(05-14-2026 07:10 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(05-14-2026 05:43 AM)schmolik Wrote:  If the SEC can get 5M viewers per game in three different slots on Saturdays they have less incentive to play games on Friday. The Big Ten isn't there yet. FOX also seems to want to play on Friday more than ABC does. ESPN wants to play on Friday but the top schools in the SEC will have less incentive to play on Friday to play on ESPN. Now if ABC agrees to air a weekly Friday night game the calculus of Friday night games changes. I've mentioned that the "Big Three" doesn't really want to play Friday night games, at least host them (Penn State agreed to play at Northwestern this year). I'll bet the number of SEC teams who don't want to play a Friday Night game (Black Friday excluded) is way higher than the Big Ten. When college football is a big business and 100,000 fans pack your stadium on a Saturday, a Friday night game is a fairly big loss. Friday night games work for the ACC and Big 12 and for a lot of Big 10 schools (and the fact that PURDUE is still hosting a Friday Night game tells you FOX isn't getting "first choice" either). Maybe if push comes to shove SEC schools might prefer Friday night to noon/11am on Saturday but never over "regular" Saturday slots and the top SEC schools will never or at most one or two times a year have to make that choice.

I mean - this isn’t rocket science.

Friday night games are a good release valve to give coverage to the entire conference as opposed to just the top handful of teams so that they’re not buried in the mass of games on Saturday. If you have the luxury of more than 3 games per week that would draw national interest, as the SEC often does, then that points to trying to find time slots beyond the 3 traditional Saturday windows so that you’re not cannibalizing each other.

Look at some of the games that got sent to SEC Network last year, such as Arkansas-LSU and Clemson-South Carolina. There are going to be even more quality games sent to SEC Network or SECN+ with the 9th conference game starting. To me, that shows the SEC should absolutely be getting a Friday night package under their new TV deal - the inventory is large enough that they’re getting games that would otherwise be on over-the-air television or ESPN in any other conference sent to SECN instead. That screams, “Get another TV window.”

Like I’ve said, this is simply a platitude from Sankey and I don’t blame him - the SEC can’t get more money for Friday night games as of now, so there’s no point in giving that way. That will eventually change when the current ESPN contract ends, though.

Well the SEC ESPN contract ends after the 2033-34 season so we have a while to go there.

Also just like the Big Ten requires games on BTN the SEC also likes games on SECN as well. They could dominate ESPN as well as ABC every Saturday but they don't. Last year I counted just 17 SEC hosted games airing on ESPN while I counted 39 on SECN. It's easy for us to say the SECN should give games up to move to Friday nights on ABC. We're not the SECN. Non Big Ten fans would say get rid of the BTN rule so every Ohio State game can air on FOX, CBS, and NBC. But the cable networks want to make money too. There's a reason why more of the next tier SEC games don't air on ESPN. Why isn't Clemson-South Carolina airing on ESPN?

https://www.mattsarzsports.com/contract/sec/2025

Piggybacking off the Big Ten and Friday nights...

It's worth noting that FOX only has one of the first three picks each week (CBS and NBC have the other two). Now FOX certainly can decide to put their #1 pick in any week on Friday Night and sacrifice their Big Nooner for a lower pick. But we know for most practical purposes the Big Three will rarely play on Friday Nights and even if by some miracle Ohio State and Michigan did agree to play The Game on Black Friday evening FOX themselves wouldn't be that dumb to move it from Saturday. As long as the SEC doesn't play Friday nights, FOX will face lesser competition on Friday nights playing likely ACC games vs. likely SEC games on Saturday afternoons. It makes sense in most cases for FOX to put its top choice as the Big Nooner with the exception if they can get a Pacific 4 home game that they can't stick in a Big Nooner slot.

Now last season was a bad example since FOX didn't air a lot of Big Ten Friday night games. Here are their Friday Night Big Ten games and the Saturday Big Nooners the following day...

