First the Big Ten last year began a new television contract, with the SEC doing so this year. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 never got one. And of course, dozens of schools have changed leagues just in the past two years.
All of which make for some significant changes to the way we’ll watch college football this season. Here now is a guide to the biggest adjustments (all times Eastern).
The SEC moves to ABC
After 28 years with a Game of the Week on CBS, ABC/ESPN now own the SEC’s entire lineup. You’ll notice the change right from Week 1, when ABC airs a Saturday doubleheader of Miami at Florida (3:30 p.m.) and Notre Dame at Texas A&M (7:30 p.m.).
Just like CBS did, ABC will air an SEC game at 3:30 p.m. every week, but it won’t necessarily be the league’s biggest game. ABC has the option to move some of those games into its Saturday prime-time package with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, along with assorted ACC and Big 12 contests.
And no, ABC didn’t get the rights to the CBS college football theme. But you will still hear it on Saturdays, because …
CBS has a full Big Ten schedule at 3:30 p.m.
The Big Ten’s new three-network arrangement will be fully implemented this season now that CBS no longer has the SEC. Most Saturdays, you will see a Big Ten home game at noon on Fox, 3:30 p.m. on CBS and 7:30 p.m. on NBC. But not always. In Week 1, for example, Fox is airing Penn State at West Virginia, a Big 12 home game, at noon. And NBC is showing the Nov. 9 Florida State-Notre Dame game in prime time.
Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson will call the CBS Big Ten games.
Fox has more No. 1 picks in the Big Ten than the other two, but not every week. It used its first two No. 1 picks to grab the Nov. 30 Michigan at Ohio State and Sept. 7 Texas at Michigan matchups. However, it traded the third No. 1 pick. It’s believed NBC was the recipient and is expected to air the Oct. 12 Ohio State at Oregon game in prime time.
Saturday mornings with Nick Saban
The now-retired seven-time national championship coach made his ESPN “College GameDay” analyst debut last Saturday in Ireland. He’ll be coming to your cities all season, along with familiar faces in Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Desmond Howard and Lee Corso. They’ll spend Week 1 in College Station ahead of the Notre Dame-Texas A&M game.
Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” team remains intact, with Rob Stone, Urban Meyer, Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn and Mark Ingram.
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TNT gets in on the CFP
ESPN remains the primary rightsholder for the new 12-team College Football Playoff, but it has sublicensed two of the Dec. 21 first-round games to TNT. ESPN will retain the top two picks for its prime-time broadcasts on Friday and Saturday, while TNT gets the two afternoon windows on Saturday — which happen to line up opposite Texans-Chiefs on NBC and Steelers-Ravens on Fox.
While the games will air on a different network, they will still be produced by ESPN.
Fox will air a weekly Friday night game
Fox, which is no longer airing WWE’s “Smackdown,” is converting its Friday night window into a college football showcase, beginning Sept. 13 with Arizona at Kansas State. The lineup consists of nine Big Ten games — including Rutgers at USC at 11 p.m. on Oct. 25, two Big 12 contests and the Mountain West championship on Nov. 29.
ESPN/ESPN2, FS1 and the Big 12 Network have their share of Friday night games as well.
The CW has more college football
After wading into the sport last year with a package of ACC games, The CW picked up the rights to most Oregon State and Washington State home games as well as seven Mountain West contests. Two “Pac-2” home games, Texas Tech-Wazzu on Sept. 7 and Oregon-Oregon State on Sept. 14, will air on Fox.
In his first TV job since he was caught using a homophobic slur during a 2020 Cincinnati Reds game, Thom Brennaman will be the lead play-by-play voice on ACC games. Ted Robinson and J.B. Long, formerly of Pac-12 Network, will call West Coast games.
New kickoff times on SEC Network
As part of its new contract with the league, ESPN is hoping to space out SEC games in a way it could not do before. Rather than the customary noon-3:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. windows, SEC Network will air games at 12:45 p.m., 4:15 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.
SEC fans will notice a helpful twist in this new era. Rather than waiting until six or 12 days beforehand, ESPN recently announced which games on every team’s schedules will air in the early windows (either noon or 12:45). Exact networks will be announced closer to kickoff.
Pac-12 After Dark lives on
The conference may be dead, but ESPN for one will still rely on the league’s former schools, as well as BYU, to fill those 10:30 p.m. time slots. The first three weeks’ late-night windows feature New Mexico at Big 12-foe Arizona on Aug. 31, Mississippi State at fellow Big 12-school Arizona State on Sept. 7 and, believe it or not, an ACC nonconference game, with San Diego State visiting Cal.
Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA may be spared because they’re no longer part of an ESPN-affiliated conference.
A change on Notre Dame broadcasts
After the tandem of Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett got universally panned, NBC moved Collinsworth out of the booth and brought back Dan Hicks, who held the lead play-by-play role from 2011-16. Garrett remains the color guy, and Zora Stephenson returns as sideline reporter.
As in past seasons, NBC will air one Irish home game exclusively on its streaming service, Peacock. This year that’s the Sept. 28 Louisville game. You’ll also need Peacock to watch several Big Ten games, including Washington versus Washington State on Sept. 14.
New voices in ESPN and Fox’s game booths
There aren’t any drastic changes to either network’s announcer teams. But on ESPN, Roddy Jones replaces the recently ousted Robert Griffin III alongside play-by-play voice Mark Jones, with Louis Riddick joining Bob Wischusen. The Jones/Jones team is calling Thursday night’s North Dakota State-Colorado opener, while the Wischusen/Riddick team has Florida State-Boston College on Monday night.
Meanwhile, former Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner is the new color analyst alongside Tim Brando on Fox’s No. 3 team. They’ve got Western Michigan–Wisconsin on Friday.
Enjoy the season!
(Photo of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
