Notre Dame, Miami To Headline ESPN Networks’ College Football Week 11 Broadcast Schedule

Courtesy: ESPN

Two of college football’s Top 10 teams will headline this week’s college football broadcast schedule across the ESPN networks.

No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 10 Miami will go under the lights Saturday night on ABC’s Saturday Night Football presented by Wells Fargo.  Saturday’s matchup marks only the fourth time that Notre Dame and Miami have faced each other since 1990 and the first time Miami has hosted Notre Dame since 1989.

Saturday’s matchup has plenty of key story lines.  Notre Dame running back Josh Adams is working hard to make his case for the Heisman Trophy this year.  So far this season, he has racked up almost 1,200 rushing yards and nine touchdowns.  The Fighting Irish’s head coach Brian Kelly has led a dramatic turnaround for the team this season, too.  After finishing last season at 4-8, this season has seen the team go 8-1 so far.

Miami head coach Mark Richt is in only his second year at the Hurricanes’ helm, has the team in the national spotlight for the first time in more than a decade.

While the Irish and ‘Canes are the headliners for this week’s ESPN networks college football broadcast schedule, it is only one of the games on that extensive schedule.  The networks’ Week 11 coverage opens Tuesday, Nov. 7 with a double header as Miami (Ohio) hosts Akron on ESPN2 and Buffalo hosts Bowling Green on ESPNU.  Coverage of both games is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

The action continues Nov. 7 with another double header on ESPN2 and ESPNU respectively.  Toledo and Ohio are up first at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.  Eastern and Central Michigan follow at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

North Carolina is on the road Thursday against Pittsburgh, with coverage starting at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN Radio.  Over on ESPNU, Appalachian State plays host to Georgia Southern beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Friday will see yet another double header with the struggling Cincinnati Bearcats hosting the Temple Owls at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and UNLV hosting BYU at 10:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

Saturday sees lots of action beginning at high noon as No. 15 Iowa State hosts No. 11 Oklahoma State either on ABC or ESPN2.  Seven more games are also scheduled across the networks at noon including games on ESPN Radio, the SEC Network and ESPN3.  This week’s action winds down Saturday night at 10:15 p.m. on ESPNU as Wyoming plays on the road against Air Force.

The ESPN networks’ full college football week 11 broadcast schedule is noted below.