Iowa at Rutgers ... Michigan State at USC (11pm ET start)
Nebraska at Minnesota ... Washington at Michigan
Northwestern at USC ... Indiana at Penn State
Minnesota at Oregon ... Michigan at Northwestern

https://www.mattsarzsports.com/contract/big-ten/2025

Three of the four weeks FOX had a Big Three team in the Big Nooner slot, the fourth FOX gave the Big Nooner slot to the Big 12. Obviously that week MSU/USC was FOX's 1st pick and they decided to put it in the graveyard shift instead but even that they didn't do a Friday night. Maybe this season with more Big Ten Friday games one of them could've been a FOX "1st pick", we can judge after we see FOX's full Big Nooners. I have a feeling very few of these games will be and if they're not, they'll be at best "fourth choices".

(05-14-2026 07:10 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(05-14-2026 05:43 AM)schmolik Wrote:  If the SEC can get 5M viewers per game in three different slots on Saturdays they have less incentive to play games on Friday. The Big Ten isn't there yet. FOX also seems to want to play on Friday more than ABC does. ESPN wants to play on Friday but the top schools in the SEC will have less incentive to play on Friday to play on ESPN. Now if ABC agrees to air a weekly Friday night game the calculus of Friday night games changes. I've mentioned that the "Big Three" doesn't really want to play Friday night games, at least host them (Penn State agreed to play at Northwestern this year). I'll bet the number of SEC teams who don't want to play a Friday Night game (Black Friday excluded) is way higher than the Big Ten. When college football is a big business and 100,000 fans pack your stadium on a Saturday, a Friday night game is a fairly big loss. Friday night games work for the ACC and Big 12 and for a lot of Big 10 schools (and the fact that PURDUE is still hosting a Friday Night game tells you FOX isn't getting "first choice" either). Maybe if push comes to shove SEC schools might prefer Friday night to noon/11am on Saturday but never over "regular" Saturday slots and the top SEC schools will never or at most one or two times a year have to make that choice.

I mean - this isn’t rocket science.

Friday night games are a good release valve to give coverage to the entire conference as opposed to just the top handful of teams so that they’re not buried in the mass of games on Saturday. If you have the luxury of more than 3 games per week that would draw national interest, as the SEC often does, then that points to trying to find time slots beyond the 3 traditional Saturday windows so that you’re not cannibalizing each other.

Look at some of the games that got sent to SEC Network last year, such as Arkansas-LSU and Clemson-South Carolina. There are going to be even more quality games sent to SEC Network or SECN+ with the 9th conference game starting. To me, that shows the SEC should absolutely be getting a Friday night package under their new TV deal - the inventory is large enough that they’re getting games that would otherwise be on over-the-air television or ESPN in any other conference sent to SECN instead. That screams, “Get another TV window.”

Like I’ve said, this is simply a platitude from Sankey and I don’t blame him - the SEC can’t get more money for Friday night games as of now, so there’s no point in giving that way. That will eventually change when the current ESPN contract ends, though.

One thing we all know is that you get a lot more money from a negotiation before the contract is signed rather than as an addendum to an existing contract when the media partners holds all the cards.

(05-14-2026 08:03 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(05-14-2026 07:10 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(05-14-2026 05:43 AM)schmolik Wrote:  If the SEC can get 5M viewers per game in three different slots on Saturdays they have less incentive to play games on Friday. The Big Ten isn't there yet. FOX also seems to want to play on Friday more than ABC does. ESPN wants to play on Friday but the top schools in the SEC will have less incentive to play on Friday to play on ESPN. Now if ABC agrees to air a weekly Friday night game the calculus of Friday night games changes. I've mentioned that the "Big Three" doesn't really want to play Friday night games, at least host them (Penn State agreed to play at Northwestern this year). I'll bet the number of SEC teams who don't want to play a Friday Night game (Black Friday excluded) is way higher than the Big Ten. When college football is a big business and 100,000 fans pack your stadium on a Saturday, a Friday night game is a fairly big loss. Friday night games work for the ACC and Big 12 and for a lot of Big 10 schools (and the fact that PURDUE is still hosting a Friday Night game tells you FOX isn't getting "first choice" either). Maybe if push comes to shove SEC schools might prefer Friday night to noon/11am on Saturday but never over "regular" Saturday slots and the top SEC schools will never or at most one or two times a year have to make that choice.

