CFB TV Guesses for 2026 Week 5 (10/3/2026)

Here are the games already set for television and/or webcast. Here are the known available telecast windows. 

I have done my best to list what TV windows are out there. Every listing service has a little different schedule for these networks. It is also possible that a window could be eliminated or the time of a window could shift slightly to accommodate a network's needs.

Instead of cluttering up these posts even more, I'll try to keep track of the unique conference TV arrangements and six day holds used in a separate post.  

A few notes and considerations:

* FOX and FS1 are expected to Game 1 from each from the National League Division Series.  It appears one will be in the mid-afternoon on FOX with a night game on FS1.

* FS1 is carrying horse racing early in the afternoon, so they're intending to air only one game.

* FOX does have a late evening window at 11pm.  Both the Big Ten and Big 12 are options for this window.

* The evening SEC Network window was selected late in the spring

* Games set for time or TV network family, but not both:

• Indiana at Rutgers (8pm, TBA)
• SEC game time slots
• Early: Vanderbilt at Georgia, Alabama at Mississippi State
• Flex: Florida at Missouri, Auburn at Tennessee, Arkansas at Texas A&M, Kentucky at South Carolina

* For the Big Ten, I used the following selection order: CBS, FOX, NBC.  I gave ESPN the top Big 12 choice, then FOX the next two.
* I dropped the SECN window at 12:45pm ET.  I struggled to fill ESPNU at the end, and neither Alabama at Mississippi State nor Vanderbilt at Georgia deserved SECN treatment.  I'd assume SECN gets a simulcast of the ABC game with a "Command Center" presentation.

12pm ABC: Alabama at Mississippi State

12pm FOX: Michigan at Minnesota

12pm ESPN: Vanderbilt at Georgia

12pm ESPN2: UCF at Houston

12pm CW: Stanford at Wake Forest

12pm TNT: West Virginia at Iowa State

12pm ESPNU: Temple at South Florida

12pm ACCN: Louisville at NC State

12:30pm BTN: Michigan State at Wisconsin

3:30pm ABC: Florida at Missouri

3:30pm CBS: Ohio State at Iowa

3:30pm ESPN: Miami (FL) at Clemson

3:30pm ESPN2: Arkansas at Texas A&M

3:30pm ESPNU: Marshall at James Madison

3:30pm ACCN: Boston College at SMU

4pm FS1: Purdue at Illinois
4:15pm BTN: Maryland at Nebraska
4:15pm SECN: Kentucky at South Carolina

7pm ESPN: Auburn at Tennessee

7pm ESPN2: Cincinnati at Arizona

7pm ESPNU: Middle Tennessee at Kansas

7:30pm ABC: Notre Dame at North Carolina

7:30pm FOX: BYU at TCU

7:30pm NBC: Washington at USC

7:30pm ACCN: Virginia at Florida State

8pm BTN: Indiana at Rutgers

10:15pm ESPN: Texas Tech at Colorado 

11pm FOX: Baylor at Arizona State

Streaming

UTSA at Rice

Memphis at Charlotte
Toledo at Ball State

Akron at Central Michigan

Western Michigan at Buffalo

Eastern Michigan at UMass

Ohio at Kent State

Bowling Green at Miami (OH)

Army West Point at Louisiana Tech

Arkansas State at Louisiana

Georgia Southern at Coastal Carolina

Old Dominion at Georgia State

ULM at South Alabama

Sneak Peek at November ESPN Men's College Basketball Schedule

ESPN's advance schedule is out for November and that means placeholders for college basketball are too for the month.  Here's a sneak peak of what each network has in place (all times Eastern).

As always, schedule subject to change.

Games that might be airing on ESPN+, or being moved to ACCN, SECN or ESPNEWS aren't accounted anywhere, and there's some weirdness on the schedules around 11/23-11/27 where there's some missing games or TV windows that don't quite line up.

I have updated many of the known games' TV designations.  Many of the "I think" predictions below are not on my site and won't be until confirmed.

