ESPN Announces BIG EAST College Football Coverage

Related: ESPN

ESPN announced the telecast schedule for 11 of its BIG EAST Conference college football games for ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 during the 2013 season. The lineup includes four Thursday and four Friday night games, one Wednesday prime time matchup and two on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Additional games will be announced in the coming months. Highlights:

· The schedule includes multiple telecasts involving the conference's top three programs in 2012: Louisville (four games), Cincinnati (three) and Rutgers (two).

· Louisville, coming off an 11-2 record capped by a 33-23 victory over Florida in the Allstate Sugar Bowl in 2012, will appear in two ESPN College Football Primetime Thursday games. The Cardinals will host Rutgers on October 10 and visit Cincinnati on December 5. Louisville will also appear on two Friday games: against new conference member UCF, winners of the Conference USA East Division in 2012, on October 18 and at Connecticut, one of the two teams to defeat them last season, on November 8.

· All four of the new BIG EAST Conference members will be involved in at least one game: UCF (three games), Houston (two games), Memphis (one game) and SMU (two games).

· ESPN will televise SMU, making its debut as a BIG EAST member, against Texas Tech of the Big 12 on Friday, Aug. 30, at 8 p.m. ET.

· The Friday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 29 will include two BIG EAST games, involving three new conference members, on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2: South Florida at UCF and SMU at Houston in a showdown between teams joining the conference in 2013.

2013 BIG EAST Schedule as of March 6 (additional selections will be announced):

Date Time (ET) Game Network
Fri, Aug 30 8 p.m. Texas Tech at SMU ESPN
Thu, Oct 10 TBD Rutgers at Louisville ESPN
Fri, Oct 11 TBD Temple at Cincinnati ESPN or ESPN2
Fri, Oct 18 TBD UCF at Louisville ESPN or ESPN2
Wed, Oct 30 8 p.m. Cincinnati at Memphis ESPN2
Thu, Oct 31 TBD South Florida at Houston ESPN
Fri, Nov 8 TBD Louisville at Connecticut ESPN or ESPN2
Thu, Nov 21 TBD Rutgers at UCF ESPN
Fri, Nov 29 TBD South Florida at UCF ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
TBD SMU at Houston ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Thu, Dec 5 7:30 p.m. Louisville at Cincinnati ESPN