• ABC Kickoff Week Features College Football’s Top Brands, Big Names
• First Three Weeks Highlighted By 100+ Games; Nearly 1,000 Games All Season
• ESPN+ Continues Extensive College Football Coverage
• Bowl Season Returns with 40 Bowl Games, College Football Playoff Semifinals and National Championship

ESPN welcomes back college football in 2022 with an unrivaled collection of top rivalries, non-conference matchups, in-state showdowns, conference championship clashes and premier postseason programming. ESPN will present approximately 1,000 regular season games across all platforms, readying for the return of a 40-game Bowl Season schedule that includes the exclusive presentation of the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl, and culminating with the CFP National Championship on Monday, Jan. 9, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

Twenty-four of ESPN.com’s Updated Way-Too-Early Top 25 teams will be in action during ESPN’s early season slate and special date games, with 12 conferences represented and teams from all 10 FBS conferences booked for matchups across ESPN’s industry-leading college football portfolio. Games are set for all ESPN networks, including ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, Big 12 Now on ESPN+, Longhorn Network, ESPN3, ESPN+, SEC Network+ (SECN+) and ACC Network Extra (ACCNX).

Kickoff Week
As previously announced, ABC’s Labor Day Weekend coverage includes defending national champion Georgia and Pac-12 powerhouse Oregon facing off at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff, Notre Dame and Ohio State showcased on ABC’s Saturday Night Football Presented by Capital One, and the Sunday night showdown (Sept. 4) between Florida State and LSU at the Allstate Louisiana Kickoff.

On ESPN Saturday, a pair of early-season non-conference showcases are set for afternoon and primetime presentations. At 3:30 p.m. ET, CFP semifinalist Cincinnati kicks off the season against Arkansas, followed by defending Pac-12 champion Utah against Florida at the Swamp at 7 p.m. ESPN starts the day with in-state action, as NC State takes on East Carolina in Greenville at noon.

An all-ACC matchup is scheduled for ESPN on Labor Day Monday, as Clemson and Georgia Tech face off in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta at 8 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 5.

Kicking off the official launch of the college football season is the Backyard Brawl between West Virginia and Pittsburgh on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Dating back to 1895, the Backyard Brawl is one of the sport’s oldest rivalries, with the Mountaineers and Panthers matching up 104 times – though this much anticipated game will be their first clash since 2011.

ESPN Events
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, unveiled a 20-game schedule of events for the 2022 college football season. The slate of owned and operated events will feature three early-season kickoff games, announced in full here.

ESPN Events, in tandem with the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), presents the Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge Kickoff in Week 0 for the second consecutive season. This year, Howard and Alabama State will match up on Saturday, Aug. 27 on ESPN at 7 p.m.

ESPN Events will also host a pair of kickoff games in Montgomery, Ala. Jacksonville State will meet Stephen F. Austin in the ninth FCS Kickoff on Saturday, Aug. 27 (3:30 p.m., ESPN). A week later, Tuskegee plays Fort Valley State in the second annual Boeing Red Tails Classic – a matchup of HBCU programs that honors the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen – on Sunday, Sept. 4 (7 p.m., ESPNU). Both games will be played at Montgomery’s historic Cramton Bowl, which celebrates its 100th year this college football season.

SEC Network
SEC Network kicks off the season in Knoxville on Thursday, Sept. 1 with Tennessee hosting Ball State at 7 p.m. in Neyland Stadium. SECN is then set for a trio of tripleheaders to kickoff 2022, including SEC Saturday Night matchups featuring CFP finalist Alabama in Week 1 (Saturday, Sept. 3 | 7:30 p.m.) and an all-Florida feature with USF traveling to Gainesville to take on Florida in Week 3 (Saturday, Sept. 17 | 7:30 p.m.). Last season’s championship game participants, Georgia and Alabama, are set for the 4 p.m. window on SECN in Weeks 2 & 3, respectively. Overall, the network boasts a comprehensive slate each week of the season, with more details here.

ACC Network
ACC Network opens its fourth season with a pair of Week 0 matchups on Saturday, Aug. 27 followed by three straight days of games in Week 1, beginning with VMI at Wake Forest on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Boston College hosting Rutgers kicks off a Saturday tripleheader on the network at noon on Sept. 3 ending with ACC Atlantic Division foes Louisville and Syracuse facing off for this season’s first installment of ACC Network Primetime Football at 8 p.m. A tripleheader capped by a primetime conference clash between Boston College and Virginia Tech (8 p.m.) highlights Week 2, while Week 3 features a quadruple header beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17. More information on the opening weeks of football on ACCN can be found here.

Big 12 Now on ESPN+
A record number of Big 12 games are featured on ESPN+ this fall, with a dozen contests featuring nine different Big 12 teams scheduled across the first three weeks and as many as 15 total games likely throughout the season. In Week 2, Kansas and West Virginia brace for an early season Big 12 battle on the platform, with the showdown set for 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10. Defending Big 12 champion Baylor opens up the season on Big 12 Now on ESPN+, hosting Albany on Saturday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m.

ESPN+
More than 50 games are slated for ESPN+ in the first three weeks of the 2022 season, including the debut of SoonerVision on ESPN+, as Oklahoma plays host to Kent State in Week 2 (Saturday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.).

