Predicting the first 3 weeks of the 2025 college football TV schedule

Conferences reveal their complete kickoff time and network placement schedules for the first three weeks of the college football season Thursday.

At The Athletic, it has become an annual, if semi-futile, exercise to project at what time and on which network those games appear.

Like an NFL mock draft, if we pick one incorrect time or network, it implodes much of the entire lineup.

But nobody will (or should) remember this mini-mock draft once the full slate is unveiled.

Advertisement Before reading the rundown, heres a refresher on each leagues television contract.

This is the second season the ESPN family of networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and SEC Network) has exclusive rights to the SECs home games and in-conference matchups.

The ACC has a similar rundown (subbing out SEC Network for ACC Network) with a weekly game on The CW.

The Big 12 continues its partnerships with ESPN and Fox and has added TNT, which will show 13 games featuring conference members this fall.

This is the Big Tens second full year split among Fox, NBC and CBS, which conducted a draft earlier this spring.

Fox largely broadcasts Big Ten football at noon ET, while CBS commands the 3:30 p.m.

ET time slot and NBC airs games in primetime.

FS1 and BTN also broadcast Big Ten games, and Peacock streams around nine contests each year.

Notre Dame has an exclusive contract with NBC for its home games, and the network previously announced those start times.

For the Irishs three primetime kickoffs, NBC will shuffle its Big Ten time slot.

Among the other conferences, the Mountain West has deals with Fox, TNT and CBS, while the American appears on ESPNs family of networks.

In their second and final year as the Pac-2, Oregon State and Washington State have agreements with The CW, ESPN and CBS.

The Sun Belt airs exclusively on ESPN, while the MAC and Conference USA compete on ESPN and CBS Sports Network.

We chose to focus on Weeks 1-3 rather than incorporating Week 0 (Aug.

23), which contains just one power-conference matchup: Iowa State versus Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland (noon ET, ESPN).

For this exercise, we included games that appear on Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and FS1, or games already set on The CW or other networks.

TNT has kickoff windows all over the place, so the three Big 12 games here are more network-based projections.

All times Eastern.

Advertisement Week 1 The seasons first full weekend includes several games with times and networks already released.

The SEC traditionally opens the season with powerhouse nonconference matchups, and this year is no different.

On the seasons first Saturday, the SEC scheduled three games against the ACC, and all three have been unveiled in primary viewing windows: Tennessee versus Syracuse in Atlanta (noon, ABC), Alabama at Florida State (3:30 p.m., ABC) and LSU at Clemson (7:30 p.m., ABC).

ESPN also announced California at Oregon State (9:30 p.m.) in a meeting of former Pac-12 North Division foes.

ABC/ESPN also announced a Thursday doubleheader (Boise State at USF, 5:30 p.m., ESPN; Nebraska versus Cincinnati in Kansas City, 9 p.m., ESPN) and standalone games on Friday (Georgia Tech at Colorado, 8 p.m., ESPN) and Sunday (South Carolina versus Virginia Tech in Atlanta, 3 p.m., ESPN; Notre Dame at Miami, 7:30 p.m., ABC) plus Bill Belichicks North Carolina debut Monday against TCU (7:30 p.m., ESPN).

With the remaining SEC and ACC games a hodgepodge of matchups against non-power programs, theres little room for projection.

Plus, U.S.

Open tennis coverage could impact ESPNs time selections Saturday.

The Big Ten has one power-packed matchup (which Fox already has claimed) with Ohio State opening against Texas in a College Football Playoff semifinal rematch.

It seems likely the Big Ten will announce this kickoff time in conjunction with a future night game or two to pacify an agitated Buckeyes fan base that has grown weary of noon kickoffs.

But Fox, which airs primetime baseball on the first two college football Saturdays, has too much equity invested in the noon window, which is where we project this matchup.

As for the remaining games, the Big Tens media partners are left to just one power-conference clash, and that features former Pac-12 foes Utah and UCLA.

Well project NBC will air the Bruins debut of quarterback Nico Iamaleava at the Rose Bowl in primetime, and CBS will pick up Penn States season opener against Nevada.

Advertisement Of the Big 12s unannounced kickoff times and networks, Auburn at Baylor on the opening Friday is the best game available by far.

This is a perfect spot for Fox to go head-to-head with Georgia Tech at Colorado.

The Big Ten also has discussed moving a game to Labor Day Sunday, but well avoid placing it in this projection.

Week 2 The Big Ten needs to make some scheduling changes to avoid this situation every other year.

The league controls just five nonconference games against power-conference opponents all season, and only two are set for this week.

In Week 2, the Big Tens three best nonconference games are under the opposing conferences control.

With three major networks paying to show Big Ten games, thats an issue.

Perhaps one future solution is to start conference action earlier to ensure more early matchups of sufficient quality for Big Ten rightsholders.

Although Fox controls many of the top selections in the Big Tens annual draft, this seems like a week it wouldnt mind selecting third.

Well give CBS the top choice with top-10 Oregon hosting Oklahoma State (3:30 p.m.) and NBC picking Boston College at Michigan State for primetime.

On Fox, highly ranked Penn State at home against Florida International for Big Noon.

We predict Fox will make up for its soft opening in Week 2 with the heated Cy-Hawk rivalry between Iowa and Iowa State in the late afternoon.

The SEC has the rights to the weeks top game, Michigan at Oklahoma (7:30 p.m., ABC).

We also project ABC to air the return of the Kansas-Missouri blood feud (3:30 p.m.) and Ole Miss at Kentucky, providing the perfect curtain raiser to conference play (noon, ABC).

On ESPN, Illinois-Duke is a sneaky-good start to the day alongside the nonconference game between longtime ACC foes Virginia and NC State .

With ESPN airing the womens U.S.

Open final at 4 p.m., Texas quarterback Arch Mannings 2025 home debut against San Jose State shifts to ESPN2.

The ESPN/ESPN2 primetime slate opposite Michigan-Oklahoma involves multiple College Football Playoff teams, with SMU hosting Baylor and defending Big 12 champion Arizona State traveling to Mississippi State.

Week 3 The SEC again takes center stage in Week 3 with defending league champion Georgia traveling to Tennessee in a battle of 2024 CFP participants.

Florida at LSU is the SECs second-best matchup, but whenever Death Valley is involved, theres a tug-of-war between time slot and network.

For us, the night atmosphere on ESPN wins over ABC in the midday.

ABC then opts for a Big Ten-SEC midday clash in Tuscaloosa featuring Wisconsin-Alabama.

Arkansas-Ole Miss opens the day on ABC.

Advertisement The Big Tens weak early slate continues, but at least it has two conference games.

When the matchups appear uneven in the Big Ten, its a good rule to bet on the most marketable or highest-ranked team for national exposure.

In this case, we have Fox with the first selection, and it picks up Oregon at Northwestern at noon while CBS takes USC at Purdue at 3:30.

NBC has already announced Texas A&M at Notre Dame in prime time, so that shifts its Big Ten game to the afternoon.

None of the Big Tens other games include a power-conference opponent, so when in doubt, go with Ohio State.

Should Fox land the Big 12s top choice this week, look for the Backyard Brawl to air either mid-afternoon or in the evening.

ESPN snags a spunky ACC pseudo-rivalry with Clemson at Georgia Tech, which has the potential to impact the CFP race.

ESPN picks up Minnesota at California, and although it could become an after-dark kickoff, a power-conference matchup between two 2024 bowl teams has more value in the middle of the afternoon than late at night.

(Photo: Jason Mowry / Getty Images).

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