It seems to be an annual tradition. South Carolina will kick off the new college football and SEC season in primetime on Thursday, September 3. Though we knew this for a while, the official start time has been confirmed. The Gamecocks will face North Carolina at 6 pm eastern on the nationally televised Belk College Kickoff Game in Charlotte, North Carolina on ESPN. The start time was one of many of the early season start times announced by the SEC and ESPN on Thursday afternoon.
Tennessee’s Week 2 home game against Oklahoma will also get a primetime slot, with another 6pm kickoff. That game, the second of a home-and-home that started last season in Norman, will air on ESPN as well. Following that non-conference tilt between Power 5 opponents, ESPN will carry an SEC West battle between LSU and Mississippi State starting at 9:15 p.m.
In Week 3 it will be the SEC East duel between Georgia and South Carolina getting primetime attention on ESPN. The Bulldogs and Gamecocks will square off in another 6 p.m. contest, followed by Alabama hosting Ole Miss at 9:15 p.m.. Both game swill appear on ESPN. With just three hours and 15 minutes to cram the first games in, prepare yourselves now for some TV programming frustration in the fall. Games are going to be shifting from one channel to the next until the early primetime games are completed. You may also want to make sure your streaming capabilities are up to speed, just in case.
Here are other early season kickoff times announced by the SEC and ESPN during a schedule release special on SEC Network (thanks for the idea NFL), courtesy of FBSchedules.com. You can see the full schedule here.Week 1 #SEC Football TV Schedule pic.twitter.com/CFgdS8DgUz
— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) June 18, 2015
Week 3 #SEC on SECN and ESPNU pic.twitter.com/iIMVt4qeMp
— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) June 18, 2015
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