ESPN

11/8: Arkansas vs. Virginia (from DC, confirmed for 1pm)

11/10: Champions Classic (7pm and 9pm)
11/15: American (1pm) & SEC (3pm) hoops

• I think this is Louisville at Memphis & Marquette vs Missouri from Chicago.
  

11/17: ACC (7pm) along with four games from the Players Era 8 event

• Pretty sure the 7pm game is Illinois at Duke

11/18: Two Players Era 8 games

11/19: Three Players Era 8 games

11/22: Virginia Tech vs. Oklahoma State (from Charleston, SC at 3:30pm)

11/24: Four games from the Players Era 16

11/25: One Players Era game (early morning), Marquette vs. Virginia from the Battle 4 Atlantis and the Maui Invitational Championship

11/26: One ESPN Events Invitational game followed by four Players Era 16 games

11/27: Dick Vitale Invitational (WVU vs. UNC) followed by two Players Era 16 games
11/28: Players Era 16 Championship
11/29: American (1pm)

•  One of the two American vs. Atlantic 10 challenge series games I believe (time may be off, see ESPN2).

ESPN2

11/2: SEC at 6pm

• Miami vs. Florida from Tampa

11/5: SEC at 6pm

• Wake Forest at Vandy?

11/8: American at 1pm

• Possibly Richmond vs. Temple from the Palestra?

11/10: ACC at 6pm

• Feels like Florida at Florida State 

11/13: ACC at 7pm & SEC at 9pm

• Georgia at North Carolina, followed by either Arizona at Auburn or Seton Hall at Alabama

11/15: Big 12 at 5pm

• Texas vs. Baylor from San Antonio? 

11/17: SEC at 9pm

• Michigan State at Tennessee?

11/18: Two Players Era 8 games

11/19: One Players Era 8 game and WCC at 10:30pm

• VCU at Santa Clara?

11/20: Three Charleston Classic games and WCC at 11pm

• Might be Saint Louis at Saint Mary's

11/21: Washington State-Duke from the Acrisure Series (confirmed, 11pm)

11/22: Two Charleston Classic games and a Basketball Hall of Fame event game (???, maybe a mislabel) 

11/23: Three Maui Invitational games and one ESPN Events Invitational game

11/24: One Players Era 16 game, two ESPN Events Invitational games, and the Maui Invitational semifinals

11/25: Two ESPN Events Invitational games, two Battle 4 Atlantis and two Maui Invitational games
11/26: Three Players Era 16 games, an ESPN Events Invitational game and the remaining Maui Invitational game (starts just after midnight on 11/26)

11/27: Three Players Era 16 games, a 5pm Big 12 game, an ESPN Events Invitational game and one Battle 4 Atlantis game

• 5pm Big 12 could be Villanova at Kansas

11/29: American (12pm)

•  One of the two American vs. Atlantic 10 challenge series games I believe (time could be off, see ESPN).

ESPNU

11/2: Big 12 6:30pm & ACC 8:30pm

• Ohio State-BYU from Salt Lake City or Memphis-Iowa State from Sioux Falls, plus Florida A&M-Florida State from Orlando?

11/5: SEC at 8pm

• Wake Forest at Vandy if it isn't on ESPN2?

11/6: SEC at 7pm & Big 12 at 9pm

• James Madison at Kentucky followed by MTSU at Kansas?

11/8: ACC at 7:30pm

• Penn State-Pitt from Philadelphia?

11/10: ACC at 10:30pm

• ??? unless Rice-Stanford moves from the prior day

11/13: ACC at 6pm

• Georgetown at Clemson?

11/16: SEC at 8pm

• Grambling State at Kentucky?

11/17: ACC at 5pm & 10pm

• Villanova at Pitt early, UC Irvine at Stanford late?

11/20: ACC at 8pm

• Marshall at North Carolina?