ESPN’s Week 11 College Football Programming Schedule

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Tues, Nov 7	7:30 p.m.	Akron at Miami (Ohio) Kevin Negandhi, Rocky Boiman, Quint Kessenich	ESPN2
		Bowling Green at Buffalo Kevin Brown, Ray Bentley	ESPNU
Wed, Nov 8	7 p.m.	Toledo at Ohio Chris Cotter, Desmond Howard, Quint Kessenich	ESPN2
	8 p.m.	Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan Mike Corey, Tom Luginbill	ESPNU
Thu, Nov 9	7:30 p.m.	North Carolina at Pittsburgh TV: Dave Flemming, Joey Galloway, Booger McFarland, Laura Rutledge Radio: Bill Rosinski, David Norrie, Ian Fitzsimmons	ESPN and ESPN Radio
		Georgia Southern at Appalachian State Mark Neely, Jay Walker	ESPNU
Fri, Nov 10	7 p.m.	Temple at Cincinnati Dave Lamont, Mack Brown, Jen Lada	ESPN2
	10:30 p.m.	BYU at UNLV Adam Amin, Dusty Dvoracek, Molly McGrath	ESPN2
Sat, Nov 11	Noon	No. 11 Oklahoma State at No. 15 Iowa State Mike Patrick, Tommy Tuberville, Paul Carcaterra	ABC or ESPN2*
		No. 20 NC State at Boston College Bob Wischusen, Brock Huard, Allison Williams	ABC or ESPN2*
		Arkansas at No. 19 LSU Jason Benetti, Kelly Stouffer, Julie Stewart-Binks	ESPN
		Connecticut at UCF Mike Couzens, John Congemi,	ESPNU
		Missouri Valley  at MidAmerica Nazarene	ESPN3
		No.  24 Michigan State at No. 6 Ohio State Bill Rosinski, David Norrie, Ian Fitzsimmons	ESPN Radio
		Louisiana at Ole Miss Dave Neal, Matt Stinchcomb, Dawn Davenport	SEC Network
		Merchant Marine Academy at Coast Guard Academy Dave Weekley, Matt Chatham	ESPN3
	12:10 p.m.	Indiana PA at West Chester	ESPN3
	12:20 p.m.	No. 13 Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech	ACC Network Extra
	1 p.m.	Tiffin at Grand Valley State	ESPN3
		Western Illinois at Indiana State	ESPN3
		Stetson at Jacksonville	ESPN3
	1:30 p.m.	Wofford at VMI	ESPN3
	2 p.m.	Middle Tennessee at Charlotte	ESPN3
		Youngstown State at Southern Illinois	ESPN3
		The Citadel at Furman	ESPN3
		Mercer at Western Carolina	ESPN3
		Jacksonville State at Tennessee-Martin	ESPN3
	3 p.m.	Wake Forest at Syracuse	ACC Network Extra
		Northern Iowa at Missouri State	ESPN3
		Illinois State at South Dakota State	ESPN3
		East Tennessee State at Samford	ESPN3
	3:30 p.m.	Iowa at No. 9 Wisconsin Joe Tessitore, Todd Blackledge, Holly Rowe	ABC
		Florida State at No. 4 Clemson Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Todd McShay	ESPN
		West Virginia at Kansas State Anish Shroff, Mike Golic Jr., Roddy Jones	ESPN2
		Virginia at Louisville Mike Corey, Rene Ingoglia	ESPNU
		Charleston Southern at Kennesaw State	ESPN3
		South Dakota at North Dakota State	ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Kentucky at Vanderbilt Taylor Zarzour, Andre Ware, Olivia Harlan	SEC Network
		San Jose State at Nevada Shawn Kenney, Al Groh	ESPN3
		Georgia State at Texas State	ESPN3
		Nicholls at Stephen F. Austin	ESPN3
	4:30 p.m.	Troy at Coastal Carolina Jim Barbar, John Gregory	ESPN3
	5 p.m.	UTEP at North Texas	ESPN3
		Arkansas State at South Alabama Matt Stewart, Forrest Conoly	ESPN3
	6 p.m.	Kansas at Texas Lowell Galindo, Ahmad Brooks, Kris Budden	LHN
	7 p.m.	No. 2 Alabama at No. 16 Mississippi State Dave Pasch, Greg McElroy, Tom Luginbill Radio: Marc Kestecher, Barrett Jones	ESPN and ESPN Radio
		Purdue at Northwestern Beth Mowins, Anthony Becht, Rocky Boiman	ESPN2
		New Mexico at Texas A&M Clay Matvick, Kirk Morrison	ESPNU
		Florida Tech at Delta State	ESPN3
		Northwestern State at McNeese	ESPN3
		Sam Houston State at Abilene Christian	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Tennessee at Missouri Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers, Cole Cubelic	SEC Network
	8 p.m.	No. 3 Notre Dame at No. 10 Miami Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Maria Taylor	ABC
	10 p.m.	Oregon State at No. 22 Arizona Mark Jones, Rod Gilmore, Quint Kessenich	ESPN2
	10:15 p.m.	Wyoming at Air Force Roy Philpott, Tom Ramsey	ESPNU

Not all ESPN3 and ACC Network Extra Games are Exclusive
*Reverse-mirror game

More information on this week’s schedule is available online now along with all of the latest college football headlines at:

 

 

 

Website: http://www.espn.com/college-football

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CFBonESPN

Twitter: http://twitter.com/espncfb

 

 

 

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ESPN Announces Preliminary 2014 ACC FootballBroadcast Schedule

Courtesy: ESPN

The 2013-2014 college football season just recently wrapped.  But as many will note, it’s never too early or late to talk football.  Keeping that in mind, ESPN has announced the early details for coverage of its 2014 ACC Football schedule.  The upcoming schedule includes a prime time game on Labor Day, five Thursday night games, and three on Fridays this coming Fall.  More games will be announced as the 2014-2015 ACC season nears.

ESPN’s 2014 ACC college football coverage kicks off fittingly with Louisville (in its ACC debut) taking on Miami (Fla.).  The game is scheduled for an 8pm kickoff, Monday, September1st.  The Labor Day showdown marks the second consecutive year that a new ACC member school will make its debut in the conference’s leading Monday showdown.  Last year, new member Pittsburgh fell in its Labor Day debut to eventual NCAA college football champion Florida State.  Louisville has weathered “The U” in the two schools last two meetings, including a 36-9 manhandling of the Hurricanes in the 2013 Russell Athletic Bowl and an equally sound 31-7 thrashing of Miami in the teams’ last regular season meeting in 2006.

ESPN’s ESPN College Football Primetime, which broadcasts every Thursday night, will include five ACC matchups in the upcoming season.  Two of those games will feature the Virginia Tech Hokies.  The Hokies have played more Thursday night games—27 to be exact—than any other program.  And that streak continues in the 2014 season with matchups against Pittsburgh on October 16^th and Miami (Fla.) on October 23^rd.  Along with its ongoing streak, Virginia Tech has also played at least one Thursday night game each year since 2002.  That is the longest streak among every team.

