Suddenly, college football fans will have a trio of options on the Sunday before the NFL kicks off its season. Possibly.
In late March, it was announced that the Texas A&M-UCLA game that will serve as the 2017 opener for both schools had been moved from Saturday, Sept. 2, to Sunday, Sept. 3. Two days later, a similar move shifted the West Virginia-Virginia Tech game to a day later than previously scheduled.
Nearly three weeks later, Texas Tech announced that it’s opener against FCS powerhouse Eastern Washington has been moved from the Saturday of the first full weekend of the 2017 season to the day after. Per the school’s release, the move was made “in order to accommodate a FOX Sports telecast.”
However, shortly after Tech’s announcement, the following was posted on the Twitter account of Eastern Washington athletic director Bill Chaves.We have NOT agreed to play on Sunday vs Texas Tech...not sure why this was released but again we have not agreed to this change...#GoEags
— Bill Chaves (@EWUeaglesAD) April 18, 2017
Shortly after that, Tech released a statement addressing the kerfuffle.
“The public release of the schedule change with Eastern Washington has caused conflicts that we are working to resolve at this time,” the statement began. “We are currently in contact with both FOX Sports and Eastern Washington. We will provide an update on an official game time and date as soon as possible.”
This would, should it go off -- money says it will, eventually -- mark Tech’s first Sunday game since the 2010 season.
Kickoff time for this latest Lord’s Day foray would be a window of between 6 and 8 p.m. ET. The WVU-Tech game is scheduled to start at 7:30, while it’s expected the A&M-UCLA matchup will kick at 8 p.m. ET.
Tennessee and Georgia Tech will close out the weekend at the brand-new Mercedes-Benz Stadium (maybe) in Atlanta Labor Day night that Monday.