I mean - this isn’t rocket science.

Friday night games are a good release valve to give coverage to the entire conference as opposed to just the top handful of teams so that they’re not buried in the mass of games on Saturday. If you have the luxury of more than 3 games per week that would draw national interest, as the SEC often does, then that points to trying to find time slots beyond the 3 traditional Saturday windows so that you’re not cannibalizing each other.

Look at some of the games that got sent to SEC Network last year, such as Arkansas-LSU and Clemson-South Carolina. There are going to be even more quality games sent to SEC Network or SECN+ with the 9th conference game starting. To me, that shows the SEC should absolutely be getting a Friday night package under their new TV deal - the inventory is large enough that they’re getting games that would otherwise be on over-the-air television or ESPN in any other conference sent to SECN instead. That screams, “Get another TV window.”

Like I’ve said, this is simply a platitude from Sankey and I don’t blame him - the SEC can’t get more money for Friday night games as of now, so there’s no point in giving that way. That will eventually change when the current ESPN contract ends, though.

Well the SEC ESPN contract ends after the 2033-34 season so we have a while to go there.

Also just like the Big Ten requires games on BTN the SEC also likes games on SECN as well. They could dominate ESPN as well as ABC every Saturday but they don't. Last year I counted just 17 SEC hosted games airing on ESPN while I counted 39 on SECN. It's easy for us to say the SECN should give games up to move to Friday nights on ABC. We're not the SECN. Non Big Ten fans would say get rid of the BTN rule so every Ohio State game can air on FOX, CBS, and NBC. But the cable networks want to make money too. There's a reason why more of the next tier SEC games don't air on ESPN. Why isn't Clemson-South Carolina airing on ESPN?

https://www.mattsarzsports.com/contract/sec/2025

Florida-FSU got dumped onto ESPN2 last season, what chance did Clemson-USC have when both also had bad records? There were a lot of highly anticipated matchups of SEC- SEC and SEC-ACC opponents going into rivalry weekend for the Mouse last year:

Miss St - Ole Miss - 5.2m - noon Friday (NFL game at 2 pm also sort of going h2h with it!)
UGA - GT - 8.7m - 3:42pm Friday (again NFL game was still going on)
A&M - Texas - 13m - 7:41 Friday
Vandy - Tennessee - 4.01m - 3:30 Sat (dumped on ESPN!!)
OU - LSU - 6.3m - 3:41pm Sat ABC
Auburn - Alabama - 11.3m - 7:42pm Sat

As mentioned above, we also had USC-Clemson and Florida-FSU. I don't even know what Arkansas-Missouri and Kentucky-Louisville did. ACCN for KY-Louisville I think. SECN for Arky-Missouri? ESPN2? I have no idea. There were just too many highly anticipated matchups and not enough time slots, unless we wanted to send out a sacrificial lamb to go up against Michigan - OSU (Miami-Pitt got that honor, 2.22m to show for it).

I count 48.5m viewers just from the 6 games I listed above, over 50m when you throw in that Miami-Pitt game. FWIW, in 2025 Clemson-USC was an important matchup of 2 CFP contenders (Clemson got in as ACC champs, USC just missed out amid a jumble with Alabama and Ole Miss), and it was put in the all-important (not) time slot of noon Saturday on ESPN, h2h with The Game and also Vandy - Tennessee. Ratings?