11/23: Two ESPN Events Invitational games, the 9pm Maui Invitational game and a game labeled "Main Event" which might be a mislabel

11/24: Two Maui Invitational games and two Players Era 16 games

11/25: One ESPN Events Invitational game and one Battle 4 Atlantis game

11/26: One Players Era 16 game

11/27: Three Players Era 16 games and two games labeled "Wooden Legacy".  "Wooden Legacy" could be a mislabel.

CFB TV Confirmations for 2026 Week 4 (9/26/2026)

This post will be updated as announcements come out for start times for Week 4 (9/26/26) from the (mostly) twelve day selection process that most TV networks adhere to. Most conferences have the possibility of having all or part of their scheduled games held for a six day hold for the start time and/or the TV network. The list of available TV windows are based on media websites, TV listings and press releases. They can change based on the needs of the broadcaster or the conference.

Here's what I guessed based on the available openings (they will prove to be incorrect), along with the games that have already been set.

12pm ABC: Texas at Tennessee

12pm FOX: Illinois at Ohio State

12pm ESPN/ESPN2: Colorado at Baylor

12pm ESPN/ESPN2 or ACCN: Wake Forest at Louisville

12pm ESPN/ESPN2 or ACCN: Virginia Tech at Boston College

12pm TNT: Sam Houston at Texas Tech

12pm ESPNU: Colorado State at UTSA

12pm CBSSN: San Diego State at Toledo

12pm ESPN+: UNLV at Akron

12pm ESPN+: Ball State at Kent State

1:30pm BTN: UCLA at Maryland

2pm Peacock/NBCSN: Notre Dame at Purdue

2pm ESPN+: Northern Illinois at Georgia State

3pm ACCN: Central Arkansas at Florida State

3:30pm CBS: Iowa at Michigan

3:30pm FOX: Utah at Iowa State

3:30pm ABC or ESPN: Oklahoma at Georgia

3:30pm ABC or ESPN: Ole Miss at Florida

3:30pm FS1: TCU at UCF

3:30pm ESPN+: UConn at Miami (OH)

3:30pm ESPN+: Gardner-Webb at Marshall

3:30pm ESPN2 or 4pm ESPNU: Boise State at Western Michigan

3:30pm ESPN2 or 4pm ESPNU: Houston at Georgia Southern

4:15pm SECN: Vanderbilt at Auburn

5pm BTN: Nebraska at Michigan State

5pm Peacock/NBCSN: Wisconsin at Penn State

5pm ESPN+: South Florida at Bowling Green

6pm ACCN: Delaware at Virginia

6pm ESPN+: James Madison at Old Dominion

6:30pm ESPN+: Louisiana at Charlotte

7pm ESPN: South Carolina at Alabama

7pm ESPN2: Kansas State at Cincinnati

7pm FS1: Oklahoma State at West Virginia

7pm ESPN+: Southern Miss at Tulane

7pm ESPN+: Kennesaw State at Arkansas State

7:30pm ABC: Texas A&M at LSU

7:30pm NBC: Oregon at USC

7:30pm ESPNU: App State at NC State

7:45pm SECN: Missouri at Mississippi State

8pm ESPN+: Florida Atlantic at ULM

9pm ACCN: Missouri State at SMU

9pm ESPN+: UMass at Sacramento State

10:30pm FS1: Air Force at Nevada

11pm FOX: Minnesota at Washington

CFB TV Guesses for 2026 Week 4 (9/26/2026)

Here are the games already set for television and/or webcast. Here are the known available telecast windows. 

I have done my best to list what TV windows are out there. Every listing service has a little different schedule for these networks. It is also possible that a window could be eliminated or the time of a window could shift slightly to accommodate a network's needs.

Instead of cluttering up these posts even more, I'll try to keep track of the unique conference TV arrangements and six day holds used in a separate post.  

A few notes and considerations:

* Neither ESPN nor ESPN2 will have a late night selection as those games were picked back in May.

* CW also selected their ACC game for this week back in May.

* SEC Network had their early game selected in June as part of SEC time slotting.

