Countdown to Kickoff: Where's my game?

In the NFL, figuring out which channel that a game is broadcast is easy.  It either depends on the conference of the visiting team or if it's a night game.

In college football, tv deals work a lot differently.  We're here to try to give a general overview.

3 days until kickoff....

The world of college sports TV deals is not a simple one.  There are different "rights tiers", which determine who gets to broadcast events from a conference.  Some conference package tiers together, while others don't.

There's no real easy way to explain all of the rights deals, so this post is really just a list of where you can look for a game if you can't find it on one of the ESPN channels (including ABC and the online only ESPN3).  As such, we won't be listing ESPN below, except for the championship games of if ESPN holds exclusive rights to a conference.  If we do mention ESPN, it refers to the company and could include any channels they control (again, including ABC and ESPN3).

Fox Sports has recently started airing College Football.  This includes games on FX, Fox Sports Net, Fox College Sports, and the Big Ten Network.  They will also begin airing prime time games on the regular Fox network in 2012.  Any mentions of Fox below should be treated like ESPN and could refer to any channel that Fox Sports controls.

Keep in mind though, that a lot of local Fox stations air syndicated games that have nothing to do with Fox Sports, such as ACC Network games.

Games are assigned based on the home team.  For example, even though ESPN has all ACC rights, if Virginia Tech is playing at East Carolina, the game will be broadcast per the Conference USA TV deal.

If a conference is not listed, then it is our belief that all of their rights are held by ESPN.
ACC:
-sublicense to Raycom, for the ACC Network.  This includes the 12:30 game syndicated on local stations.  There is also a second game at 3:00 which is usually produced by the ACC Network for Fox Sports Net, and can be found on regional sports channels.

SEC:
-CBS will broadcast the SEC Game of the Week at 3:30.  Occassionally, they will have a doubleheader.
-There is also an SEC regional game, similiar to the 3 PM ACC game, also airing on Fox Sports Net or other similiar channels.

Big Ten:
-Fox
-Big Ten Network.

Big 12:
-Fox
-Longhorn Network

Pac-12:
-Fox
-Pac-12 Network - a new cable network.

Conference USA:
-Fox

Mountain West:
-CBS Sports Network
-NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus)
The above two channels are not the broadcast channels, but dedicated cable sports channels.

Army/Navy:
-CBS or CBS Sports Network

Notre Dame:
-NBC, including neutral site games where ND is the designated home team.

Championship games:
ACC, CUSA, MAC:  ESPN
SEC:  CBS
Pac-12:  ESPN or FOX (alternates)
Big Ten:  FOX

Of course, ESPN still has the BCS and most bowls.

We don't assert that this list is complete or comprehensive, but only that it provides a starting place on where to look for game broadcasts.