Southeastern Conference Releases 2013 Early Season Television Schedule

Today the Southeastern Conference (SEC) unveiled its early season, and primarily non-conference, TV schedule for the 2013 football season.  Most games will be televised on the ESPN family of networks but this season will also feature the debut of the SEC Network, which will televise one game per week for the first three weeks.  Games featured on that network will include Toledo vs. Florida (week #1), Western Kentucky at Tennessee (week #2), and Southern Mississippi vs. Arkansas (week #3).  The SEC's early season schedule will also have four games at neutral sites on August 31st.  These include Mississippi State vs. Oklahoma State in the "Texas Kickoff Classic" at Houston's Reliant Stadium,  Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky at Nashville's LP Field,  Alabama vs. Virginia Tech in the "Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game" in Atlanta,  and Louisiana State playing Texas Christian at Cowboys Stadium.  While I support the idea of playing college football games at neutral sites, especially in NFL Stadiums, I am still waiting to see if Louisiana State will play Wisconsin in Lambeau Field or someplace outside the SEC's geographic footprint.  Here is the early season SEC schedule as of July 16th, courtesy of fbschedules.com:

SEC – 2013, Week 1
Date	Game	Time (ET)	Network
Thu., Aug. 29	North Carolina at South Carolina	6:00 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Aug. 29	Ole Miss at Vanderbilt	9:15 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Aug. 31	Toledo at Florida	12:21 p.m.	SEC Network
Sat., Aug. 31	Rice at Texas A&M	1:00 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Aug. 31	Miss. St. vs. Oklahoma St. (Houston)	3:30 p.m.	ABC and ESPN2 (RM)
Sat., Aug. 31	UL Lafayette at Arkansas	4:00 p.m.	FSN
Sat., Aug. 31	Virginia Tech vs. Alabama	5:30 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Aug. 31	Austin Peay at Tennessee	6:00 p.m.	PPV
Sat., Aug. 31	Washington State at Auburn	7:00 p.m.	ESPNU
Sat., Aug. 31	Kentucky vs. W. Kentucky (Nashville)	7:00 p.m.	ESPNews
Sat., Aug. 31	Georgia at Clemson	8:00 p.m.	ABC
Sat., Aug. 31	TCU vs. LSU (Arlington)	9:00 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Aug. 31	Murray State at Missouri	TBA	PPV
SEC – 2013, Week 2
Sat., Sep. 7	Florida at  Miami	12:00 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Sep. 7	Miami (Ohio) at Kentucky	12:00 p.m.	FSN
Sat., Sep. 7	Western Kentucky at Tennessee	12:21 p.m.	SEC Network
Sat., Sep. 7	Toledo at Missouri	3:30 p.m.	ESPNU
Sat., Sep. 7	Alcorn State at Miss. State	3:30 p.m.	CSS
Sat., Sep. 7	South Carolina at Georgia	4:30 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Sep. 7	Samford at Arkansas (Little Rock)	7:00 p.m.	PPV
Sat., Sep. 7	UAB at LSU	7:00 p.m.	ESPNU
Sat., Sep. 7	SE Missouri at Ole Miss	7:00 p.m.	PPV
Sat., Sep. 7	Sam Houston State at Texas A&M	7:00 p.m.	PPV
Sat., Sep. 7	Arkansas State at Auburn	7:30 p.m.	FSN
Sat., Sep. 7	Austin Peay at Vanderbilt	7:30 p.m.	CSS
SEC – 2013, Week 3
Sat., Sep. 14	Louisville at Kentucky	12:00 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Sep. 14	Southern Miss at Arkansas	12:21 p.m.	SEC Network
Sat., Sep. 14	Alabama at Texas A&M	3:30 p.m.	CBS
Sat., Sep. 14	Tennessee at Oregon	3:30 p.m.	ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Sat., Sep. 14	Mississippi State at Auburn	7:00 p.m.	ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
Sat., Sep. 14	Vanderbilt at South Carolina	7:00 p.m.	ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
Sat., Sep. 14	Kent State at LSU	7:00 p.m.	ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
Sat., Sep. 14	Ole Miss at Texas	8:00 p.m.	Longhorn Network
SEC – 2013, Other Games
Sat., Oct. 19	CBS Doubleheader	12/3:30 p.m.	CBS
Thu., Oct. 24	Kentucky at Mississippi State	7:30 p.m.	ESPN
Sat., Nov. 2	Georgia vs. Florida (Jacksonville)	3:30 p.m.	CBS
Sat., Nov. 9	CBS Doubleheader	3:30/8 p.m.	CBS
Thu., Nov. 28	Ole Miss at Mississippi State	7:30 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Nov. 29	Arkansas at LSU	2:30 p.m.	CBS
Sat., Nov. 30	SEC Championship Game	4:00 p.m.	CBS

July 1st, 2013 - Let The Conference Changes Begin!

Sixteen FBS schools throughout the United States officially change conferences today.  The ACC gains 2 members (Syracuse and Pittsburgh) in all sports and an associate member in Notre Dame.  The Mountain West gains two new members (Utah State and San Jose State) and the opportunity to establish a football championship game.  Conference USA acquires six members and the Sun Belt Conference adds one school (Texas State).  The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) no longer sponsors football and the old Big East has split into two parts, with the football schools becoming the new American Athletic Conference.  Out of all these changes, it seems that the ACC and the Mountain West are the main beneficiaries.  ESPN's Brett McMurphy has more information about this large shift in the college football landscape in the video found here: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9441623.

Happy Canada Day and Happy Fourth of July Everybody!