PROVO -- In an effort to outline the various broadcast options for the 2004 football season, the Mountain West Conference recently released its comprehensive television schedule. The MWC enters the '04 campaign with 31 games already selected for national and regional broadcasts, while another 24 have been slated for local, point-to-point broadcasts.
Television partner ESPN/ESPN2 will air 17 games involving MWC teams in 2004, while ABC has committed to three games featuring teams from the Mountain West.
While five of the Cougars' games have confirmed broadcast plans, six games remain undetermined.
BYU will kickoff the 2004 season against Notre Dame on Saturday, Sept. 4 on ESPN, beginning at 7:15 p.m. (MT).
On Saturday, Sept. 11, the Cougars' contest at Stanford will be handled by College Sports Television, beginning at 7 p.m. (PT). The game will be broadcast live on in Salt Lake City via SportsWest and on KRON in the Bay Area. Fans can also tune directly to CSTV, which will be available to more than 20 million homes nationally on cable and satellite. The network is available on Time Warner, Adelphia and Insight cable systems, among others, and is also available on DirecTV (channel 610). For information on CSTV availability in particular markets, fans can log on to www.collegesports.com/getcstv or call their cable or satellite operator.
On Friday, Sept. 24, ESPN will carry the national broadcast between BYU and Boise State. That game will kickoff at 8 p.m. (MT) from Bronco Stadium in Boise. On Saturday, Oct. 2, the BYU-Colorado State game will be broadcast live at 8 p.m. (MT) on KSL (SportsWest) and in the Denver area only on Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain.
The Cougars will host UNLV on Friday, Oct. 8, beginning at 8 p.m. (MT). The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2. On Saturday, Oct. 16, BYU will host Wyoming. The game is one of two games selected by ESPN+Plus as a possible option for the Mountain West Game of the Week. If selected, the game will be broadcast on KJZZ, Ch. 14 in Salt Lake City beginning at 1 p.m. (MT). If the network selects the New Mexico-UNLV game, the Cougars' game against the Cowboys will be broadcast by SportsWest. While ERT has indicated it will give the teams and fans as much notice as possible, they have up to 12 days before the game to announce their broadcast selection.
While broadcast plans for the BYU-Air Force game on Saturday, Oct. 23 have yet to be determined, the Cougars' games against both San Diego State and New Mexico are tentatively scheduled to be broadcast on SportsWest. However, ESPN+Plus has listed both the Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 games as a possible broadcast options. ESPN+Plus will have up to 12 days prior to the contest to determine their broadcast plans.
The Cougars' season finale at Utah has yet to be determined.
The MWC is in the sixth year of a seven-year contract with television partners ABC/ESPn/ESPN2/ESPN Regional Television. The networks combine to carry 19-23 conference and/or non-conference games per season, with an average minimum of two games on ABC, four on ESPN, five on ESPN2 and eight syndicated "Mountain West Game of the Week" packages on ESPN Regional Television.
Through the first five seasons, 76 percent of the games involving teams from the Mountain West Conference have been televised, including 95 national telecasts. Since 1999, BYU has had 100 percent of its games televised, including 27 games broadcast nationally on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC and NBC. Six additional games have been broadcast by ABC to a regional television audience.
Date Opponent Time Broadcast
Sat. Sept. 4 Notre Dame 7:15 p.m. ESPN
Sat. Sept. 11 at Stanford 7:00 p.m. CSTV/SportsWest
Sat. Sept. 18 USC 8:00 p.m. ESPN
Fri. Sept. 24 at Boise State 8:00 p.m. ESPN
Sat. Oct. 2 at Colorado State 8:00 p.m. Fox Sports RM/SportsWest
Fri. Oct. 8 UNLV 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
Sat. Oct. 16 Wyoming TBA ESPN+Plus or SportsWest
Sat. Oct. 23 at Air Force TBA TBD
Sat. Nov. 6 San Diego State TBA SportsWest or ESPN+Plus
Sat. Nov. 13 New Mexico TBA SportsWest or ESPN+Plus or ABC
Sat. Nov. 20 at Utah TBA TBD
All times local to site