ESPN to air Top 25 college football games of 2012

By Kevin Kelley -

ESPN will air the Top 25 college football games of the 2012 season, the network has announced. The 11-day marathon of games on ESPNU will begin on Wednesday, July 17.

ESPN selected and ranked the Top 25 games of 2012 and will let the fans decide the order of the Top 5 via a SportsNation poll. Those five games are listed below:

  • Texas A&M at Alabama
  • South Carolina vs. Michigan (Outback Bowl)
  • Alabama at LSU
  • Stanford at Oregon
  • Alabama vs. Georgia (SEC Championship)

Listed below is the complete schedule of games (all on ESPNU; note that six games will not be aired).

Rank Game Time (ET) Date
No. 25 Nebraska 29, Northwestern 28 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 17
No. 24 Utah 24, BYU 21 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 17
No. 23 Stanford 54, Arizona 48 N/A Will not be aired.
No. 22 LSU 41, Ole Miss 35 7:00 p.m. Thursday, July 18
No. 21 Texas 41, Oklahoma State 36 N/A Will not be aired.
No. 20 Miami Fla. 44, North Carolina State 37 10:00 p.m. Thursday, July 18
No. 19 Arizona 49, Nevada 48 7:00 p.m. Friday, July 19
No. 18 Oklahoma 50, West Virginia 49 N/A Will not be aired.
No. 17 North Carolina State 17, Florida State 16 Noon Saturday, July 20
No. 16 Nebraska 28, Michigan State 24 3:00 p.m. Saturday, July 20
No. 15 Oklahoma 51, Oklahoma State 48 (OT) 6 p.m. Saturday, July 20
No. 14 Louisville 34, Cincinnati 31 (OT) 9:00 p.m. Saturday, July 20
No. 13 ULM 34, Arkansas 31 Noon Sunday, July 21
No. 12 Michigan 38, Northwestern 31 (OT) 3:00 p.m. Sunday, July 21
No. 11 West Virginia 70, Baylor 63 N/A Will not be aired.
No. 10 Ohio State 29, Purdue 22 (OT) 6:00 p.m. Sunday, July 21
No. 9 Notre Dame 20, Stanford 13 (OT) N/A Will not be aired.
No. 8 Texas A&M 59, Louisiana Tech 57 9:00 p.m. Sunday, July 21
No. 7 Notre Dame 29, Pittsburgh 26 (OT) N/A Will not be aired.
No. 6 Clemson 25, LSU 24 3:00 p.m. Saturday, July 27
No. 5 Stanford 17, Oregon 14 (OT) 6:00 p.m. Saturday, July 27
No. 4 South Carolina 33, Michigan 28 9:00 p.m. Saturday, July 27
No. 3 Alabama 21, LSU 17 3:00 p.m. Sunday, July 28
No. 2 Texas A&M 29, Alabama 24 6:00 p.m. Sunday, July 28
No. 1 Alabama 32, Georgia 28 9:00 p.m. Sunday, July 28

Comments (23)

Say it out loud to yourself – San Jose State-Louisiana Tech! Did you get the answer to your question? Even though it was a great game do your really think the 4 letter network would offer this game?

Interesting that ESPN will re-air the “SEC on CBS” games but not the “Notre Dame on NBC” (Stanford and Pitt were both at ND), or Big 12/PAC-12 games from FOX. Must be something from the SEC/CBS/ESPN contract that makes this easier than the others.

Even so, good list of games. It’s always fun to go back through and watch/re-watch some of these instant classics.

None of the Notre Dame games will be aired because they are STILL not relevant and have provided the proof of being irrelevant by taking the hard one in the BCS game!
Ask yourself why was Notre Dame there? Wasn’t the game against Goergia the real Natl Champ game?

Haters love to hate Notre Dame. Suck it. The Irish roll always be relevant. Atlanta Mafia huh, yeah Georgia Tech dominates.

Thank you ESPN, now I can watch BYU lose again to Utah on a billion missed field goals and watch Utah rush the field 18 times…….. uggh. Never want to see that game again. Stinks to make the top 25 games as the losing team.

What are you talking about? The more they show of that low IQ fan base rushing the field, the better!! That was one of the top 5 most embarrassing sports blunders of the year.

How are they gona leave out baylor vs. wvy? i mean i know their was absolutely no defense at all but you sometimes gota like a high scoring game and you gotta think it’s pretty amazing for a qb in a game against a team from the bcs to throw for 8 tds, 656 yds and no ints. and bailey had 303 yds for 5tds, austin had 215 yds for 2 tds and woods had 114 yds for 1 td. and you gotta also think that’s quite impressive for a conference opener. REcords were also broken this game.

It’s kind of weird how they wrote the article because certain games aren’t listed in the table. But if you look above the table, you’ll see that the West Virginia at Baylor game is listed at #11.

I’m surprised the Mizzou/Tennessee game wasn’t in the top 25. That game went into a few OT’s if I’m correct?

I hate to say it but Utah just overpowered us and it’s great to see us loss three times in one game to our better, bigger Brother. Thank you Utah for even scheduling us, we need it bad!

Your poor grammar and punctuation reveals that you are definitely not a graduate of BYU.

Best game of the year was Texas Tech-TCU by far, double or triple overtime as I recall. Don’t understand why that was not chosen

Only airing one Big 12 game and not the other three? That’s pretty terrible. Why have a top 25 if that’s not what you are going to show?

Six of Alabamas starting players couldnt even pass classes at Notre Dame due to a little thing called academics. Thats why Notre Dame was there this is what happens when the players actually have to try and graduate.