* FOX has a late night window scheduled for 11pm ET after MLB at 7pm (maybe they'll move it up 30 minutes?).

* CBSSN might have a MAC game at either noon or 11pm ET.

* FS1 doesn't have a noon window due to a NASCAR Truck Series race.

* BTN has a pair of games at slight odd start times for them (1:30pm & 5pm ET), but that is to help lead in to a women's volleyball match at 9pm ET.

* Peacock will have a pair of games with both simulcast on NBCSN.  Back in May, NBC Sports responded to a question from Awful Announcing about Notre Dame not having a home game exclusively on Peacock, saying that they would indeed carry a Notre Dame game exclusively on Peacock.  While not a home game, Notre Dame at Purdue being set for Peacock would be the way to be accurate about that question.

* Games set for time or TV network family, but not both:

• Air Force at Nevada (TBA, FOX Sports)
• Texas at Tennessee (12pm, ABC or ESPN)
• Southern at Jackson State (7pm, ESPN Networks)
• Prairie View A&M vs. Grambling State (7pm, ESPN Networks)
• SEC Game slots
• Afternoon: Vanderbilt at Auburn
• Evening: South Carolina at Alabama, Missouri at Mississippi State
• Flex: Ole Miss at Florida, Oklahoma at Georgia, Texas A&M at LSU

* For the Big Ten, I have NBC picking 1st and 4th, which should allow Peacock to get the Notre Dame-Purdue game.  NBC could be higher than that too.  Supposedly NBC will have Oregon at USC per an interview Todd Blackledge did prior to the season.  After NBC/Peacock, I went with FOX, CBS, NBC/Peacock and FOX.

* I gave FOX first pick for the Big 12.

12pm ABC: Texas at Tennessee

12pm FOX: Iowa at Michigan

12pm ESPN: Wake Forest at Louisville

12pm ESPN2: Sam Houston at Texas Tech

12pm TNT: TCU at UCF

12pm ESPNU: Boise State at Western Michigan

12pm ACCN: Delaware at Virginia

12pm CBSSN: San Diego State at Toledo

12pm Peacock/NBCSN: Nebraska at Michigan State

1:30pm BTN: Wisconsin at Penn State

3:30pm ABC: Oklahoma at Georgia

3:30pm CBS: Illinois at Ohio State

3:30pm FOX: Colorado at Baylor

3:30pm ESPN: Ole Miss at Florida

3:30pm ESPN2: Oklahoma State at West Virginia

3:30pm FS1: Kansas State at Cincinnati

3:30pm ACCN: App State at NC State

3:30pm Peacock/NBCSN: Notre Dame at Purdue

4pm ESPNU: Colorado State at UTSA

4:15pm SECN: Vanderbilt at Auburn

5pm BTN: UCLA at Maryland

7pm ESPN: South Carolina at Alabama 

7pm ESPN2: Missouri State at SMU

7pm FS1: Utah at Iowa State

7:30pm ABC: Texas A&M at LSU

7:30pm NBC: Oregon at USC

7:30pm ESPNU: Houston at Georgia Southern

7:30pm ACCN: Virginia Tech at Boston College

7:45pm SECN: Missouri at Mississippi State

10:30pm FS1: Air Force at Nevada

11pm FOX: Minnesota at Washington

Streaming

Central Arkansas at Florida State

Southern Miss at Tulane

Louisiana at Charlotte
UNLV at Akron
UMass at Sacramento State

South Florida at Bowling Green

Ball State at Kent State

UConn at Miami (OH)
Kennesaw State at Arkansas State

James Madison at Old Dominion
Gardner-Webb at Marshall

Northern Illinois at Georgia State

Florida Atlantic at ULM

2026 Conference TV Requirements, Six Day Holds and Likely First Picks

Instead of cluttering up the weekly picks for 2026, I'm going to keep track of selection specific information in this post like six day holds that have been used, the number of times I think a network has chosen first and the required appearances that a school needs to fill on conference networks like Big Ten Network.

