Pac-12 TV Networks open college football season with six games on opening week

June 15, 2012

Staff reports

The Pac-12 Networks will open its initial college football season by airing 15 games in the first three weeks of the 2012 season and, with the addition of the California at USC game in week 4, will televise at least one game from each Pac-12 team during the first four weeks, it was announced Thursday.

With USC, Oregon and Stanford ranked in the preseason Top 25, four new head coaches joining the Conference and one newly renovated stadium, the Pac-12 Networks will showcase a variety of compelling storylines that will resonate with college football fans across the country.

"We are extremely excited about the upcoming football season and the slate of Pac-12 games that we will feature throughout the season," Pac-12 Enterprises President Gary Stevenson said. "In the first four weeks, we will have at least one game from all 12 teams, will feature some very intriguing matchups like Oklahoma State at Arizona and Cal at USC, and will televise the home debuts of new coaches Todd Graham at Arizona State and Mike Leach at Washington State. It's a great start to what we expect to be a very competitive Pac-12 season."

The Pac-12 Networks will kick off its 35-game football schedule with six games during the opening week (Aug. 30-Sept. 1), including two on Thursday, Stanford's home opener on Friday and three more on Saturday.

The University of Utah will host the first football game on the Pac-12 Networks when Northern Colorado visits Rice-Eccles Stadium Thursday, Aug. 30. Kickoff is set for 4:15 p.m. The Pac-12 Networks targeted the Utes home opener as their historic first football game and requested a special start time to make it happen.

"Putting our first schedule together required a lot of flexibility and cooperation from all of our schools," Stevenson said. "Utah was especially helpful by moving the start time of their home opener to give us a great doubleheader to launch our networks."

Arizona State will be the second game of an opening night doubleheader when it kicks off the Todd Graham era at home against Northern Arizona at 7:30 p.m. The first week will also feature the unveiling of Cal's newly renovated Memorial Stadium Sept. 1 at noon when the Bears host Nevada, as well as home openers for Oregon State and Washington.

The Pac-12 Networks will have six more games during week two, highlighted by three-time defending conference champion Oregon hosting Fresno State, Oklahoma State's visit to Tucson, Ariz., to face Rich Rodriguez's Arizona Wildcats and the Pullman, Wash., debut of head coach Mike Leach when Washington State hosts Eastern Washington.

In week 3, the Pac-12 Networks will have a triple-header on Saturday, Sept. 15 with Oregon hosting Tennessee Tech, UCLA and new head coach Jim Mora at home against Houston and South Carolina State visiting Arizona.

The Pac-12 Networks have picked Cal at USC Saturday, Sept. 22 as its initial game selection in week four. The remainder of the week four television schedule will be determined 6-to-12 days prior to the games.

Arizona, Cal, Oregon and Stanford each have two appearances during the first three weeks, while ASU, Colorado, Oregon State, UCLA, Utah, Washington and Washington State have one. USC makes its debut on the networks the following week.

The Pac-12 Networks launch Aug. 15 and will consist of one national and six regional networks devoted solely to the Pac-12.

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