The Best Games. The Most Games. ESPN Announces Early Season College Football Schedule

• College Football’s Most-Watched Series Returns: ABC’s Saturday Night Football Early-Season Slate Peppered with the CFP National Champions, New Year’s Six Winners
  
• ESPN Televises the Most Games of any Single Network in Kickoff Week and Entire 2018 Season
  
• The Champs Play Here: Alabama’s First Three Games on ESPN’s Networks, Including Home Opener and First Road Test; Marquee Teams from All 10 FBS Conferences in Season’s First Three Weeks

• ESPN+ Added to Lineup, Streams More than 20 Games in Season’s First Three Weeks; More than 100 Exclusive Games Throughout the Season  

• SEC Network Covers its Fifth Football Season; Longhorn Network’s Eighth

• Six Conference Champions Crowned on ESPN’s Networks

• FCS Kickoff in Week 0 Propels Season Long Coverage Concluding with NCAA Division I Football Championship

ESPN will celebrate the return of college football with an early season schedule that is unrivaled and unmatched in the industry, featuring marquee teams from all 10 FBS conferences and the nation’s top programs playing key conference and non-conference matchups across ESPN’s networks. ESPN’s first three weeks schedule launches a season-long regular season campaign which culminates with the six conference championship games and leads into a postseason featuring 35 Bowl Games – including the New Year’s Six – and the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T. ESPN will also air every snap of the NCAA Division I Football Championship.

ESPN begins the season riding the momentum of a widely successful 2017 campaign, which concluded with the CFP National Championship generating the second largest audience in cable history and the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game with the third largest cable audience ever. Furthermore, ESPN’s entire presentation of the New Year’s Six plus the CFP National Championship was the most-watched in the system’s four-year history. The post season success was a continuation of the regular season superlatives, which included ABC’s Saturday Night Football being the most-watched college football franchise for the second consecutive year.

Welcome Back: ESPN’s Networks Annual Five-Day Labor Day Weekend Extravaganza Celebrates the Return of College Football with Nearly 50 Games
ESPN’s annual five-day kickoff weekend slate (Aug. 30 – Sept. 3) is peppered with the nation’s best teams, including the top 4 teams and seven of the top 8 in ESPN.com’s latest Way-Too-Early Top 25, playing key conference and non-conference games. Across all its networks, ESPN will carry nearly 50 games in the season’s first week.

The defending CFP National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide open their title defense on ABC’s Saturday Night Football vs Louisville (Sept. 1 at 8 p.m. ET) in the 2018 Camping World Kickoff from Orlando, only the fourth meeting between the two schools and the first in more than 25 years. The season debut of Saturday Night Football will cap a kickoff Saturday tripleheader on ABC, with all three games featuring a New Year’s Six participant from last season. Ohio State hosting Oregon State (noon) will lead into the 2018 Chick-fil-A Kickoff between Washington and Auburn (3:30 p.m.). The Buckeyes are reigning Big Ten Champions and went on to win the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, while Auburn participated in the Chick-fil-A Bowl Peach Bowl last season.

ESPN Airs the Most Games of Any Network in Week 1 and the 2018 Season
ESPN will air the most games of any network in week 1, a theme that will continue throughout the season. The network’s seven game kickoff weekend slate kicks off in earnest on the season’s first full Saturday with a quadruple-header beginning with the 2018 AdvocCare Texas Kickoff from Houston between Ole Miss and Texas Tech (noon) and continues with the defending SEC Champion and College Football Playoff finalist Georgia Bulldogs hosting Austin Peay (3:30 p.m.).

ESPN’s primetime slate will features familiar faces in new places, as Chip Kelly and Kevin Sumlin make their debuts with their respective programs. Both head coaches will be at home, with Kelly’s UCLA Bruins hosting Cincinnati (7 p.m.) and Sumlin’s Wildcats welcoming in BYU (10:45 p.m.)

Sunday and Monday Primetime Telecasts Featured in Season’s Kickoff Week: Both Matchups Potential Top 25 Showdowns
A signature of kickoff week returns with special primetime telecasts on both Sunday and Monday night of Labor Day weekend, with two potential top-25 showdowns. Miami vs. LSU from AT&T Stadium in Arlington will air on ABC, the network’s third consecutive year airing a Sunday night game during kickoff week. On Labor Day night, Virginia Tech travels to Florida State in a pivotal ACC matchup. This is the 15th year ESPN has aired a Labor Day night matchup.

Additional ESPN Kickoff Week Highlights:

• Big Ten Opener: For the second consecutive year, a Big Ten matchup begins ESPN’s kickoff week when Northwestern travels to Purdue (Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. on ESPN)
• 2018 MEAC/SWAC Challenge: Prairie View A&M vs. North Carolina Central (Sept. 2 at noon on ESPN2) will meet in the annual challenge, which will be played in Atlanta for the first time.

