Fox expands college football coverage with Friday night game package.
The game schedule, which includes the Big Ten, Big 12 and Mountain West conference combinations, likely won't be announced until late May or early June, after the conferences and networks hold selection meetings.
Friday games, previously limited to the opening week of the season and the day after Thanksgiving, are not uncommon in all three conferences. The Big Ten had him in limited packages starting in 2017, but those were on the Big Ten Network and FS1. Last season, the Big 12 played three Friday night games on ESPN, and the Mountain West aired a game package on CBS Sports Network, along with two games on FS1.
The college football package will fill a vacancy on Fox on Friday nights in the fall as WWE's “Friday Night Smackdown” moves to USA Network in October. Some games may be aired on FOX in September with SmackDown moving to FS1, something similar happened during the baseball playoffs and World Series.
This also isn't the first time Fox has tried to stake out the rights to a time slot that it considers to be underutilized. In 2019, he launched “Big Noon Saturday” and it was a success. Last season's package averaged 6.74 million viewers on Fox, an 8% increase over 2022.
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AP College Football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