Six Day Holds Used

ACC (3 remaining): 10/3

American (4 remaining): 

Big Ten (2 remaining): 10/17, 10/24

Big 12  (3 remaining): 10/24

MW: 

SEC: 

Please note that this is my guess about who chose first in a given Saturday. This is not a confirmation from either the networks or conferences of who chose first.

Big Ten

Assumed top Saturday choice each week.  Weeks 0-3 and 13 were known in advance of the early season selection release. 

08/29	NBC: SJSU at USC
09/05	CBS: Boise State at Oregon
09/12	FOX: Oklahoma at Michigan
09/19	FOX: Kent St at Ohio State
09/26	NBC: Oregon at USC
10/03	CBS: Ohio State at Iowa
10/10	NBC: USC at Penn State
10/17	FOX: Ohio State at Indiana
10/24	FOX: Indiana at Michigan
10/31
11/07	CBS: Oregon at Ohio State
11/14
11/21
11/28	FOX: Michigan at Ohio State

Each school is supposed to appear on BTN twice each season with at least one appearance against another Big Ten school. 

The following schools need one game vs. another Big Ten school to air on BTN to fulfill their network requirement: Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, Oregon, Penn State, USC and Washington

127 regular season games are available to the Big Ten's rightsholders.  NBC Sports has received an extra regular season selection as part of the transaction for selling the Big Ten Championship game to FOX.  Whether that game is being spent on Peacock or NBC is unknown at the moment.

Here's the known selections used by each rightsholder, and I hope to know more about how many games each rightsholder should have later in the summer:

FOX/FS1	NBC	CBS	Peacock	BTN
31 of 45	10 of 14	10 of 14	8 of 11	31 of 43

Big 12

Assumed top Saturday choice each week.  

08/29	ESPN: UNC vs. TCU
09/05	FOX: BC at Cincy
09/12	ESPN: Oregon at OK State
09/19	FS1: ASU vs. Kansas
09/26	ESPN: CU at Baylor
10/03	ESPN: BYU at TCU
10/10	ESPN: Kansas at Utah
10/17	ABC: Notre Dame at BYU
10/24
10/31
11/07
11/14
11/21
11/28

ABC & ESPN Networks has the top four choices across the season.  After that, FOX Sports and ESPN share selections.  

Per Jon Wilner of Bay Area News Group and other reports,

* FOX Sports is capped somewhere around 35 games per season with at least seven games on FOX broadcast network.  I believe their number for the Big 12 will be 34 this season base on FOX Sports sending out a count of 137 games.  137 subtracting two conference championship games, 88 Big Ten  regular season games for FOX, FS1, and 12 regular season MW games = 35 Big 12 games.

* ESPN will carry (at least?) 27 games across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.  Initially, games were not expected to air on ESPNU, but some will air there.

* TNT will carry 13 games.  Ten games will be intraconference games.  

* Remaining games will be on ESPN+, which appears to be 33 games at the most.

* Counts below exclude the conference championship game airing on ABC.

FOX	13
FS1	10
Total	23 of 35

ABC	1
ESPN	13
ESPN2	7
ESPNU / NEWS	7
TBD	1
Linear TV	29
ESPN+	15
Overall	44 of 60

TNT

8 of 13

American

The American has a minimum of 40 games per season on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, excluding the conference championship game.  At least 20 of the 40 are expected to be on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.  Counts below exclude the conference championship game on ABC.

ABC	0
ESPN	9
ESPN2	6
ESPNU	10
ESPNEWS/Other	0
TBD	5
Total	30

Thoughts on Early Season CFB TV selections for 2026

* SEC game slotting will be announced on 6/10 and as part of this, the remaining SEC+ games will be set.  These should be the remaining games to be set for the streaming platform:

• 9/26: Tulsa at Arkansas
• 10/17: The Citadel at Texas A&M
• 11/21: Wofford at Ole Miss, Tennessee Tech at Mississippi State, Chattanooga at Alabama & Samford at Auburn

* I wasn't surprised that Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame was scheduled for primetime on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.  What did catch me out was that the Apple Cup was moved to Sunday to precede the game as NBC previously planned to carry Braves-Phillies that afternoon.

