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Conference USA released the television schedule for the upcoming 2017 football season and to the surprise of no one, not many C-USA games are on national TV networks this year. As of now we are guaranteed at least six games to be on an ESPN network. Six other contests will be on CBS Sports Network.
ESPN/ESPN /ESPNU
All times eastern.
- August 26, Saturday at 10 PM on ESPN: Stanford vs Rice
- September 1, Friday at 8 PM on ESPNU: Navy vs FAU
- September 15, Friday at 10:15 PM on ESPN2: Arizona vs UTEP
- October 20, Friday at 7 PM on ESPN: Marshall vs Middle Tennessee
- November 25, Saturday TBA: UTSA vs Louisiana Tech
- December 2, Saturday TBS: Conference USA Championship Game
CBS Sports Network
- September 2, Saturday at 4 PM: Kentucky vs Southern Miss
- September 2, Saturday at 8 PM: Vanderbilt vs Middle Tennessee
- September 9, Saturday at 7:30 PM: Mississippi State vs Louisiana Tech
- October 20, Friday TBA: Western Kentucky vs Old Dominion
- November 3, Friday 6 PM: Marshall at FAU
- November 17, Friday at 8 PM: Middle Tennessee vs WKU
BeIn Sports is expected to continue their one game per week broadcast so more games are sure to be aired on TV once the season starts. Last year, BeIn Sports aired 10 games.
Initial Thoughts
- Not surprised in the slightest that ESPN jumped on the Lane train and decided to air his FAU head coaching debut when the Owls host Navy.
- ESPN chose Kiffin over broadcasting Houston-UTSA in Major Applewhite’s debut. Missed opportunity for the Roadrunners to get a showcase opportunity to start the season.
- Where’s Western Kentucky? For the back-to-back Conference USA Champions to get no love on any of ESPN’s networks is wrong. The Tops should still boast a strong team this year without Jeff Brohm and be a contender.
- Moving a few conference games to Friday here-and-there might be something to look into in the future if it can be guaranteed to air on ESPN networks. CBS Sports Network is extremely hard to find and as a fan their broadcasting isn’t necessarily the best either. The AAC has moved a few of their conference games to Friday several times over the past few years and ESPN picked a few of them up. Maybe they’ll do the same for C-USA going forward.
- FIU not getting any love is a bit of a shock. Thought for sure Butch Davis’ name would be enough to get at least one guaranteed televised game.
- UTSA vs La Tech has evolved into a nice rivalry but for it to be picked up nationally by ESPN, on rivalry week no less, is a huge showcase opportunity as C-USA West could be on the line.
- UAB not getting any televised games is lame. Guess ESPN figured the spring game was all the love they needed.
- With only 12 games guaranteed to be televised this year it’s safe to say that many of us will renew our C-USA online streaming subscription.