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The BYU football team's season opener just got a little closer: the LaVell Edwards Stadium matchup with Washington State has moved from Saturday, September 1st to Thursday, August 30th as part of a slate of ESPN TV assignments announced on Wednesday.
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The 2012 lid-lifter is now one of four non-Saturday games BYU will play in the season's first six weeks, in addition to the September 20th game at Boise State (Thursday), and Friday night home contests versus Hawaii on September 28th (Friday) and Utah State on October 5th (Friday). All of the games will be televised on either ESPN or ESPN 2.
See the schedule link in the BYU Sports Menu on this page for an updated look at this season's football schedule.
Of course, all games are heard exclusively on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM and BYU Radio (SiriusXM 143), along with affiliates on KSL's BYU Radio Sports Network.
Below is BYU's official press release on today's news:
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PROVO, Utah (May 16, 2012) — ESPN and BYU today announced the television network schedule for the first four Cougar home games of the 2012 football season as well as the start time for the contest at Boise State.
The Cougars will be featured on ESPN's Thursday or Friday night football series four of the first six weeks of the 2012 season. ESPN and ESPN2 are available in nearly 100 million homes.
"We are excited to announce the first half of our television schedule for 2012," BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe said. "Thanks to our partnership with ESPN and BYUtv, only a handful of schools received the national exposure we enjoyed in 2011. We have great television partners who provide us with the opportunity to consistently play in front of a national audience."
BYU opens the 2012 season on ESPN at LaVell Edwards Stadium versus Washington State of the Pac-12. The game has been moved from Saturday, Sept. 1, to Thursday, Aug. 30, to help kick off the college football season and ESPN's 2012 College Football Primetime Thursday night schedule. Game time is set for 8:15 p.m. MT (10:15 p.m. ET).
On Saturday, Sept. 8, BYU will host Weber State in a game to be broadcast to a national audience on BYUtv. The game will kick off at 1 p.m. MT (3 p.m. ET). BYUtv is available in more than 65 million homes on Dish, DirecTV and more than 600 cable operators in North America.
BYU will make its second appearance on ESPN's College Football Primetime in a previously announced contest at Boise State on Thursday, Sept. 20. The game time has been set for 7 p.m. MT (9 p.m. ET).
Following the Thursday matchup with the Broncos, the Cougars return to LaVell Edwards Stadium for back-to-back Friday night games featured on ESPN or ESPN2.
The Hawaii game, originally scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 29, has been moved to Friday, Sept. 28, with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m. MT (8 p.m. ET) on ESPN. The following Friday, Oct. 5, BYU will face Utah State on ESPN or ESPN2 with kickoff set for 8:15 p.m. MT (10:15 p.m. ET).
Of the remaining six games on the 2012 football schedule, only the Notre Dame broadcast plans have been announced. The Cougars will face the Fighting Irish in South Bend, Ind., on Saturday, Oct. 20, at 1:30 p.m. MT (3:30 p.m. ET) before a national audience on NBC.
Broadcast plans for the rest of BYU's 2012 football schedule will be announced at a later date.
In 2012, BYU enters its second season of an eight-year exclusive agreement with ESPN. Every home game will be televised to a live national audience on one of ESPN's platforms or BYU's own national television network, BYUtv. A minimum of three home games will be televised annually on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC with additional games on ESPNU and at least one game on BYUtv. Adding to the national exposure for Cougar fans and college football followers, BYUtv also airs a live one-hour pregame show and 30-minute postgame show before and after every BYU game throughout the season.
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Meantime, college football writer/prognosticator Phil Steele has ranked BYU 35th in his Preseason Top 40.
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