois?).

@2nd Anonymous - I removed the evening UTSA-Illinois instance.

Unknown said...

zero games slated for FS2? (MW)

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Take a look at the schedule. The only game that isn't a game vs. FCS in Week One is NM State at San Diego State.

Saira said...
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The Viral Tweets said...
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Unknown said...

What about E. Illinois @ South Carolina?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Take a look at the third paragraph, particularly the part about the SEC.