Night Fever: ABC Announces Primetime College Football Lineup

ABC Sports will launch “ABC Saturday Night College Football” next season, which ABC calls the first season-long primetime college football series on a broadcast network. The series begins September 2 with Notre Dame-Georgia Tech. All telecasts in the 12-week series, an expansion of last year’s offering of four Saturday primetime games, will have 8:00pm ET start times and air in HD. Play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger will be joined in the booth by analyst Bob Davie and, in certain weeks, analyst Kirk Herbstreit. Lisa Salters will serve as sideline reporter. ESPN’s “College GameDay” will kick off its season from the site of ABC’s first two games. ABC’s Saturday night schedule is below:

DATE	GAME
September 2	Notre Dame-Georgia Tech
September 9	Ohio State-Texas
September 16	Nebraska-USC
September 23	Notre Dame-Michigan State/USC-Arizona
September 30	Ohio State-Iowa or Michigan-Minnesota^
October 7	Oregon-California/Game TBA
October 14	Michigan-Penn State/Arizona State-USC
November 4	UCLA-California/Game TBA
November 11	Game TBA
November 18	California-USC/Game TBA
November 25	Notre Dame-USC
December 2	Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship Game

NOTES: ^ = One game will be on ABC with the other in primetime on ESPN or ESPN2. Games TBA will feature teams from the Big 12, ACC or Big East; a 12-day selection is permitted for primetime games and will be chosen during the season. There are no games scheduled October 21 and October 28 when the World Series is scheduled (THE DAILY).

LIGHTS, CAMERAS, ACTION: USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand notes ABC can “move big afternoon matchups [to primetime] because it has the rights to most big-time games except” the SEC (CBS) and Notre Dame home games (NBC). ESPN/ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer said there is “no shortage of marquee teams looking for primetime exposure.” Hiestand notes ABC averaged a 4.9 Nielsen rating last fall for the four primetime college football broadcasts, compared to a 3.4 for its regular Saturday night programming. ESPN and ESPN2 will continue to televise Saturday night games, and ESPN/ABC Sports VP/Programming & Acquisitions Dave Brown said that the ABC game “gives Disney a new way to cross-promote them.” Brown: “Our goal is build audiences for our three services on a cumulative basis” (USA TODAY, 5/17). Brown said that ABC will televise fewer college football games this year than last year, but “will schedule them in more desirable time slots, reducing the number of [12:00pm] games and the number of afternoon games that air only on the West Coast.” He added that ESPN, which will no longer air Sunday night NFL games, “has scheduled at least three Sunday night college games in prime time and probably will air three or four more” (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/17).

Gophers, Twins To Play Games At Metrodome On Same Day

PLUCK OF THE IRISH: With three of Notre Dame’s five road games scheduled for primetime on ABC, the CHICAGO TRIBUNE’s Teddy Greenstein writes, “ABC Sports officials obviously know the formula: Notre Dame football equals big ratings” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/17).

METRODOME CONFLICT: In St. Paul, Charley Walters notes the Univ. of Minnesota (UM) will be featured on ABC’s primetime coverage September 30, the same day the Twins are hosting the White Sox at the Metrodome. White Sox-Twins is scheduled to start at 12:10pm, and “it takes four hours to transform the Dome’s baseball field into a football field.” UM coach Glen Mason said, “It’s just another indication of why your own stadium on campus is a need, not a want. To think that a Big Ten institution has no control over their starting time when a conflict is present with a professional organization is not only frustrating to us but the entire Big Ten Conference” (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 5/17).