American Athletic Conference Releases Early Season Football Schedule

The former Big East football schools that comprise the new American Athletic Conference have just released their early season football schedule for 2013.  Most of these games will be televised on the ESPN family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU, and ABC) but some will air on CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports, and at least one will be on NBC.  The schedule, provided by fbschedules.com, is featured below:

The American – 2013, Week 1
Date	Game	Time (ET)	Network
Thu., Aug. 29	Akron at UCF	7:00 p.m.	ESPN3
Thu., Aug. 29	Towson at UConn	7:30 p.m.	ESPN3
Thu., Aug. 29	Rugers at Fresno State	10:30 p.m.	ESPNU
Fri., Aug. 30	Texas Tech at SMU	8:00 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Aug. 30	Southern at Houston	8:30 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Aug. 31	Purdue at Cincinnati	12:00 p.m.	ESPNU
Sat., Aug. 31	Temple at Notre Dame	3:30 p.m.	NBC
Sat., Aug. 31	McNeese State at USF	7:00 p.m.	ESPN3
Sun., Sep. 1	Ohio at Louisville	3:30 p.m.	ESPN
The American – 2013, Week 2
Fri., Sep. 6	UCF at FIU	8:00 p.m.	CBS Sports Network
Sat., Sep. 7	Cincinnati at Illinois	12:00 p.m.	ESPN2 or ESPNU
Sat., Sep. 7	Houston at Temple	12:00 p.m.	ESPN Regional
Sat., Sep. 7	Eastern Kentucky at Louisville	12:00 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Sep. 7	Norfolk State at Rutgers	12:00 p.m.	CBS Sports Network
Sat., Sep. 7	USF at Michigan State	12:00 p.m.	ESPN2 or ESPNU
Sat., Sep. 7	Duke at Memphis	4:30 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Sep. 7	Montana State at SMU	8:00 p.m.	ESPN3
The American – 2013, Week 3
Sat., Sep. 14	Fordham at Temple	1:00 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Sep. 14	Eastern Michigan at Rutgers	1:00 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Sep. 14	UCF at Penn State	6:00 p.m.	Big Ten Network
Sat., Sep. 14	Florida Atlantic at USF	7:00 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Sep. 14	Northwestern State at Cincinnati	7:00 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Sep. 14	Maryland at UConn	7:30 p.m.	ESPN3
Sat., Sep. 14	Memphis at Middle Tennessee	TBA	CSS
The American – 2013, Other Games
Sat., Sep. 21	Houston at UTSA	TBA	Fox Sports
Thu., Oct. 10	Rutgers at Louisville	7:30 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Oct. 11	Temple at Cincinnati	TBA	ESPN or ESPN2
Fri., Oct. 18	UCF at Louisville	8:00 p.m.	ESPN
Wed., Oct. 30	Cincinnati at Memphis	8:00 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Oct. 31	USF at Houston	7:00 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Nov. 2	Temple at Rutgers	12:00 p.m.	ESPN Regional
Fri., Nov. 8	Louisville at UConn	8:00 p.m.	ESPN or ESPN2
Thu., Nov. 21	Rutgers at UCF	7:30 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Nov. 29	SMU at Houston	TBA	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Fri., Nov. 29	USF at UCF	TBA	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Thu., Dec. 5	Louisville at Cincinnati	7:30 p.m.	ESPN

Other News:

ACC and Big Ten teams will play each other in the Pinstripe Bowl starting in 2014:
http://espn.go.com/new-york/college-football/story/_/id/9416791/acc-pinstripe-bowl-6-years-sources-say

Former college players are seeking a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/9406971/former-athletes-seek-class-action-status-lawsuit-vs-ncaa

Former Houston running back Charles Sims will transfer to West Virginia:
http://stats.athlonsports.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=athlonsports&page=cfoot/news/news.aspx?id=4603191

Athlon Sports' preseason top 25 can also be found here:  http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/top-25

It's Palace Malice!!

Three separate winners for the Triple Crown races this year.  Orb in the Kentucky Derby, Oxbow in the Preakness, and now Palace Malice in the Belmont Stakes!  Congratulations to Palace Malice, Jockey Mike Smith, and all the connections to that racehorse.  Oxbow came in second, and Orb finished third.  What an incredible race.  Enjoy the video courtesy of NBC Sports and YouTube.

ACC Releases Interdivisional Game Schedule

Earlier this week the Atlantic Coast Conference announced a rotating interdivisional schedule for its fourteen football teams through 2024.  Over the next twelve seasons the ACC has committed itself to an eight-game conference schedule, in which each team will play every opponent in its division and two opponents from the opposite division.  Among the two interdivisional games, each team will play an annual "crossover" rival and a rotating opponent.  This arrangement does not include Notre Dame, since their current affiliation with the ACC only requires the Fighting Irish to play five games annually against ACC opponents.  The chart below reveals how the ACC has arranged its interdivisional schedule through 2024: 

The source of this diagram is found here:  http://www.fbschedules.com/2013/06/acc-announces-future-football-schedule-rotation-through-2024/

Other News:

NCAA places Mississippi State on probation for two years:  http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9352487/mississippi-state-bulldogs-put-probation-ncaa

Federal Judge dismisses Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett's lawsuit against the NCAA over its sanctions on Penn State:  http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9348652/judge-tosses-lawsuit-pa-governor-ncaa

University of Southern California Trojans freshman Wide Receiver Steven Mitchell will miss 2013 season because of knee injury:  http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/college-football/story/_/id/9353971/usc-trojans-wr-steven-mitchell-tears-knee-ligaments-season

Big Ten Releases 2015 Football Conference Schedule

Earlier today the Big Ten unveiled its league football schedule for the 2015 season.  2015 will mark the second season that the Big Ten will play as fourteen-team league and it will also be the last year it will play an eight-game conference schedule.  In the eight-game format for the league's future East-West divisional framework, each team will play the other members of its division and two teams from the opposite division.  Unlike the current Leaders-Legends arrangement, there will be no protected interdivisional games except for Indiana-Purdue (Old Oaken Bucket).  For the 2016 season, the Big Ten will move to a nine-game league schedule. 

2015 Big Ten Football schedules:

EAST DIVISION

2015 Indiana Hoosiers Schedule
2015 Maryland Terrapins Schedule
2015 Michigan Wolverines Schedule
2015 Michigan State Spartans Schedule
2015 Ohio State Buckeyes Schedule
2015 Penn State Nittany Lions Schedule
2015 Rutgers Scarlet Knights Schedule

WEST DIVISION

2015 Illinois Fighting Illini Schedule
2015 Iowa Hawkeyes Schedule
2015 Minnesota Golden Gophers Schedule
2015 Nebraska Cornhuskers Schedule
2015 Northwestern Wildcats Schedule
2015 Purdue Boilermakers Schedule
2015 Wisconsin Badgers Schedule

Other News Links:

Big Ten establishes eight-year partnership with the Pinstripe Bowl:
http://espn.go.com/new-york/college-football/story/_/id/9334537/big-ten-team-play-new-era-pinstripe-bowl-source-says

Southeastern Conference will distribute $289.4 million to its fourteen member schools for the 2012-13 fiscal year:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/9329603/sec-schools-receive-207-million-conference

Big XII Conference distributes $198 million to its ten member schools:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/9329322/big-12-conference-distributes-198-million-10-schools