Pac-12 early football television schedule announced
SAN FRANCISCO -- Pac-12 Conference television partners ESPN, FOX Sports, and Pac-12 Networks will provide complete coverage of the entire Pac-12 home football schedule during the 2017 season. Pac-12 Networks will air 35 Pac-12 home games, while ESPN and FOX Sports will combine to televise 44 games from Pac-12 home and neutral sites. In addition, one of ESPN’s networks will televise the Pac-12 Championship Game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
Five games are scheduled to open the 2017 season on Saturday, August 26, and the Pac-12 is involved in two. The OREGON STATE Beavers will kick off the year at Colorado State (CBSSN) in college football’s first game of the season, while the STANFORD Cardinal close the opening night against Rice (ESPN) in Sydney, Australia.
The first full week of the season will feature the 10 remaining Pac-12 teams in action starting on Thursday, August 31, with a pair of home games televised on Pac-12 Network - ARIZONA STATE will host New Mexico State, while UTAH entertains North Dakota. On Friday, September 1, both teams that played in last year’s Pac-12 Championship Game are in action. Defending South Division champion COLORADO squares off with Colorado State (Pac-12 Network), while WASHINGTON, the defending Pac-12 Champion from the North Division travels to Rutgers (FS1). Five Pac-12 home games dominate the slate on Saturday, September 2, highlighted by USC taking on last year’s Cotton Bowl participant Western Michigan (Pac-12 Network). UCLA concludes the first week of action on Sunday, September 3, with a home game against Texas A&M (FOX).
Other featured games during the first three weeks of the season include matchups with a pair of Big Ten Conference foes on Saturday, September 9, as OREGON STATE hosts Minnesota (FS1) and OREGON takes on Nebraska (FOX). The Pac-12’s first league contest also takes place on Saturday, September 9 as STANFORD travels to USC (FOX).
In all, Pac-12 Network will televise 15 games during the first three weeks of the season. With the exception of the Weber State at CALIFORNIA game on Saturday, September 9, which will be carried on Pac-12 Bay Area, all games will be carried on Pac-12 Network and the Pac-12 Network regional carrier in the home team’s market.
ESPN will televise on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ABC, while FOX Sports will air its games on FOX or FS1, and will simulcast selected games on FOX Deportes. ESPN will culminate the 2017 Pac-12 season when one of its Networks televises the Pac-12 Football Championship Game on Friday, December 1.
While television selections for the first three weeks of the 2017 season have been made, as well as all Thursday and Friday games throughout the season, all remaining television game selections and start times, starting with week four (Saturday, September 23) and running through the final week of the regular season (Saturday, November 25) will be made 12- or six-days in advance.
Additional non-conference road games will be televised as part of other conference or institution television packages. Those conferences and institutions will release their 2017 television schedule in the coming weeks. In all, every game involving a Pac-12 team is expected to be televised this season.