ESPN has announced kickoff times and TV for 10 college football matchups in 2025, which includes four neutral-site games.
The slate begins in Week Zero on Saturday, Aug. 23 with the Aer Lingus College Football Classic at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The Kansas State Wildcats will face the Iowa State Cyclones in that contest at noon ET on ESPN.
ESPN’s coverage of college football in Week 1 will begin on Thursday, Aug. 28 with the Boise State Broncos visiting the South Florida Bulls at 5:30pm ET on ESPN, followed by the Nebraska Cornhuskers facing the Cincinnati Bearcats at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., at 9:00pm ET on ESPN.
One game is slated for Friday, Aug. 29. The Colorado Buffaloes host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in that contest at 8:00pm ET on ESPN.
Saturday’s college football lineup on the ESPN networks features a tripleheader on ABC — Syracuse vs. Tennessee (Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta; noon ET), Alabama at Florida State (3:30pm ET), and LSU at Clemson (7:30pm ET).
A pair of college football matchups are on the docket on Sunday, Aug. 31, beginning with the South Carolina Gamecocks and Virginia Tech Hokies tussling in a second Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta at 3:00pm ET on ESPN. Then in primetime, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will travel to face the Miami Hurricanes at 7:30pm ET on ABC.
Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 1) will feature the debut of head coach Bill Belichick and the North Carolina Tar Heels as they host the TCU Horned Frogs at 8:00pm ET on ESPN.
The first three weeks of the 2025 college football schedule along with special date games will be announced on Thursday, May 29. The 2025-26 college football bowl schedule will be revealed on Thursday, June 5.
Select ESPN/ABC 2025 College Football Games
*All times Eastern.
Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025
Kansas State vs. Iowa State (Ireland) – 12pm, ESPN
Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025
Boise State at South Florida – 5:30pm, ESPN
Nebraska vs. Cincinnati (Kansas City) – 9pm, ESPN
Friday, Aug. 29, 2025
Georgia Tech at Colorado – 8pm, ESPN
Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025
Syracuse vs. Tennessee (Atlanta) – 12pm, ABC
Alabama at Florida State – 3:30pm, ABC
LSU at Clemson – 7:30pm, ABC
Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025
South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech (Atlanta) – 3pm, ABC
Notre Dame at Miami FL – 7:30pm, ABC
Monday, Sept. 1, 2025
TCU at North Carolina – 8pm, ESPN
FOOTBALL SCHEDULES
College Football Schedule (FBS)
College Football TV Schedule (FBS & FCS)
Wow! I was so sure that that Nebraska Cincinnati game was going to be on Fox. I thought it had Fox written all over it. Because they have rights to Big 12 games as well. But my guess is Fox is going to dump Thursday night instead or Friday night game and I’m guessing that’s going to be Auburn Baylor.
I hope Cincinnati pummels Nebraska and Baylor smashes Auburn.
Hank ESPN seems to be flexing its muscles as the primary rights holder of in the new Big 12 media rights deal. In past years, two of the week zero/week one Big 12 games thst are going to be on ESPN (KSU v ISU, NU v Cincy & GA Tech @ CU) would likely have been on FOX. Will be interesting see if this year most of the attractive Big 12 match ups from a media perspective end up on ESPN.
Patrick: I mean they play good football in the Big 12 and the teams are compellingly but I couldn’t name a single one that’s got any WOW factor. Farmageddon (maybe?) and that’s in Ireland
Robert Nebraska is the bigger draw than Cincy in the Thursday game. Though it is a Big 12 game, Arrowhead is likely to filled with Nebraska fans, which sort of gives ESPN a Big 10 game. Also CU is still a big media draw (Nearly all the highest rated Big 12 games last year involved CU.) My point was that in the past FOX would have likely grabbed one or two of these early Big 12 games since they were on a more equal footing with ESPN in the previous media rights deal which ends this July. Seems like this year FOX will be getting the second tier Big 12 games.
No SEC on ABC football games in Week 1.
Tennessee-Syracuse may be an SEC-controlled game.
Hang in there Terrence there will be plenty of SEC games on ABC buddy.
As a Fan of Big Ten on CBS I would welcome Big Ten vs cupcake games for first weeks plus Big Ten have a weak OOC schedule this year & as always looking forward to conference games which I’m a Fan of too.
Cupcake is my favorite snack & every once & then I like sharing it with my Church during fellowship following Lutheran services.
My favorite game is LSU vs. Clemson.
A bit confused. 3:30 on ABC is supposed to be the SEC on ABC window that used to be on CBS. How does an ACC home game land in this time slot?
There is no SEC vs SEC games in week 1.
It’s quite possible that the SEC granted a waiver to ABC for an ACC home game to air at 3:30 for the first Saturday of College Football Season.
At least ACC OOC games are involving SEC teams in week 1.
That contract doesn’t cover Week 1. Note that when CBS has the SEC Game of the Week, they never had an SEC game on Week 1 either.
Still remember SEC on CBS Football Richard.
USF football season ticket member here. I never thought that I would need to get off from work early to attend this game. That 5:30 p.m. EDT kickoff on an August weekday is crazy.
It´s worth it though I think. Boise State is a great opponent.
It’s not about Boise State being a great opponent, BYUfan. This start time here is too much of a hassle. I work across town from Raymond James Stadium, so getting home and getting to the stadium isn’t something that would take a short time, especially given that it’s rush hour in a major metro area. There’s gonna likely be a late-arriving crowd and many of Boise State’s fans might not be able to watch much of this game due to the time difference, so that’s a lot of people ESPN is screwing with this move.
Welcome to college football, where TV windows drive start times. We in the west have been dealing with that for like 25 years now. So many games kick off at inconvenient times in the mountain time zone.
Thanks for the extra info Marcus, That is extremely unfortunate the amount of fans getting screwed by ESPN. The most weird part might that it´s a high profile G5 matchup that could get a decent number of views making it even more weird.
I’ll be happy to watch Washington at Michigan at 1:30PM on CBS if I were living in Bozeman, Montana.
Just want to let you know Reed I’m just being creative.