Michigan-OSU - 12.3m
Vanderbilt - Tennessee - 3.6m
USC-Clemson - 2.4m

It was the 6th biggest matchup for the Mouse on rivalry weekend in 2024 despite both teams going into the matchup with reasonable CFP aspirations!! Colorado-Ok St got 3.3m in the noon Friday slot that year fyi.

(05-14-2026 08:15 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Piggybacking off the Big Ten and Friday nights...

It's worth noting that FOX only has one of the first three picks each week (CBS and NBC have the other two). Now FOX certainly can decide to put their #1 pick in any week on Friday Night and sacrifice their Big Nooner for a lower pick. But we know for most practical purposes the Big Three will rarely play on Friday Nights and even if by some miracle Ohio State and Michigan did agree to play The Game on Black Friday evening FOX themselves wouldn't be that dumb to move it from Saturday. As long as the SEC doesn't play Friday nights, FOX will face lesser competition on Friday nights playing likely ACC games vs. likely SEC games on Saturday afternoons. It makes sense in most cases for FOX to put its top choice as the Big Nooner with the exception if they can get a Pacific 4 home game that they can't stick in a Big Nooner slot.

Now last season was a bad example since FOX didn't air a lot of Big Ten Friday night games. Here are their Friday Night Big Ten games and the Saturday Big Nooners the following day...

Iowa at Rutgers ... Michigan State at USC (11pm ET start)
Nebraska at Minnesota ... Washington at Michigan
Northwestern at USC ... Indiana at Penn State
Minnesota at Oregon ... Michigan at Northwestern

https://www.mattsarzsports.com/contract/big-ten/2025

Three of the four weeks FOX had a Big Three team in the Big Nooner slot, the fourth FOX gave the Big Nooner slot to the Big 12. Obviously that week MSU/USC was FOX's 1st pick and they decided to put it in the graveyard shift instead but even that they didn't do a Friday night. Maybe this season with more Big Ten Friday games one of them could've been a FOX "1st pick", we can judge after we see FOX's full Big Nooners. I have a feeling very few of these games will be and if they're not, they'll be at best "fourth choices".

Based upon what we've seen the past couple of seasons, I think that Oregon and Indiana can reasonably be expected to compete with PSU for that #3 ratings spot this year. USC probably could, too, if they're in the top 10 most of the season.

My assumption is that the "Big Ten draft" between FOX, CBS, and NBC has already been completed.

Obviously Friday night games must be scheduled well in advance (not the usual 12 days in advance).

For FOX to choose a Friday night game either they must clear it with NBC or CBS or they must count it as their #1 pick that week (could be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd overall).

Now these were the games I thought before the season would be top three picks for each week...

(05-06-2026 03:52 PM)schmolik Wrote:  I predicted back in January after the dates were announced...
>
FOX CBS NBC
noon 3:30pm 7:30pm

Sept. 5 North Texas at Indiana Ball State at Ohio State Boise State at Oregon
Sept. 12 Iowa State at Iowa Oklahoma at Michigan Duke at Illinois
Sept. 19 Virginia Tech at Maryland Colorado at Northwestern USC at Rutgers
Sept. 26 Iowa at Michigan Illinois at Ohio State Oregon at USC
Oct. 3 Michigan at Minnesota USC at Washington Ohio State at Iowa
Oct. 10 Indiana at Nebraska Washington at Iowa USC at Penn State
Oct. 17 Ohio State at Indiana Nebraska at Oregon Penn State at Michigan
Oct. 24 Indiana at Michigan Oregon at Illinois Iowa at Minnesota
Oct. 31 Minnesota at Indiana Washington at Nebraska Ohio State at USC
Nov. 7 Oregon at Ohio State Michigan State at Michigan No game: Miami at Notre Dame
Nov. 14 Northwestern at Ohio State Michigan at Oregon USC at Indiana
Nov. 21 Iowa at Illinois Indiana at Washington Ohio State at Nebraska
Nov. 28 Michigan at Ohio State USC at UCLA Washington at Oregon
>

The only one of these games that made FOX's Friday night lineup was Iowa at Washington Oct. 9 (I incorrectly said it would be at Iowa). That week I could see FOX taking it and deciding it would be better on Friday night and leaving their Big Nooner with a weaker game. Ohio State's playing Maryland in a game that's screaming BTN as OSU isn't playing Purdue or Rutgers. Oregon hosts UCLA so that could also be in play for CBS or NBC.

