Auburn Date Changed

[Ricky the Bull]

I wouldn't trust any schedule until it's an official athletics site and it doesn't have 'tentative' next to it.

[Joe]

This is 100% true. It was done so that ESPN could get the rights to the game. Originally I had stated on the travelling board that the Sept 15th game would probably miss out on TV because CBS has the rights to the day and night games on that day.

By moving the game to Sept 8th it allows ESPN to have the broadcast rights. It will be an 5:30-7:45ish game on one of their two major networks.

[HaulingBull Sucks]

BIG EAST CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES 2007 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

     

Feb. 1, 2007

The 2007 BIG EAST Conference football schedule was officially released on Feb. 1 by Commissioner Michael Tranghese. The schedule consists of 68 total games played over the course of 14 weeks and includes 28 conference contests. Of the league's 40 non-conference games, 15 are against teams from the other five automatic qualifying conferences in the Bowl Championship Series and 12 are against teams who played in bowl games this past season. In addition, 10 national television broadcasts have already been slated for ESPN or ESPN2, with a number of other ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC broadcasts to be added later.

"As our BIG EAST Conference football programs continue to grow and improve themselves, so too will our level of national exposure," stated BIG EAST Commissioner Michael Tranghese. "Coming off one of the greatest years in the history of BIG EAST football, we expect our national presence through scheduling and television to keep getting better."

The league's non-conference schedule includes a number of intriguing matchups versus top teams and top conferences: Washington at Syracuse on Friday, Aug. 31 (8:00 p.m, ESPN); Oregon State at Cincinnati on Thursday, Sept. 6 (7:30 p.m., ESPN); Navy at Rutgers on Friday, Sept. 7 (7:00 p.m., ESPN); [highlight]USF at Auburn and Syracuse at Iowa on Saturday, Sept. 8;[/highlight] West Virginia at Maryland on Thursday, Sept. 13 (7:30 p.m., ESPN); Illinois at Syracuse, Louisville at Kentucky and Pittsburgh at Michigan State on Saturday, Sept. 15; North Carolina at USF on Saturday, Sept. 22; Louisville at NC State, Maryland at Rutgers and Pittsburgh at Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 29; Utah at Louisville on Saturday, Oct. 6; Connecticut at Virginia and Navy at Pittsburgh on Saturday, Oct. 13; and Mississippi State at West Virginia on Saturday, Oct. 20.

The league schedule kicks off on Saturday, Sept. 22 with Pittsburgh at Connecticut and Syracuse at Louisville. The following week, West Virginia travels to USF to open its conference schedule on Saturday, Sept. 29. Cincinnati and Rutgers will begin league action on Saturday, Oct. 6 in Piscataway, N.J.

     

The current television schedule contains five Thursday night prime-time games, including Cincinnati hosting Oregon State (Sept. 6, ESPN) and West Virginia playing at Maryland (Sept. 13, ESPN) in non-conference matchups. The Thursday conference match-ups begin on Oct. 18 with USF at Rutgers (ESPN) and wind down with a pair of late-season battles with Louisville at West Virginia on Nov. 8 (ESPN) and Rutgers at Louisville on Nov. 29 (ESPN).

The '07 schedule also includes three Friday primetime contests - Washington at Syracuse on Aug. 31 (ESPN), Navy at Rutgers on Sept. 7 (ESPN) and Rutgers at Army on Nov. 9 (ESPN2). On Saturday, Sept. 8 USF travels to Auburn with the contest being aired on either ESPN or ESPN2. The regular season will conclude on Saturday, Dec. 1 with Pittsburgh traveling to West Virginia for the 100th edition of the "Backyard Brawl" (ESPN/ESPN2). The BIG EAST is guaranteed at least 14 home games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. Last season, that number increased to 21 and the '07 schedule may equal or surpass that mark.

The BIG EAST is coming off a memorable 2006 campaign in which league teams combined for a 5-0 bowl record - the top bowl mark of any conference - and a 37-8 record versus non-conference opponents. Last season, the BIG EAST made Thursday night primetime ESPN contests a household favorite as a number of league contests broke network records. The West Virginia-Louisville contest on Thursday, Nov. 2, set a number of record highs. It ranked as the most-viewed Thursday night regular-season college football game ever on ESPN (4,915,915 households). It also ranked as the second most viewed regular-season college football game ever on ESPN for any day and was the most viewed BIG EAST Conference game ever in terms of households. The Louisville-Rutgers game on Thursday, Nov. 9 (ESPN) joined this list of top BIG EAST broadcasts. It ranked as the network's fourth most-viewed regular season college football game ever (4,642,069 households). The game also delivered a 5.03 national rating. In addition, The West Virginia-Connecticut game on Friday, Oct. 20, was the most viewed regular-season Friday night game ever on ESPN (1,866,698 households).

http://www.bigeast.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020107aai.html

[Ricky the Bull]

Rutgers getting a ton of national TV exposure with by my count, 4 games.

Doing well at Auburn just became even more critical because of the exposure it gives to our program.

[mutt]

We'll just have to make reservations and stay through the week...    Screw work!

[bullsfever]

So....it seems like it is definitely the 8th!?

Does this change where everyone is going to stay?

[TyBull]

 

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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-fbcucf0207feb02,0,3604497.story?coll=orl-sports-headlines

UCF-USF contest moved to October

The game has been moved to Oct. 13 so ESPN can show USF-Auburn on Sept. 8.

Kyle Hightower

Sentinel Staff Writer

February 2, 2007

UCF agreed to move its game with USF this season to October, Athletic Director Keith Tribble confirmed Thursday.

The game originally was scheduled for Sept. 8 and was to be the second of back-to-back non-conference road games to open the season for the Golden Knights. It was moved, Tribble said, to accommodate ESPN's desire to broadcast USF's road game at Auburn that day.

The UCF-USF game still is set for Tampa, but instead will take place Oct. 13. This will be the first time during the brief series that the game hasn't been played in September.

Tribble said the current plan is for UCF's Sept. 8 slot to be filled with a Conference USA road game.

"We fully anticipate moving a conference game in that slot, because it will have to be an away game," Tribble said. "We don't want to have a gap there and not play. We want to play somebody, and that will probably be a conference game."

While the Big East released its schedules Tuesday, C-USA's 2007 schedules aren't expected to be officially released for at least a few weeks.

What is known is that UCF will play conference road games this season against East Carolina, Southern Miss and UAB. The undetermined home and away league games are SMU, Tulsa and UTEP.

UCF will play four non-conference games, with its first home game against Texas on Sept. 15, which also will serve as the opener for UCF's on-campus stadium.

The Knights will open the season at North Carolina State on Sept. 1, the first Atlantic Coast Conference opponent the Knights will have faced since 2001. And before wrapping up the non-conference portion of their schedule against the Bulls, the Knights have a home game against Louisiana-Lafayette currently scheduled for Sept. 29.

"One of the things that's critical from here on out for us in scheduling is to create a very balanced and competitive schedule that gives us an opportunity to be successful," Tribble said. "I want to make sure that we have a schedule, in all our sports but particularly football and basketball, that gives us an opportunity to be successful."

Kyle Hightower can be reached at khightower@orlandosentinel.com.

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