SEC Network Begins Fifth College Football Season
SEC Network begins its fifth season airing football with an abundance of games in the season’s first three weeks, beginning with Texas A&M hosting Northwestern State on the season’s first Thursday (Aug. 30 at 8:30 p.m.). The game marks the debut of new Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher.  The network, combined with its alternate channel, will air six additional games on Saturday, including Florida’s home opener in primetime. A complete look at their schedule is below and more information here.

ESPN+ Streams More than 20 Games in First Three Weeks, More than 100 Exclusive Games Throughout the Season
ESPN+, the first multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company Direct-to-Consumer & International segment in conjunction with ESPN, will stream more than 20 football games during the season’s first three weeks, beginning a season where the subscription service carries more than a hundred exclusive games this season.

ACC Network Extra Streams Clemson’s Home Opener, Five Total Games in Week 1
ACC Network Extra will stream the home openers for Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and Virginia during week 1, beginning a season-long slate where the digital network will carry a number of games from ACC stadiums.

Week 2: Penn State-Pitt and Colorado-Nebraska Rivalries Take Center Stage,  Dabo Swinney and Jimbo Fisher Meet Again
ABC will feature two of college football’s oldest rivalries in week 2 as Penn State travels to Pitt (Sept. 8 at 8 p.m.) and Colorado heads to Nebraska (Sept. 8 at 3:30 p.m.). ABC’s Saturday Night Football will feature the 99th meeting between the Nittany Lions and the Panthers in a rivalry that was renewed the last two seasons, with both schools winning on their home field. Earlier in the day, the Buffaloes will take on the Cornhuskers for the first time since 2010 and 70th matchup overall.

ESPN’s primetime game will feature Clemson at Texas A&M (7 p.m.), as head coaches Dabo Swinney and Jimbo Fisher face off for the ninth straight year; however, it will be the first ever non-conference matchup between the two national championship coaches, as the matchup will be just Fisher’s second as head coach of the Aggies.

Additional ESPN’s Networks Week 2 Highlights:

• Sweet Home Alabama: The Crimson Tide return to Bryant-Denny Stadium to host Arkansas State (3:30 p.m. on ESPN2)
• Sparty Heads West: Michigan State will play its first road game of the year, traveling to Arizona State in a Big Ten-Pac 12 Showdown (ESPN at 10:45 p.m.)

Longhorn Network Airs Texas Football Games for Eighth Consecutive Year
Longhorn Network will televise a Texas football game for the eighth straight year when the Longhorns host Tulsa (8 p.m.). The 24-hour network devoted to the University of Texas is also expected to televise another game this season, with details announced at a later date. More details on LHN’s production can be found here..

Week 3: Top Teams Face Conference and Non-Conference Road Competition
ESPN’s week three slate features many top teams heading on the road, including Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma’s first true road test of the season. The Buckeyes and Crimson Tide will be in primetime, as Ohio State plays TCU from AT&T Stadium in Arlington on ABC’s Saturday Night Football (Sept. 15 at 8 p.m.) and Alabama heads to Ole Miss (7 p.m., ESPN) as both teams begin SEC play. Oklahoma will begin its Big 12 campaign looking to avenge its lone regular season loss last season as it heads to Iowa State (noon, network TBD). In the late afternoon, West Virginia travels to NC State (3:30 p.m., network TBD), playing in Raleigh, N.C. for the first time since 1978.

Additional conference matchups in week three include: Florida State at Syracuse (noon, network TBD) and Washington at Utah (10 p.m., ESPN). Other non-conference matchups set to air: UCF at North Carolina (noon, network TBD) and Middle Tennessee at Georgia (7:15 p.m., ESPN2).

Penn State, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma at West Virginia Highlight ESPN’s Networks Additional Games

ESPN’s has locked in a number of games to beyond the first three weeks of the season, including: Penn State at Indiana on Oct. 20 (time and ESPN network TBD), Notre Dame at Northwestern on Nov. 3 (time and ESPN network TBD), and Oklahoma at West Virginia on Black Friday (Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. on ESPN)

ESPN Televises Six Conference Championship Games, Most in the Industry
ESPN will televise six conference championship games to conclude the regular season, with the Marathon MAC Football Championship on Friday, Nov. 30 and  the Dr Pepper ACC Championship Game, American Championship, Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship Game, Mountain West Championship and Sun Belt Championship on Saturday, Dec. 1.

FCS Kickoff Highlights Week 0 Schedule
The 2018 Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff featuring North Carolina AT&T vs. Jacksonville State in primetime highlights ESPN’s week 0 schedule. Additional games from both FBS and FCS will be added in the coming weeks.

ESPN’s Networks College Football Current Schedule

Week 0

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Additional Games

Please Note: Not all ESPN3 and ACC Network Extra games are exclusive  

Conference Championship Weekend

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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner