Sun Belt Early Season 2016 Football TV Schedule Finalized

By Kevin Kelley -

The Sun Belt early season 2016 football TV schedule has been finalized, and it features games on the ESPN networks, SEC Network, beIN SPORTS, CBSSN, ASN, and more.

The schedule kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 1, with Appalachian State visiting Tennessee (7:30pm, SEC Network).

The first Sun Belt Conference matchup is slated for Saturday, Sept. 10, when Georgia Southern travels to take on South Alabama.

Listed below are the Sun Belt games that have been selected for television as of August 10.

Sun Belt Early Season 2016 Football TV Schedule
All times Eastern.

Thursday, September 1
Appalachian State at Tennessee – 7:30pm, SECN
Montana State at Idaho – 9pm, Idaho TV SN/ESPN3

Friday, September 2
Ball State at Georgia State – 7pm, ASN/ESPN3
Toledo at Arkansas State – 9pm, ESPNU

Saturday, September 3
Boise State at UL Lafayette – Noon, ASN/ESPN3
South Alabama at Mississippi State – Noon, SECN
Texas State at Ohio – 3:30pm, CBSSN
Austin Peay at Troy – 6pm, ESPN3
Savannah State at Georgia Southern – 6pm, ESPN3
Southern at ULM – 7pm, ESPN3
New Mexico State at UTEP – 8pm, beIN SPORTS

Saturday, September 10
Troy at Clemson – 12:30pm, ACC RSN/ESPN3
Georgia State at Air Force – 2pm, MWN
Old Dominion at Appalachian State – 3:30pm, ASN/ESPN3
Idaho at Washington – 5pm, Pac-12N
ULM at Oklahoma – 7pm, Sooner Sports Network-PPV
Georgia Southern at South Alabama – 7pm, ASN/ESPN3
McNeese State at UL Lafayette – 7pm, ESPN3
Arkansas State at Auburn – 7:30pm, SECN
New Mexico at New Mexico State – 8pm, NMSU Sports TV/ESPN3

Friday, September 16
Arkansas State at Utah State – 9pm, CBSSN

Saturday, September 17
Miami at Appalachian State – Noon, ESPN/ESPN2
Georgia State at Wisconsin – Noon, BTN
Idaho at Washington State – 2pm, Pac-12N
New Mexico State at Kentucky – 4pm, SECN Alt.
ULM at Georgia Southern – 6pm, ESPN3
Troy at Southern Miss – 7pm, beIN SPORTS
South Alabama at UL Lafayette – 7 pm, ESPN3
Texas State at Arkansas – 7:30pm, SECN Alt.

The Sun Belt previously announced seven games for mid-week broadcasts:

Wednesday, Oct. 5
Georgia Southern at Arkansas State – 8pm, ESPN2

Wednesday, Oct. 12
Appalachian State at UL Lafayette – 8pm, ESPN2

Thursday, Oct. 20
Troy at South Alabama – 7:30pm, ESPNU

Thursday, Oct. 27
Appalachian State at Georgia Southern – 7:30pm, ESPNU

Thursday, Nov. 3
Arkansas State at Georgia State – 7:30pm, ESPNU

Thursday, Nov. 10
UL Lafayette at Georgia Southern – 7:30pm, ESPNU

Thursday, Nov. 17
Arkansas State at Troy – 9:30pm, ESPNU

Comment (1)

In future seasons the Sun Belt should seriously consider putting games on NBCSN, They are the only G5 league with only one national cable partner and NBCSN is willing to air any FBS (and any college, for that matter) football they can get their hands on, especially since UMass doesn’t have a long-term deal in place and New Mexico State is gonna need one starting in 2018.

At the same time, ESPN should expand its college football coverage by placing weekly Saturday games on Freeform hosted by four of the five G5 conferences – one game each from the American, MAC, Sun Belt and MWC (the latter always at 10:30 PM, the others alternating 12, 3:30 and 7 PM), which would likely decrease the Saturday G5 games on other ESPN networks in favor of more Power 5-controlled games though a few would still air on ESPN networks. This would mostly not affect the number of weeknight games from G5 conferences on ESPN networks, except that the MAC would now have to set aside one of its Thanksgiving week games for Saturday to have it air on Freeform (currently all final week games are played on weekdays).

And conference realignment could influence a lot of this too.