Monday, May 9, 2022

Sketching out the CFB TV schedules for Thursday and Friday nights in 2022

Thought I would try to sketch out what the Thursday and Friday night college football TV schedule for 2022 based on what is known.

I left out games that haven't been confirmed to move to a particular date, like games I guessed for Weeks 2 & 3.

I'm not guessing times here, though for Weeks 1-3 have had times on their guesses.  If a game is in bold, the network has been confirmed

Thursdays
9/1: Penn State at Purdue (FOX), West Virginia at Pitt (ESPN), Central Michigan at Oklahoma State (FS1), Louisiana Tech at Missouri (ESPNU), VMI at Wake Forest (ACCN) & Ball State at Tennessee (SECN)
9/8: None (NFL Opening Night, ESPN scheduled for US Open tennis)
9/15: TBA
9/22: West Virginia at Virginia Tech (ESPN), Coastal Carolina at Georgia State (ESPNU) & Chattanooga at Illinois (BTN)
9/29: Utah State at BYU (ESPN)
10/6: TBA or MLB playoffs
10/13: Baylor at West Virginia (ESPN) & Temple at UCF (ESPN2)
10/20: Virginia at Georgia Tech (ESPN) & Troy at South Alabama (ESPNU)
10/27: Virginia Tech at NC State (ESPN early), Oklahoma at Iowa State (FS1), Louisiana at Southern Miss (ESPNU) and Utah at Washington State (ESPN late)
11/3: Appalachian State at Coastal Carolina (ESPN)
11/10: Tulsa at Memphis (ESPN) & Georgia Southern at Louisiana (ESPNU)
11/17: SMU at Tulane (ESPN)
11/24: Mississippi State at Ole Miss (ESPN)

I think 9/15 could end up being the Rutgers at Temple game.  If not, maybe a Sun Belt game.  

October 6th might be unavailable due to the changes to the MLB playoffs with a longer Wild Card round.

For October 13th, Baylor at West Virginia could air on FS1 and Temple at UCF on ESPN, but I'm unsure as to whether FS1 would have MLB playoff action that evening, so I went with both games on ESPN networks.

Fridays
9/2: Virginia Tech at Old Dominion (ESPN early), Illinois at Indiana (FS1), Temple at Duke (ACCN), Western Michigan at Michigan State (BTN) & TCU at Colorado (ESPN late)
9/9: Louisville at UCF (ESPN2, ESPN has men's US Open tennis)
9/16: Florida State at Louisville (ESPN)
9/23: Virginia at Syracuse (ESPN) & Boise State at UTEP (CBSSN)
9/30: Tulane at Houston (ESPN), UTSA at Middle Tennessee (CBSSN) & Washington at UCLA (FS1)
10/7: Houston at Memphis (ESPN) & Nebraska at Rutgers (FS1)
10/14: Navy at SMU (ESPN) & UTSA at FIU (CBSSN)
10/21: Tulsa at Temple (ESPN2) & UAB at WKU (CBSSN)
10/28: ECU at BYU (ESPN2)
11/4: Duke at Boston College (ESPN2 early) & Oregon State at Washington (ESPN2 late)
11/11: ECU at Cincinnati (ESPN2) & Colorado at USC (FS1)
11/18: USF at Tulsa (ESPN2)
11/25: Arkansas at Missouri (CBS), Florida at Florida State (ABC), NC State at North Carolina (ESPN mid-afternoon), Nebraska at Iowa (BTN), MAC Game (CBSSN & ESPNU early) & Pac-12 (FOX mid afternoon, FS1 late, ESPN evening)

I think the MW could fill the following dates
CBS: 11/25
CBSSN: 9/9, 10/7, 10/14 (after UTSA at FIU), 10/28
FS1: 9/9, 11/4, 11/18, 11/24 (Thanksgiving) & 11/25

Black Friday (11/25) loses one window on FOX due to the World Cup.  Also, the Big 12 tends to move games to this date and with three games already on Thursday nights, they might be required to move one more game (I'm not sure that Tennessee Tech at Kansas counts).

Also, I'm assuming the 2022-23 NBA schedule starting around October 19th, which should start to push the Friday schedule for ESPN over to ESPN2 most weeks.

1 comment:

unknown said...

Matt, For November 25 on FS1, Wyoming-Fresno State college football game start at 10:00 pm Eastern Time.