Otherwise, I can see Fresno State at USC being a top three pick as most Big Ten games are vs. G6 and Fresno State is a fairly decent G6. Northwestern-Indiana has Indiana but also has Indiana and it's the same weekend as three pretty good games (Iowa-Michigan, Illinois-Ohio State, Oregon-USC). Oregon also has a Friday night game but it's at Michigan State so that weakens the possibility it was one of the top three games of the week (Nov. 20/21). Nebraska-Illinois on Nov. 6(7) is a decent game but it's up vs. Oregon/Ohio State, Michigan State/Michigan (you can throw the records out), Penn State/Washington and it's a week NBC is already committed to Miami/Notre Dame.

Think of Friday Night as an extra game, not a replacement for Saturday football. You can say it's a time slot that the NFL legally can't play. The NFL also legally can't play all day Saturday.

(05-14-2026 08:15 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Piggybacking off the Big Ten and Friday nights...

It's worth noting that FOX only has one of the first three picks each week (CBS and NBC have the other two). Now FOX certainly can decide to put their #1 pick in any week on Friday Night and sacrifice their Big Nooner for a lower pick. But we know for most practical purposes the Big Three will rarely play on Friday Nights and even if by some miracle Ohio State and Michigan did agree to play The Game on Black Friday evening FOX themselves wouldn't be that dumb to move it from Saturday. As long as the SEC doesn't play Friday nights, FOX will face lesser competition on Friday nights playing likely ACC games vs. likely SEC games on Saturday afternoons. It makes sense in most cases for FOX to put its top choice as the Big Nooner with the exception if they can get a Pacific 4 home game that they can't stick in a Big Nooner slot.

Now last season was a bad example since FOX didn't air a lot of Big Ten Friday night games. Here are their Friday Night Big Ten games and the Saturday Big Nooners the following day...

Iowa at Rutgers ... Michigan State at USC (11pm ET start)
Nebraska at Minnesota ... Washington at Michigan
Northwestern at USC ... Indiana at Penn State
Minnesota at Oregon ... Michigan at Northwestern

https://www.mattsarzsports.com/contract/big-ten/2025

Three of the four weeks FOX had a Big Three team in the Big Nooner slot, the fourth FOX gave the Big Nooner slot to the Big 12. Obviously that week MSU/USC was FOX's 1st pick and they decided to put it in the graveyard shift instead but even that they didn't do a Friday night. Maybe this season with more Big Ten Friday games one of them could've been a FOX "1st pick", we can judge after we see FOX's full Big Nooners. I have a feeling very few of these games will be and if they're not, they'll be at best "fourth choices".

I will remind you that Big Ten schools have the right to turn down Friday games. OSU and Michigan have done so and PSU only allows away games.

More Friday Night discussion... The ACC.

https://theacc.com/news/2026/5/15/acc-fi...edule.aspx

I notice that while Miami, Florida State, and Clemson all play Friday night games all of them are on the road (FSU plays UF on Black Friday in the afternoon). Could these schools be saying the same thing the top Big Ten and SEC teams are saying on Friday night games?

Also last year ay least three ACC Friday night games were clear upsets (at least at the time): Virginia beating Florida State, Louisville over Miami, and Clemson over Louisville. Is it a coincidence all these upsets happen on Friday night? One less day of prep. You wonder why Duke won the ACC last year? Maybe if the ACC protected the "top" teams like the Big Ten and SEC did then Miami would've won the ACC. They're lucky Miami got an at large bid last year.