The third of the currently announced slate of Thursday night broadcasts will see Louisville taking on defending National Champion Florida State on Thursday, October 30^th.  Clemson will face the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest on November 6^th for the fourth of ESPN’s current slate of Thursday night ACC broadcasts.  The fifth of the first slate of games will see Duke taking on in-state rival North Carolina on November 20^th.  Both teams are coming off of winning seasons in the 2013-2014 ACC season.  Duke’s Coach Cutcliffe brought the Blue Devils to a surprising 10-4 record and an appearance in the Chic-Fil-A Bowl.  North Carolina made its appearance at the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, defeating the University of Cincinnati.

ESPN’s current Friday ACC broadcast schedule includes games between Boston College and Pittsburgh (September 5^th), Louisville at Syracuse (October3rd), and Virginia at Virginia Tech on Black Friday, November28th.  The current schedule of ACC games across the ESPN Family of networks is listed below.

The 2014 ACC Labor Day, Thursday and Friday schedule (additional selections to be announced):

 

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Mon, Sep 1	8 p.m.	Miami (Fla.) at Louisville	ESPN
Fri, Sep 5	TBD	Pittsburgh at Boston College	ESPN or ESPN2
Fri, Oct 3	TBD	Louisville at Syracuse	ESPN or ESPN2
Thu, Oct 16	TBD	Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh	ESPN
Thu, Oct 23	TBD	Miami (Fla.) at Virginia Tech	ESPN
Thu, Oct 30	TBD	Florida State at Louisville	ESPN
Thu, Nov 6	TBD	Clemson at Wake Forest	ESPN
Thu, Nov 20	TBD	North Carolina at Duke	ESPN
Fri, Nov 28	TBD	Virginia at Virginia Tech	TBD

 

More information and updates on ESPN’s ACC football schedule for 2014 is available online at http://www.facebook.com/CFBonESPN, http://espn.go.com/ncf/index and http://twitter.com/espncfb.  To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it.  Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews in the Phil’s Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.

ESPN Breaks New Ground With 2012-2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Coverage

Courtesy: ESPN

Good news for ESPN.  The networks’ coverage of the 2012-2013 college basketball regular season was its most viewed ever.  ESPN averaged nearly 1.4 million viewers over the course of 135 games.  To be precise, it averaged 1,370,000 viewers.  That passes the network’s previous record of 1,353,000 viewers over 130 telecasts during the 2011-2012 Season.  It pulled in a 1.1 coverage rating for both seasons.  Along with this new honor, ESPN also pulled in the season’s three largest audiences for a college basketball game on the network over the course of only a month.  The first of those games was then #3 Indiana taking down #1 Michigan on February 2^nd.  The game was the best for the network.  It brought in an average of 4,035,000 viewers, a 2.9 rating and 2,867,000 households.  The second of the network’s best games was the February 19^th game in which then #1 Indiana defeated #4 Michigan State.  This game brought ESPN its second largest audience of the season, with an average of 3,733,000 viewers, a 2.7 coverage rating and 2,677,000 households.  The third of the network’s highest rated games was the March 2^nd matchup between then #3 Duke defeating #5 Miami 79-76.  The game averaged 3,416,000 viewers, a 2.5 coverage rating and 2,459,000 households. 

In all, ESPN and its network of stations averaged a total of 508,000 viewers for its full slate of 602 games throughout its 2012-2013 season.  It marked the most extensive coverage of men’s basketball on television this season and more than any other networks combined pointing out yet again why ESPN is the sports leader.

One extra interesting note:  Louisville was the highest-rated metered market for the network’s 2012-2013 regular season coverage.  It pulled in an average 4.5 rating.  Greensboro came in second for the second straight year with a 3.1 rating.  A full listing of the top rated cities is available below.

