Big plans for the college football season on both TV and broadband
By: Jim Williams
Examiner Sports Columnist
September 4, 2009
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If you are a college football fan, then the 2009 season will provide you with more opportunity to follow your favorite team than ever before.
Fans will have to get used to watching games on the computer. There will be more than 500 free games shown on ESPN360 and more than 100 colleges that will offer games for a subscription on the CBS College Sports XXL package or on Sirius-XM Radio.
ACC fans will be able to follow the action on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360 Broadband and RayCom (channel 20).
Maryland fans will see all their games on TV this year. Two games -- against James Madison and Middle Tennessee State -- will be on ESPN360.
Virginia Tech followers also will see all games on the ESPN family of networks. The Marshall game is slated for ESPN360.
Virginia, like the other area ACC teams, will be covered by the ESPN family of networks with the exception of the Sept. 19 game against Southern Mississippi. That will air on CBS College Sports.
CAA fans can follow games on Comcast SportsNet as well as CN8, where they will be offering a doubleheader almost every week.
All Navy home games will be seen on CBS College Sports, which will also feature games from C-USA, Army and selected other games.
The SEC gets a big boost this season with their new ESPN deal. The SEC Network on ESPN will be the third-largest ESPN network and will air from noon until 3:30 p.m. each week. The SEC Pregame Show will air each Saturday at noon. Then, at 12:30 p.m., there will be a Game of the Week telecast airing in select markets around the country as well as on ESPNU.
The SEC also has a long-term deal with CBS, so the 3:30 p.m. game and the SEC primetime Saturday night game will be on CBS each week.
The Big Ten Network will be offering a full slate of both day and night broadcasts that complement the conference's ESPN packages. The Big Ten Network is part of Comcast cable and DirecTV, so I suggest you check them out or go to www.bigtennetwork.com/gamefinder.
The Big East, Big 12 and Pac 10 all will be featured on the ESPN family of networks. However, the Pac 10 and the Big 12 also have deals with FOX Sports and Versus. Locally, Pac 10 games will be seen on CSN.
Notre Dame, which many experts feel could snag a BCS Bowl bid, will be back on NBC again for all home games. ESPN will have the rest of the broadcasts.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
