Courtesy: ESPN
College football fans will have even more reason to be happy come college football season this year. ESPN has announced that it has added seven Big Ten Conference football games to the network’s schedule for this year. The games will be aired during the first three weeks of the 2013 season. This latest announcement brings the total number of Big Ten Conference games to be aired across the ESPN family of networks to seventeen. Nine of those games will be run during the first three weeks of the season. Two of the nine games that will be run during the first three weeks of the season will be primetime games.
The Ohio State Buckeyes dominate the schedule, with a total of six games on the slate. The first of those games will be played Saturday, August 31st against The University of Buffalo. It will be broadcast live on ESPN2. Other highly anticipated games see #9 Michigan taking on #10 Notre Dame, #22 Nebraska hosting #19 UCLA, and both #24 and #25 Northwestern and #25 Wisconsin hosting #1 Ohio State. Each team’s ranking comes from an ESPN preseason Top 25 poll.
More games will be added to the schedule as the season progresses. The current schedule of Big Ten Games added to the ESPN family of networks’ schedule is provided below.
The 2013 Big Ten schedule as of June 7 (additional selections to be announced):
| Date | Time (ET) | Game | Network |
| Sat, Aug 31 | Noon | Buffalo at No. 1 Ohio State | ESPN2 |
| 3:30 p.m. | Syracuse vs. Penn State (East Rutherford, N.J.) | ABC and ESPN2 | |
| Sat, Sep 7 | Noon | South Florida at Michigan State | ESPN2 or ESPNU |
| Noon | Cincinnati at Illinois | ESPN2 or ESPNU | |
| 3:30 p.m. | San Diego State at No. 1 Ohio State | ABC and ESPN2 | |
| 8 p.m. | No. 10 Notre Dame at No. 9 Michigan * | ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 | |
| Sat, Sep 14 | Noon | No. 19 UCLA at No. 22 Nebraska | ABC |
| Noon | Bowling Green at Indiana | ESPNU | |
| 8 p.m. | No. 10 Notre Dame at Purdue * | ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 | |
| Sat, Sep 28 | 3:30 p.m. | Iowa at Minnesota * | ABC |
| 8 p.m. | No. 25 Wisconsin at No. 1 Ohio State * | ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 | |
| Sat, Oct 5 | 3:30 p.m. | Minnesota at No. 9 Michigan * | ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 8 p.m. | No. 1 Ohio State at No. 24 Northwestern * | ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 | |
| Sat, Oct 12 | 5 p.m. | No. 9 Michigan at Penn State * | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| Sat, Oct 19 | 3:30 p.m. | Iowa at No. 1 Ohio State | ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 |
| Sat, Oct 26 | 8 p.m. | Penn State at No. 1 Ohio State * | ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 |
| Fri, Nov 29 | Noon | Iowa at No. 22 Nebraska | ABC |
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