Sunday, February 16, 2025

CFB TV Guesses for 2025 Weeks 0 and 1

I don't yet have the 2025 CFB TV portal in place due to having to focus on other life items.  I'm hoping to get it in place over the next few weeks.  I'm hoping to move the site over to AWS as a host, taking advantage of a rewrite I've done in Vue & GraphQL.

(If you have some technical chops, reach out, I might have some questions.  If not, keep reading).

Since we're missing four of the five Group of Five schedules, I might try to slot in a few of their games if the matchup fits.

For Weeks 0 & 1,  I'm accounting for a few things and assuming some as well:

* No early afternoon games on ABC due to the Little League World Series in Week 0.
* No ESPN2 on Saturday of Week 1 due to the US Open.
* ABC will carry the US Open in the afternoon on Sunday of Week 1. EDIT: ESPN's new US Open deal starts in 2026, not 2025.
* FS1 has a NASCAR Trucks race at 12pm ET on the Saturday of Week 0, so no early afternoon window.  I'm also expecting IndyCar qualifying from Nashville to air on FS1 after this event.
* FOX has MLB scheduled at 7pm ET.
* CW has a NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Portland at 7:30pm ET.

Week 0

12pm FOX: Iowa State vs. Kansas State
3pm ESPN: UC Davis vs. Mercer
3:30pm ESPN2: Fresno State at Kansas
7pm ESPN2: UIW at Nicholls
7:30pm ABC: Southern vs. NC Central
7:30pm CBSSN: Sam Houston at WKU
10:30pm ESPN2: Tarleton at Portland State
11pm CBSSN: Stanford at Hawai'i

Week 1

Games in italics are games that I've moved from the Saturday date.  They are not confirmed to have moved from their existing Saturday date.  Games in a green font are confirmed for time and TV.

At this moment, I'm assuming the CW will continue as the rightsholder for Oregon State and Washington State.

If a game isn't listed, I haven't forgotten about it.  I think it will air on ESPN+ or a similar streaming platform.

Thursday
7:30pm ESPN: Nebraska vs. Cincinnati
7:30pm ACCN: East Carolina at NC State
8pm BTN: Buffalo at Minnesota
8pm SECN: Alabama A&M at Arkansas

Friday
7pm ESPN: App State vs. Charlotte
7pm ACCN: Kennesaw State at Wake Forest
8pm BTN: Western Michigan at Michigan State
9pm FOX: Colorado State at Washington

Saturday
12pm ABC: Alabama at Florida State
12pm FOX: Texas at Ohio State
12pm ESPN: Boise State at South Florida
12pm CW: Fordham at Boston College
12pm ESPNU: Temple at UMass
12pm ACCN: Coastal Carolina at Virginia
12pm CBSSN: Tarleton at Army West Point
12pm BTN: Western Illinois at Illinois
12pm BTN: Ohio at Rutgers
12:45pm: SECN: Toledo at Kentucky
3:30pm ABC: Syracuse vs. Tennessee
3:30pm CBS: New Mexico at Michigan
3:30pm FOX: Auburn at Baylor
3:30pm ESPN: Mississippi State at Southern Miss
3:30pm CW: California at Oregon State
3:30pm FS1: Nevada at Penn State
3:30pm ACCN: Eastern Kentucky at Louisville
3:30pm CBSSN: VMI at Navy
3:30pm BTN: UAlbany at Iowa
3:30pm BTN: Montana State at Oregon
3:30pm Peacock: Miami (OH) at Wisconsin
4pm ESPNU: Northwestern at Tulane
4:15pm SECN: Georgia State at Ole Miss
7pm ESPN: Marshall at Georgia
7pm FS1: Old Dominion at Indiana
7pm TruTV: UTEP at Utah State
7pm CBSSN: UNLV at Sam Houston
7:30pm ABC: LSU at Clemson
7:30pm NBC: Utah at UCLA
7:30pm BTN: Ball State at Purdue
7:30pm BTN: Florida Atlantic at Maryland
7:45pm SECN: UTSA at Texas A&M
8pm ESPNU: Rice at Louisiana
8pm ACCN: East Texas A&M at SMU
10pm TNT: Hawai'i at Arizona
10pm CW: Idaho at Washington State
10:15pm ESPN: Georgia Tech at Colorado
10:30pm FS1: Central Michigan at San Jose State
10:30pm CBSSN: Georgia Southern at Fresno State
11pm BTN: Missouri State at USC

Sunday
3:30pm ESPN: South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech
7:30pm ABC: Notre Dame at Miami (FL)

Monday
7:30pm ESPN: TCU at North Carolina

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this first year of new Big 12 rights deal with espn and Fox? Where espn gets the top 4 picks and 12 of the top 20. Surprising that they wouldn’t use one of those early selections on a standalone week 0 game in a window that rated so well this past season.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Yes, new Big 12 rights structure.

Can you clarify further? As I look at the Big 12 schedule for Week 0, its not that great of a Big 12 schedule to work with. ESPN/ABC in particular might look at saving their best picks for later in the season.

Note that the Iowa State-Kansas State game is in Dublin, Ireland, so it can't be played late in the day. ABC has their commitment to the Little League World Series too.

Anonymous said...

Is there any chance the Missouri State at USC game is on FOX after the MLB game?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Chance? Yes. But I wouldn't use a late night selection on it.

Anonymous said...

Is there any chance that Texas-Ohio State is a night game? Although I don't expect it to be, I really hope so as an Ohio State fan.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I'm expecting it to be one of FOX's top 3 Big Ten choices. Only if NBC were to trade up, and this year I don't see a compelling reason for FOX to trade one of those selections

Anonymous said...

Do you think that UCF-Jax State game on Friday gets a TV slot. I’d be surprised to see it on ESPN+ BIG12 vs a G5 conference champion

Matt Sarzyniak said...

Not really.