Top 25 Markets for 2012-13	Top 25 Markets for 2011-12
No. 1    Louisville: 4.5 rating	No. 1    Louisville: 4.5 rating
No. 2    Greensboro: 3.1 rating	No. 2    Greensboro: 3.5 rating
No. 3   Raleigh-Durham: 3.0 rating	No. 3   Kansas City: 2.8 rating
No. 4    Indianapolis: 2.9 rating	No. 4    Columbus: 2.7 rating
No. 5   Kansas City: 2.7 rating	Raleigh-Durham 2.7 rating
No. 6   Cincinnati: 2.1 rating	No. 6   Charlotte: 2.3 rating
Columbus: 2.1 rating	No. 7    Cincinnati: 2.1 rating
No. 8   Dayton: 2.0 rating	No. 8   Dayton: 2.0 rating
No. 9    Charlotte: 1.8 rating	No. 9    Indianapolis: 1.8 rating
No. 10  Knoxville: 1.7 rating	Knoxville: 1.8 rating
Nashville: 1.7 rating	No. 11   Memphis: 1.6 rating
No. 12  Detroit: 1.6 rating	Nashville: 1.6 rating
No. 13  Birmingham: 1.5 rating	No. 13  Greenville: 1.5 rating
No. 14  Memphis: 1.3 rating	No. 14  Cleveland: 1.4 rating
Hartford & New Haven: 1.3 rating	Birmingham: 1.4 rating
Greenville: 1.3 rating	Las Vegas: 1.4 rating
Cleveland: 1.3 rating	No. 17  Norfolk: 1.2 rating
Norfolk: 1.3 rating	Hartford and New Haven: 1.2 rating
St. Louis: 1.3 rating	St. Louis: 1.2 rating
No. 20   Richmond: 1.2 rating	No. 20   Fort Myers: 1.1 rating
Las Vegas: 1.2 rating	Atlanta: 1.1 rating
No. 22  Fort Myers: 1.1 rating	Richmond: 1.1 rating
Milwaukee: 1.1 rating	No. 23  Pittsburgh: 1.0 rating
No. 24  Baltimore: 1.0 rating	Detroit: 1.0 rating
Tulsa: 1.0 rating	Oklahoma City: 1.0 rating
Atlanta: 1.0 rating	Jacksonville: 1.0 rating
Oklahoma City: 1.0 rating	Tulsa: 1.0 rating

To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it.  Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews in the Phil’s Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.

ESPN Announces New Signing Day Details

Courtesy: ESPN

ESPNU has announced that it will now offer more than eleven hours of coverage this Wednesday for National Signing Day.  The coverage will include a record number of on-air commitments including that of the nation’s top recruit, Robert Nkemdiche.  The coverage begins at 7:30am on ESPNU.  It will include the announcement of seventeen total players from the ESPN 150 to the college of their choice.  The network will be embedded with thirteen of the nation’s best college football teams getting interviews with each team’s coaching staff and providing the most up-to-the-minute news on each incoming freshman class.  Along with the already extensive programming set to run Wednesday, ESPN’s RecruitingNation.com will have reporters set up at fourteen different high schools across the country providing all the latest news from those locations. 

The day’s coverage will be hosted live by Rece Davis and Dari Nowkah at ESPN’s Charlotte, North Carolina studio.  ESPN’s national recruiting director Tom Luginbill and recruiting analyst Craig Haubert will also join the in-studio discussions alongside football analysts Mike Bellotti and Rod Gilmore.  As an added bonus for ESPNU viewers former Auburn coach Gene Chizik and former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley will also be on hand as special guests.  Audiences can get even more details on National signing day online through ESPN at http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2013/01/espnu-expands-national-signing-day-presence-for-the-eighth-consecutive-year/.

Below is a list of the players on the ESPN 150 list set to announce their college decision Wednesday. Announcement times are all EST and are subject to change.

Time (ET)	Player	Final Schools
7:30 a.m.	No. 1 Robert Nkemdiche (DE)	Florida, LSU, Ole Miss
9 a.m.	No. 6 Matthew Thomas (OLB)	Alabama, FSU, Georgia, Miami, USC
	No. 144 Denver Kirkland (OT)	Arkansas, FSU
	No. 5 Laremy Tunsil (OT)	Alabama, FSU, Georgia, Ole Miss
	No. 13 Montravius Adams (DT)	Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia
10 a.m.	No. 50 Vonn Bell (Safety)	Alabama, Ohio State, Tennessee
	No. 107 Jordan Cunningham (WR)	Miami, Stanford, Vanderbilt
	No. 24 Antonio Conner (Safety)	Alabama, Ole Miss
11 a.m.	No. 47 Stacy Coley (WR)	FSU, Miami, Ole Miss, South Florida
	No. 4 Mackensie Alexander (CB)	Auburn, Clemson, Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Noon	No. 26 Dee Liner (DT)	Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU
	No. 99 Quinton Powell (OLB)	Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, USC
	No. 143 Asiantii Woulard (QB-DT)	Kentucky, NC State, UCLA, South Florida
1 p.m.	No. 135 Keith Bryant	FSU, Miami, South Carolina
2 p.m.	No. 138 Jermaine Grace	Louisville, Miami, Tennessee
3 p.m.	No 32 Alvin Kamara (RB)	Alabama, Georgia
4 p.m.	No. 125 Tyrone Crowder (OG)	Clemson, Georgia

 

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