I was surprised that Purdue at UCLA was put in the late evening slot on BTN on 9/19.  When looking at places to juggle time and TV that day, if the desire was to have that game on BTN, it could have been flipped with Eastern Washington at Washington and the North Dakota at Nebraska game could have stayed at 7:15pm.

* Why was North Dakota State at Sacramento State given such a high profile slot as the ESPN "After Dark" slot? They can certainly lean into the storyline of two schools moving up to FBS and put a lot of focus on that.  The reality is that the Big 12 and ACC weren't offering many games. For the two other games that are available matching up FBS school, both from the Big 12, other TV partners gobbled them up: Utah State at Utah on FOX and Northern Illinois at Arizona on TNT.

I don't know where TNT would have been picking on 9/19. I'd assume they were 5th at the max. If they were lower, then ESPN could have had the ability to choose NIU-Arizona. Either way, a nice pickup for the MAC to get on ESPN.

* The American getting two games on ESPN on Black Friday is surprising from the standpoint that ESPN has eight games from the Players Era 16 to fit in. Knowing that two arenas will be in use, ESPN2 will likely get the majority of games that afternoon and evening. ESPN will probably pick up a game or two from that event after football and likely one more men's basketball game, such as West Virginia vs. North Carolina in the Dick Vitale Invitational from Charlotte.

* The MAC's TV schedule release accounted for nine of their ten game windows on CBS Sports Network. CBS Sports PR didn't release a schedule of game windows for CBS nor CBSSN, but piecing together everyone else's TV schedule left the 12pm window open on both 9/26 and 10/24.

9/26 has plenty of quality non-conference games hosted by the MAC to choose from and seems like the better date, both for ESPN to take a game for ESPNU and for CBSSN: 

UConn at Miami (OH)
San Diego State at Toledo

Boise State at Western Michigan

South Florida at Bowling Green

UNLV at Akron

* The Pac-12 didn't provide a lot of details on how TV would be set up for the final week of the season knowing that the matchups they set up were tentative, but we do know the following from their TV release and from one partner's release

• USA and the CW will carry two games each
• USA's games will air at 6pm and 9:30pm ET.  
• The CW games are TBD, but we do know that the Mountain West will not have a game on Saturday 11/28 on the CW.  I'd expect the ACC to have a football game that week.  Its possible that a basketball game could be mixed in too.

The conference also had five games noted as potentially moving to either a Thursday or Friday night, and I expected all of them to end up on one of those two nights, but ended up only moving two of those games off Saturday.

* I am not well versed on the programming schedule of The CW, but I didn't expect to see three games played on Friday nights (a fourth Friday game is the afternoon of Black Friday).  Two of those are weeks where a Saturday window is taken up by a NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race.

* With The CW taking an ACC game for week 0, at least one week during the season the CW will be skipping an ACC game. I'd assume a week to skip would be potentially in October (there's 3 weeks with 5-6 games on Saturday) or November 7th. With the MW and Pac-12, plus NASCAR through early November, taking up other programming hours on Saturdays, it doesn't feel as likely that they would skip two weeks and do two games in a given week.

* Kansas State at Arizona State game claimed in advance by ESPN for 10/24 had to be for a particular reason that I imagine will be more visible later in the season.  The first thing I checked was to see if ESPN had no other options for the "After Dark" window, and they have two other options for the Big 12.  FOX Sports might have the top two choice this particular week and both games that may interest them could be hosted by schools that could occupy the late evening window (Houston at Utah & Iowa State at Arizona).

* Seems like the Big Ten schools have loosened their grip on their homecoming games being pinned to a specific TV window or a narrow range of TV windows, like the noon and afternoon windows.  Only one game, Indiana at Rutgers on 10/3, was pinned to a specific start time and that time is 8pm ET.  Don't know if Rutgers did that by design to get their 3rd home game locked in as a night game so they wouldn't have to host any others at night. 

