FINALLY, THE NCAA FOOTBALL SEASON BEGINS!

NCAA Football programming has always been our bread and butter here at SportsTV Guide and this year will be no exception. With 128 Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams and another 124 Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) there are potentially 126 games televised weekly. With our new platform delivering programming data from every cable and satellite operator in North America, you won’t miss a single game.

Included here is the full available broadcast schedule as well as some internet only games for the 2017 season. We will update this as the season progresses, but for now, this is the most accurate info available.

Download the 2017 NCAA football season schedule

Over the past few years, we have also been providing Internet Only listings on our special football preview each week. That will continue for the 2017 season along with another improvement to our online platform where you can access all the streaming events that are televised daily. These listings will include the actual link to launch the content so you can easily show the programming your guests want if you are leveraging streaming sports at your location.

There aren’t a lot of major changes to traditional broadcast rights for NCAA Football this year. With the advent of FS1/2, NBCSN and CBSSN over the past couple of years it’s been easier than ever to access all the games without making expensive and complicated package choices. Remember, if you are DIRECTV only, you still won’t have access to the PAC 12 Network. However, you can catch the SEC and Big 10 platforms. Currently, Dish is the only satellite provider with PAC 12 and many local cable systems carry it as well. We strongly encourage anyone that is serious about sports to have all the conference channels.

Just in case you aren’t aware, we also wanted to explain why there are so many TBA’s for game and TV times. The NCAA Football season is peculiar in that each of the major broadcast partners have relationships with various conferences and vice versa. Consequently, the broadcast outlets bid for the games each week based on best matchups and their standing for that specific conference. For example, the SEC has contracts with CBS, ESPN/ABC, and the SEC Network. CBS has the first choice of games each week, followed by the various ESPN outlets and then the SEC Network. This means that games are put into slots weekly based on their relative value to the networks. It ensures that great games are on major networks and the lesser games are pushed down the hierarchy.

This season will likely be like most we have covered in the past 14 years of providing schedules. The first couple of weeks will have every team in contention, but interest slips as teams lose and become less relevant to the FBS playoff structure. Either way, it’s always great to have a full building on a Saturday as folks are rooting for their schools and drowning their sorrows or celebrating as appropriate. Have a great season and we look forward to keeping you informed throughout.