BYU and ESPN released the network schedule for the first four home games of the BYU football 2012 season on Wednesday.
ESPN will feature BYU games in its Thursday or Friday night football series, bringing the Cougars to fans across the country for four of the first six weeks in the season.
“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.”
This exposure will continue with the 2012 television schedule as either ESPN, ESPN2, or BYUtv will televise every one of the games held in LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Though originally scheduled for Sept. 1, BYU kicks off the season against Washington State on Aug. 30 to accommodate the College Football Primetime Thursday night schedule of ESPN. The game will start at 8:15 p.m. Mountain time.
ESPN will not broadcast the game against Weber State on Saturday, Sep. 8, but BYUtv will televise the Cougar and Wildcat face-off at 1 p.m. Mountain time.
The Cougars will travel to Boise State Sep. 20 and ESPN will broadcast the game at 7 p.m. MT.
BYU and ESPN also announced the game against Hawaii will play on Friday, Sep. 28 at 6 p.m. MT. This is different from the original schedule, when BYU was set to play Hawaii on Saturday, Sep. 29.
The final game ESPN scheduled is against Utah State, which will show Friday, Oct. 5 at 8:15 pm MT on ESPN or ESPN2.
The Cougars will play six additional games throughout the season, including one against Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. on Saturday, Oct. 20 at 1:30 pm MT. NBC will televise this game.
This is the second season of an eight-year agreement between BYU and ESPN. Besides the exposure on ESPN, fans can view pre- and post-game shows for every game on BYUtv. The remainder of the network schedule for BYU during the 2012 season will come later, and the current layout can be found at byucougars.com.