If I recall correctly, there are some limits around the homecoming games being set aside for six day holds and TV partners, if a game is held, may have to put further limits or confirm a start time for the game.

A Few CFB Odds and Sods for CFB TV in 2026

Early season and special date kickoff times and TV will be announced this coming Wednesday, May 27th.  Last year they showed up at 12pm ET.  Here's some other considerations beyond the those dates.

* Let's start with the SEC.  We know each school is supposed to have one non-conference home game per season on the SEC+ streaming companion to SEC Network.  I tried to take this into account for the guesses for Weeks 1-3.  Here's my guesses for the season of the SEC+ games:

Week 1 (9/5)
Austin Peay at Vanderbilt, Youngstown State at Kentucky, Tennessee State at Georgia, North Alabama at Arkansas, Furman at Tennessee

Week 2 (9/12)

Towson at South Carolina, Campbell at Florida

Week 3 (9/19)

New Mexico at Oklahoma, Troy at Missouri, UTSA at Texas

Week 5 (10/3)

McNeese at LSU

Week 7 (10/17)
The Citadel at Texas A&M

Week 12 (11/21)

Wofford at Ole Miss, Tennessee Tech at Mississippi State, Samford at Auburn, Chattanooga at Alabama

Since 2021 when SEC+ streaming was added as an option, 71.2% of the games chosen for the platform have been the game vs. a FCS opponent.  Certainly possible that I've overloaded the schedule with FCS games.

* The Big Ten allows their schools to put start time parameters around their homecoming games, if they so choose.  Here's the known homecoming games for 2026:

TBA: UCLA, Washington (listed as a November weekend)

Week 4 (9/26)

Wisconsin at Penn State

Week 5 (10/3)

Purdue at Illinois, Maryland at Nebraska, Indiana at Rutgers, Washington at USC, Michigan State at Wisconsin

Week 6 (10/10)

Illinois at Michigan State, Ball State at Northwestern, Maryland at Ohio State

Week 7 (10/17)

Rutgers at Maryland, Penn State at Michigan

Week 8 (10/24)

Iowa at Minnesota

Week 9 (10/31)

Wisconsin at Iowa, Minnesota at Indiana, Northwestern at Oregon

Week 10 (11/7)

Maryland at Purdue

* Compared to the first two seasons of the Big Ten rights agreement, 2026 will be a more compressed season with one less week of TV windows, and really every conference will be dealing with this to some degree.  Here's hoping we don't see any major weather rescheduling.  

Think of it as a couple more places where BTN might have to double up on games or have a late evening TV window.  CBS's agreement calls for 14-15 games, so its possible they'll have one less game.  NBC's schedule calls for 14-16 games on the broadcast network and we know they'll have one extra regular season game by selling the Big Ten Championship game back to FOX.

* We know ESPN leans heavily into the SEC to fill the ABC football schedule.  What games from the ACC. Big 12 and American could help fill out that schedule, excluding games not already set for ABC?  I look at these five games:

• SMU at Louisville (Week 3, September 19th) - Its a stretch, but both could end up as ranked coming into the week.  I had this as on ACCN, but it might be worth a push.
• Notre Dame at BYU & Miami (FL) at Florida State (Week 7, October 17th) - For the Big 12 game, might need to work on whether this ends up at 12pm ET / 10am local time.
• Notre Dame vs. Navy from Foxborough, MA (Week 9, October 31st) - Would expect Florida vs. Georgia to occupy one ABC slot.  
• BYU at Utah (Week 10, November 7th) - Georgia at Ole Miss and Alabama at LSU will likely occupy the other two ABC.  Could be another 10am local start.
  

EDIT: I ommitted Tennessee at Georgia Tech which I guessed would be an ABC game in Week 2.  Forgot about that one probably because its a SEC school on the road.  Its an ACC controlled game, but I was thinking of games where the SEC didn't have a school playing at all in the game.