2010 Home
All Times Eastern
Where I-A Games Are Televised

Over The Air Networks

- ABC broadcasts the bulk of college football games on network television. ABC generally broadcasts games at 3:30pm EST and a primetime 8pm EST timeslot. ABC has contracts with the following conferences (in parenthesis is the final season of these contracts):

ABC offers about all the games they broadcast in HD.

- CBS is the exclusive network TV provider of SEC football and will air the top SEC game each week at 3:30pm Eastern starting after the tennis U.S. Open. CBS is also allowed one primetime game per season. The SEC contract with CBS ends after the 2023 season.

CBS also has contracts for two games involving Navy. They have a contract to broadcast Navy's home game vs. Notre Dame (every other season) and the annual Army-Navy contest. CBS also has the Sun Bowl and Gator Bowl. CBS offers all of their college football broadcasts in HD.

- NBC is the rightsholder for all Notre Dame home games until the end of the 2015 season. These games will usually air at 2:30pm or 3:30pm Eastern. NBC also has the rights to the annual Bayou Classic FCS matchup between Grambling and Southern. NBC offers all their broadcasts in HD.  As Notre Dame begins to schedule neutral site "home" games, NBC will be the television outlet for those games and many of those will air in prime time.

- FOX has the rights to the Cotton Bowl and those rights also expire after the 2013 season.

National Cable Networks

- ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU broadcast the bulk of college football on pay TV, along with select games on ESPN Classic. The suite of networks hold rights to the following conferences:

Notes on the conferences:

ESPN currently has the rights to all bowl games not televised on network TV. ESPNU also shows several FCS games during the year and has contracts with the Gateway, OVC, MEAC and SWAC conferences.

Because of the sheer volume of conferences ESPN carries, games will also air on weeknights. Thursday is the prime weeknight slot, with games also airing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. All games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU are televised in HD.

- FSN holds the pay TV rights to the Big 12 and PAC-10 conferences.

For the Big 12, the conference owns the first pay TV choice and the "regional" Big 12 game, which airs on just about all FSN-affiliated regional networks. FSN also approves all PPV airing for Big 12 games not chosen for TV. Any PPV games must air when ABC is not televising a Big 12 game. This means that FSN holds the rights to 20-25 games per season. The Big 12 contract expires after the 2011 season.

For the PAC-10, FSN shows usually at least one PAC-10 game per week and holds the rights to 18 games. This contract expires after the 2011 season.

FSN will televise all games in HD.

FSN has sold seven Big 12 games to ESPN/ESPN2. Versus has sublicensed seven PAC-10 games.  Select games will also appear on Fox College Sports but those games are not sublicensed or part of the main FSN contract.

- CBS College Sports has the rights to all MWC games and all C-USA games not selected by ESPN. The contract with C-USA ends after the 2010 season (a new contract signed in July 2010 will extend through the 2015 season) and the MWC contract expires after the 2016 season. They also have a contract for all home games for Navy, except the Notre Dame game and all Army home games. The Navy contract ends after the 2018 season and the Army contract after the 2014 season. All service academy games will be on Saturdays.  All games will be available in HD.

- Versus will broadcast select MWC, PAC-10 and Ivy League games. With respect to the MWC, this is in regards to a deal between Comcast and CBS College Sports. See the entry for "the mtn." under the regional television section. For the Big 12, Versus has sublicensed seven PAC-10 games, both from FSN. The only conference that Versus has a contract with is the Ivy League.  All Versus games are available in HD.

Regional Networks & Syndication

- ESPN Regional Television is the regional syndicator of the Big East, MAC, SEC, Sun Belt and WAC conferences. Contracts with ESPN Regional TV are part of the national TV contracts with ESPN for these conferences. The SEC Network and Big East Network games are the only games available in HD at this time.

- A partnership between the Big Ten and Fox Cable Networks, called the Big Ten Network, will air games Big Ten games not shown on ESPN/ESPN2 or ABC.

- "mtn." is the acronym for the Mountain West Conference's regional broadcaster, MountainWest Sports Network. This network was formed by CBS College Sports to distribute games not televised on the network. Comcast and CBS College Sports own the network jointly (50-50 split) and Comcast controls operations of the network.  2010 will be the 1st season that all games on the mtn. will be available in HD.

- CSS has a partnership with Conference USA as they will broadcast select C-USA games in a deal with CBS Collgege Sports. They will also air SEC games in conjunction with ESPN Regional Television and air games from the Sun Belt Conference in conjunction with Cox Sports.

- Raycom Sports is the regional syndicator of the ACC and will start branding their broadcasts as the ACC Network. Their ACC contract expires after the 2010 season. All Raycom football games will be available in HD. Starting with the 2011 season, Raycom will license their content from ESPN instead of being a rightsholders

Internet Streaming

- ESPN3.com, formerly known as ESPN360, is a broadband service provided to ISPs directly. ISPs are supposed to pay for the service instead of charging customers directly. The service shows ACC, Big East, SEC, Sun Belt and MAC games not being shown on TV. Games from ABC and ESPN Networks may also be shown here.

- CBS College Sports's ULive package provides from streaming of select FCS games, C-USA games and non-televised MWC games.