(05-15-2026 11:26 AM)schmolik Wrote:  More Friday Night discussion... The ACC.

https://theacc.com/news/2026/5/15/acc-fi...edule.aspx

I notice that while Miami, Florida State, and Clemson all play Friday night games all of them are on the road (FSU plays UF on Black Friday in the afternoon). Could these schools be saying the same thing the top Big Ten and SEC teams are saying on Friday night games?

Also last year ay least three ACC Friday night games were clear upsets (at least at the time): Virginia beating Florida State, Louisville over Miami, and Clemson over Louisville. Is it a coincidence all these upsets happen on Friday night? One less day of prep. You wonder why Duke won the ACC last year? Maybe if the ACC protected the "top" teams like the Big Ten and SEC did then Miami would've won the ACC. They're lucky Miami got an at large bid last year.

Alabama and Georgia had extremely difficult conference slates last year, and no SEC games are on Fridays other than on BF. And I don’t think the B1G is protecting anyone, either, it’s just certain schools are refusing to play certain games, as they are allowed to. Once 2030 rolls around and the next contract IX up for bid, that is likely to change. Same for the AEC in 2034.

More game times released today....

Big Ten:
https://bigten.org/fb/article/60083/

New Big Nooners on FOX are Sept. 5: North Texas at Indiana and Kent State at Ohio State. FOX will also have a prime time slot on Sept. 19 opposite Michigan State at Notre Dame on NBC with two games in line (the other will air on FS1).

CBS's first three are Boise State at Oregon, Mississippi State at Minnesota, and USC at Rutgers

NBC chose Western Michigan at Michigan and Iowa State at Iowa as the sacrificial lamb to Ohio State at Texas. They also added San Jose State at USC Week 0 at 3pm ET and Washington State at Washington to Labor Day Sunday 4pm ET. These very well could be the make ups to two of the three Notre Dame prime time games.

Black Friday games are Nebraska at Iowa at noon on CBS and Minnesota at Wisconsin in prime time on NBC.

Most Homecoming Games were announced but most windows weren't announced (or even excluded).

ESPN:

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-relea...ll-season/

I believe ABC already announced their Week 1 slate and the prime time games for Week 2 and 3. New ABC games:

Week 2: Arizona State at Texas A&M, noon, Alabama at Kentucky, 3:30pm
Week 3: Georgia at Arkansas, noon, Florida State at Alabama, 3:30pm

"Schedules are subject to change. Please continue to check @ESPNPR and ESPN Press Room for more information. The broadcast schedule for the 2026-27 College Football Playoff will be announced on Monday, June 1, ESPN’s Bowl Season schedule will be revealed on Wednesday, June 3, and the times and windows for the rest of the SEC’s schedule will be unveiled on Wednesday, June 10. Additional scheduling details, including commentator assignments for Kickoff Week, will be announced later this summer."

Arkansas's AD complains about a graveyard shift and a "nooner" in back to back weeks:

(05-27-2026 03:49 PM)schmolik Wrote:  Arkansas's AD complains about a graveyard shift and a "nooner" in back to back weeks:

I understand where he's coming from, but where could ESPN realistically air the game and still get decent viewership/exposure?

SEC Week 2 slate

12 - Michigan/Oklahoma on FOX
12 - A&M/Arizona St on ABC
3:30 BAMA/Kentucky on ABC
7:00 Tenn/GT on ESPN
7:30 Texas/Ohio St on ABC

SEC Week 3 Slate

3:30 Bama/FSU
3:30 Kentucky/A&M
7:00 Florida/Auburn
7:30 Ole miss/LSU

(05-27-2026 04:14 PM)Glenn360 Wrote:  

(05-27-2026 03:49 PM)schmolik Wrote:  Arkansas's AD complains about a graveyard shift and a "nooner" in back to back weeks:

I understand where he's coming from, but where could ESPN realistically air the game and still get decent viewership/exposure?

