Details for the 2024 college football schedule were released by the networks Thursday, with this season looking much different than usual thanks to new media rights agreements and conference realignment. Here is a look at some of the highlights from today’s announcements.
ABC/ESPN
ABC debuts its first season of SEC on ABC this fall, taking over the Saturday afternoon package that previously belonged to CBS. As was previously announced, the first game of that franchise will be Miami-Florida at 3:30PM ET. ABC will use a neutral site Georgia-Clemson game as the lead-in at Noon ET, and finish off the day with Notre Dame-Texas A&M at 7:30PM ET. In Week 3, ABC will feature its first SEC tripleheader: LSU-South Carolina at noon ET, Texas A&M-Florida at 3:30PM ET, and Georgia-Kentucky at 7:30PM ET.
Perhaps the biggest headline from Thursday’s schedule announcements is that the annual Red River Rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas will kickoff at 3:30 PM ET on ABC as opposed to its traditional Noon time slot. The October 12th game will also mark the rivals’ first meeting as members of the SEC.
Other highlights for ABC include Georgia-Alabama at 7:30 PM ET on September 28th, the annual Georgia-Florida game on November 2, Oklahoma State-Colorado on November 29, and Georgia Tech-Georgia later that same day.
ESPN will have its fair share of marquee games throughout the season as well. As previously noted, the network kicks off the season in “Week 0” with Florida State-Georgia Tech from Ireland on August 24, followed by Colorado and Deion Sanders‘ opener on Thursday, August 29 and Boston College-Florida State on Labor Day.
ESPN will also look to compete with FOX’s new Friday night slate by putting some notable match-ups in the time slot throughout the season. During Friday of Week 5, ESPN will air Virginia Tech-Miami, a battle of two old Big East powerhouses, and Friday in Week 8 it will air Florida State-Duke. The Friday evening time slot is nothing new for ESPN, though it will face more competition for eyeballs as FOX programs Big Ten and Big 12 games on its broadcast network. Notably, ESPN used several of its Friday night time slots for games featuring the three new members of the ACC: Stanford, California, and SMU.
View ESPN’s press release here.
CBS
After finishing the last year of its SEC contract in 2023, CBS moves forward with its first full season carrying Big Ten games, including the Big Ten championship game December 7. Opening weekend will feature Akron-Ohio State in its marquee mid-afternoon time slot, followed by UCLA’s first game as a member of the Big Ten against Hawaii. CBS’ Big Ten schedule begins in earnest with a previously announced USC-Michigan match-up during Week 4, USC’s inaugural Big Ten road game. Beginning in Week 5, CBS will select a marquee Big Ten game each week via the six or 12 day selection process.
Outside of the Big Ten, CBS secured an early season Colorado-Colorado State game at 7:30PM ET in Week 3, a match-up that attracted 9.3 million viewers on ESPN last season despite kicking off after 10:00PM ET. CBS will also feature its normal array of service academy games headlined by Army-Navy the week following the conference championships. In addition, the network will air two Black Friday games this season, Minnesota-Wisconsin at noon ET and Stanford-San Jose State at 4:00PM ET.
View CBS’ press release here.
FOX
FOX continues to program its biggest game of the week in the Noon ET window the network has dubbed Big Noon. The first three weeks of the season start strong for FOX, with Week 1 featuring Penn State-West Virginia, Texas-Michigan in Week 2, and Alabama-Wisconsin in Week 3. The crown jewel of FOX’s college football schedule will once again be Michigan-Ohio State in the final week of the regular season, which the network announced will feature a three-hour edition of the Big Noon Kickoff pregame show.
This season will also mark the introduction of FOX College Football Fridays, as the network decided not to renew its agreement with WWE Smackdown. Highlights from that package, which were previously announced, include Arizona-Kansas State in Week 1, Michigan State-Oregon in Week 6, and Rutgers-UCLA leading out of Game 1 of the World Series on October 25th. FOX will also broadcast the Mountain West Championship in its Friday night window on December 6th. Notably, many of FOX’s Friday night windows will feature teams that departed the Pac-12 for either the Big Ten or Big 12.
View FOX’s press release here.
NBC
NBC returns for its second season of Big Ten Saturday Night with Fresno State-Michigan in Week 1. The following week, NBC will get its own piece of Deion Sanders with Colorado-Nebraska, followed by a Indiana-UCLA Big Ten conference match-up in Week 3. The network will also stream four Peacock exclusive games in the first three weeks of the season, each featuring a Big Ten school. NBC will also broadcast a Nebraska-Iowa game on Black Friday at 7:30PM ET, making for a full day of football between college and the NFL following Thanksgiving day.
The network also continues its long running relationship with Notre Dame this season, highlighted by Florida State-Notre Dame on November 9th and Army-Notre Dame November 23rd from Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately for NBC, many of Notre Dame’s higher-profile games come away from home this year. The Fighting Irish will play Texas A&M and USC away this year, with those games airing on other networks.
View NBC’s press release here.