All 14 Southeastern Conference schools will appear on ESPN+ once this fall. These ESPN+ matchups will also be simulcast on SEC Network+, with both streams accessible in the ESPN App via connected devices.

A pair of ACC contests is set for ESPN+, including Western Carolina at Georgia Tech in Week 2 and North Carolina A&T at Duke in Week 3. These ESPN+ matchups will also be simulcast on ACCNX, with both streams accessible in the ESPN App via connected devices.

The American returns for its third season on ESPN+, with approximately 25 total games planned throughout the season, and ESPN+ will also feature games from Conference USA, MAC, Sun Belt and more, with more than 150 total FBS games expected on the platform throughout the season.

Week 2
An early-season Pac-12 presentation is set for ABC’s Saturday Night Football Presented by Capital One, as USC and new head coach Lincoln Riley travel northward to Palo Alto for Riley’s first Pac-12 conference game, with the Trojans slated for primetime play against Stanford. Earlier in the day on ABC, Penn State hosts Ohio at noon and Tennessee travels to Heinz Field to take on Pittsburgh at 3:30 p.m. On ESPN, a duo of SEC showdowns is scheduled for afternoon and primetime action, as Arkansas welcomes South Carolina at noon and Florida plays host to SEC East rival Kentucky at 7 p.m. in primetime. On ESPN2’s College Football Primetime presented by SONOS, Oklahoma State and Arizona State battle at 7:30 p.m.

Week 3
An SEC-themed tripleheader on ESPN is slated for Week 3’s Saturday, starting with Georgia at South Carolina at noon, followed by Mississippi State at LSU at 6 p.m. and closing out the night with Miami at Texas A&M at 9 p.m. On ABC, Michigan hosts UConn at noon Saturday, with Ole Miss traveling to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech at 3:30 p.m., followed by Michigan State and Washington facing off in Seattle on ABC’s Saturday Night Football Presented by Capital One.

Longhorn Network
LHN will exclusively televise two Texas football games during Weeks 1 and 3. The Longhorns open their season on Saturday, Sept. 3 against Louisiana-Monroe on LHN at 7 p.m. CT. LHN will also televise Texas’ Week 3 game against UTSA on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. CT. More.

ESPN Special Date Games Set for Spotlight
In addition to the first three weeks, ESPN has teed up an expansive schedule of marquee matchups for viewers to mark on their calendars, including ESPN’s signature slate of mid-week games. Highlights include:

• Week 4
  • Wisconsin at Ohio State (Saturday at time TBD, ABC)
  • Virginia at Syracuse (Friday at 7:30 p.m., ESPN)
  • Wyoming at BYU (Saturday – time/network TBD)
• Week 5
  • Tulane at Houston (Friday at 7 p.m., ESPN)
  • Washington at UCLA (Friday at 10:30 p.m., ESPN)
• Week 6
  • Red River Showdown: Texas vs. Oklahoma (Saturday at time TBD, ABC)
• Week 7
  • Navy at SMU (Friday at 7:30 p.m., ESPN)
  • Arkansas at BYU (Saturday – time/network TBD)
• Week 9
  • Virginia Tech at NC State (Thursday at 7:30 p.m., ESPN)
• Week 10
  • Appalachian State at Coastal Carolina (Thursday at 7:30 p.m., ESPN)
  • Return of the MAC: mid-week MACtion begins on Tuesday, Nov. 1
• Week 11
  • Notre Dame vs. Navy (Saturday at noon, ABC or ESPN)
• Rivalry Week (Week 13)
  • Florida at Florida State (Friday at 7:30 p.m., ABC)
  • Baylor at Texas (Friday at time TBD, ABC or ESPN)
  • Mississippi State at Ole Miss (Thursday at 7 p.m., ESPN)
  • NC State at North Carolina (Friday at time TBD, ABC or ESPN)

A complete list of games is provided in the grid at the bottom of the release.

Comprehensive Conference Championship Saturday Slated for ESPN Networks
ESPN is set to broadcast the ACC, American and Big 12 Championship Games on ABC the first weekend of December, as ESPN networks close out their signature coverage of conference action on Saturday, Dec. 3. The American kicks off at 4 p.m., sandwiched by the Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship and the Subway ACC Championship, with kickoff times for ACC and Big 12 to be announced at a later date.

Additionally, the MAC Football Championship and Sun Belt Championship Game will each be televised live on ESPN, with the tussle between the top teams of the MAC slated to kickoff at noon and the Sun Belt set for 3:30 p.m.

Bowl Season is Back
ESPN’s unparalleled commitment to the college football postseason is on full display this winter with a full 40-game slate in December and January, including 17 ESPN Events owned and operated bowl games and the entirety of the New Year’s Six. The postseason begins with the HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl on Friday, Dec. 16 at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN, and ABC’s first bowl game is the Cricket Celebration Bowl at noon on Saturday, Dec. 17.

The College Football Playoff returns for Year 9, with the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl each playing host to the CFP Semifinals on ESPN on Saturday, Dec. 31. The College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T is also set for ESPN. More details regarding ESPN’s multi-platform presentation of the college football postseason and CFP will be announced later this year.

Schedules are subject to change. Please continue to check @ESPNPR and ESPN Press Room for more information.

ESPN NETWORKS – EARLY SEASON COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

*One of the listed matchups will be on Fri, Nov 25. Others remain on Sat, Nov 26.