SEC Week 2 slate

12 - Michigan/Oklahoma on FOX
12 - A&M/Arizona St on ABC
3:30 BAMA/Kentucky on ABC
7:00 Tenn/GT on ESPN
7:30 Texas/Ohio St on ABC

SEC Week 3 Slate

3:30 Bama/FSU
3:30 Kentucky/A&M
7:00 Florida/Auburn
7:30 Ole miss/LSU

Well Week 3 ABC's top two games are obviously Bama/FSU and Ole Miss/LSU. Georgia/Arkansas certainly has a good case for their #3 and they'd want to schedule that away from their top two.

The graveyard shift game at Utah is part of the Big 12 contract. I personally don't think any non MT/PT schools should be scheduled for it, ESPN obviously disagrees. SEC schools can certainly say to ESPN if they get scheduled for the graveyard shift in the future they'll just refuse to play games in the MT/PT zones. I doubt Arkansas fans will do it but the best way to get rid of late night games is don't watch them, go to bed, speak with your remote.

If you take the money from ESPN or Fox or NBC or CBS or whoever else, then you lose all rights to complain about game times for TV. That applies whether you’re Arkansas or Alabama or Ohio State or anyone else.

You know what happens when the NFL tells the Dallas Cowboys to play a game in Brazil on a weeknight with 4 days rest to fulfill TV obligations? Even Arkansas alum Jerry Jones says, “Thank you sir! May I have another!” That’s what happens when you sell your product for billions of dollars per year to TV networks.

Zero sympathy for anyone in the SEC or Big Ten complaining about TV scheduling. ZERO. In the words of Don Draper, “That’s what the money is for!”

NIU plays ALL Saturday home games for first time in 26 years. We have four televised conference games on Saturdays (two of which are on a free, national OTA channel). Something unheard of in the MAC. This is all a foreign concept to me.

The 2026 Texas State Bobcats football TV schedule has come out and for the first time ever all 12 regular season games will be on linear TV, with five games on the OTA Network, The CW. Home games are in bold:

Saturday at Texas Longhorns 3:30 PM EST ESPN
Sep. 5
Saturday vs UTSA Roadrunners 3:30 PM EST The CW
Sep. 12
Saturday vs North Texas Mean Green 12:00 PM EST USA
Sep. 19
Saturday vs UIW Cardinals 6:00 PM EST USA
Sep. 26
Saturday at San Diego State Aztecs 10:30 EST The CW
Oct. 3
Thursday vs Colorado State Rams 8:00 EST CBSSN
Oct. 15
Saturday vs Utah State Aggies 7:30 EST CBSSN
Oct. 24
Saturday at Boise State Broncos 10:00 EST The CW
Oct. 31
Saturday at Oregon State Beavers 10:30 EST The CW
Nov. 7
Saturday vs Fresno State Bulldogs 4:00 EST The CW
Nov. 14
Saturday vs Washington State Cougars 6:00 EST USA
Nov. 21
Saturday at Colorado State Rams Time TBA Flex Game
Nov. 28

In terms of the SEC, the June 10 announcement is "windows". As much as I want to say when the biggest games are, the precedent the last two seasons has been that they aren't usually announced. Games usually are announced as "early", "middle", "late", and "flex" (middle or late) with the majority of games set for flex and only the early games announced.

Looking at 2025 from Weeks 4 on...

Alabama played one "early" kickoff (at Missouri) with kickoff before 1pm ET.
Texas played one (Vanderbilt).

Georgia surprisingly played three (Kentucky, at Mississippi State, and Charlotte) as "early" kickoffs. It seems like a lot but one was a non conference game and two were vs. bottom feeders.

Florida didn't play an early kickoff all season including Weeks 1-3. In fact, only two of their kickoffs started at exactly 3:30pm ET (Texas and Georgia). Seven of their twelve games were night games (7pm or later). Considering Florida played a murderous SEC schedule last year that's not too surprising although they did play Mississippi State, why wasn't that game an early kickoff (LSU-Vanderbilt and Oklahoma-South Carolina were that week's early kickoffs)?

Tennessee played the season opener in Atlanta at noon ET and a non conference game vs. UAB at 12:45pm and then played all their conference games in "middle" or "late" slots.

The team I saw with the most early kickoffs was Arkansas with four with all four of them in the Central Time Zone, two at home and the other two at Memphis and at LSU.

To figure out possible "early kickoffs" for the "top" schools, go through each week and figure out what games would clearly not be the "top two" games of the week that ABC would never want to put at 3:30pm or SNF but would make a good noon ET game on ABC. I would think you'd want to make every team has at least one early game but Florida last year didn't have one.

It's probably easier to figure out what games won't be early kickoffs.

Sept. 26: Oklahoma-Georgia, Texas-Tennessee
Oct. 3: Vanderbilt-Georgia
Oct. 10: Georgia-Alabama, Texas-Oklahoma
Oct. 17: Alabama-Tennessee
Oct. 24: Texas A&M-Alabama
Oct. 31: Florida-Georgia
Nov. 7: Alabama-LSU, Georgia-Mississippi
Nov. 14: Texas-LSU, Alabama-Vanderbilt
Nov. 21: LSU-Tennessee
Nov. 27 (Already scheduled): Mississippi State-Mississippi, Florida-Florida State (ACC Contract), Texas A&M-Texas
Nov. 28: Auburn-Alabama

Oct. 17 is interesting. You have Auburn-Georgia and Florida-Texas in addition to Alabama-Tennessee. It's a loaded week which also has Notre Dame-BYU which I would assume ESPN/ABC has the rights to. You'd think ABC would want to put one of these games at noon ET and I imagine that game won't be Alabama-Tennessee.

In addition, Ohio State-Indiana play on Oct. 17. You would assume FOX has it but FOX took Oklahoma-Michigan so that means they had to give up either Ohio State-Indiana or Oregon-Ohio State to CBS or NBC. I have yet to know which network has the OSU-IU game. I'm shocked whatever network has it didn't just announce it. I figure if CBS or NBC got one of the big OSU games they would just claim it now and announce it, why wait? If CBS or NBC gets OSU-IU that could affect ABC's strategy (or will it? ABC put Alabama-Georgia up against Oregon-Penn State last year).

Coach McGuire at Texas Tech wants to pay ACU $1 million to get out of their game with them and try to set up a game with Texas after Sarkisian takes a jab at them.

CFP Schedule



https://collegefootballplayoff.com/news/...-sked.aspx

So TNT enters the QF and SF rotation.

One of the QF's and the SF's assigned to ESPN will be simulcast on ABC along with the championship game with one of the 1st round games and one of the QF's remaining ESPN exclusives.

According to this, the January 1 schedule is not announced although I find it hard to believe the Rose Bowl won't be the middle game, especially since that's the game they want on ABC. At the very least, there'd be zero chance it will be the first game (they won't have it during the parade!) With the Sugar Bowl moving the SF the prime time slot is "open".

(06-01-2026 04:36 PM)schmolik Wrote:  CFP Schedule



https://collegefootballplayoff.com/news/...-sked.aspx

So TNT enters the QF and SF rotation.

One of the QF's and the SF's assigned to ESPN will be simulcast on ABC along with the championship game with one of the 1st round games and one of the QF's remaining ESPN exclusives.

According to this, the January 1 schedule is not announced although I find it hard to believe the Rose Bowl won't be the middle game, especially since that's the game they want on ABC. At the very least, there'd be zero chance it will be the first game (they won't have it during the parade!) With the Sugar Bowl moving the SF the prime time slot is "open".

It was made clear that the Rose Bowl will not be in the early slot. While they could move the Rose Bowl to prime time in theory, it is true that in practicality, they want the biggest viewership number for ABC and that’s what the Rose always provides.