After a week’s absence, it’s time for The Week Ahead to return. With the season turning to fall, baseball points towards the postseason, college football has some decent games in Week 5 after some horrible games this past weekend, the English Premier League speeds on with more good matches and the NFL heads to London. Let’s take a look at what’s in store for sports media this week.
TELEVISION
ESPN’s E:60 series continues its fall run with another edition on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET. That’s followed with an ESPN Films “SEC Storied” production on “The Book of Manning.” I have heard good things about this documentary. Unfortunately, I did not receive an advance screener, but from the reviews I have read and trust, this appears to be another good effort in the SEC Storied franchise.
Fox Sports 1 will air the Being: Mike Tyson documentary series this week.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
We have much better games this week than this past weekend when we had just one game with two ranked teams. Here are some of the games of the week for you.
ESPN’s College Gameday will head to another non-ESPN game for the third straight week. The pregame show stops in Athens, GA for the LSU-Georgia game which airs on CBS on Saturday.
Thursday, September 26
Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech — ESPN, 7:30 p.m.
Iowa State at Tulsa — Fox Sports 1, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 28
Oklahoma State at West Virginia — ESPN, noon
SMU at TCU — Fox Sports 1, noon
Florida State at Boston College or Iowa at Minnesota — ABC/ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.
LSU at Georgia — CBS, 3:30 p.m.
Oklahoma at Notre Dame — NBC, 3:30 p.m.
Mississippi at Alabama — ESPN, 6:30 p.m.
Arizona at Washington — Fox, 7 p.m.
Wisconsin at Ohio State — ABC, 8 p.m.
Air Force at Nevada — CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m.
Stanford vs. Washington State at Seattle — ESPN, 10 p.m.
USC at Arizona State — ESPN2, 10:30 p.m.
Cal at Oregon — Pac-12 Networks, 10:30 p.m.
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
NBCSN has its usual Saturday morning doubleheader with Tottenham Hotspur vs. Chelsea in the 7:45 a.m. window and followed by Aston Villa vs. Manchester City. NBC has Swansea City vs. Arsenal at 12:30 p.m.
NBCSN has a Sunday morning doubleheader as well. Here’s the schedule for you below.
Saturday, September 28
Premier League Live — NBCSN, 7 a.m.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Chelsea — NBCSN/mun2, 7:45 a.m.
Premier League Live — NBCSN, 9:45 a.m.
Aston Villa vs. Manchester city — NBCSN/mun2, 9:55 a.m.
Fulham vs. Cardiff — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Hull City vs. West Ham United — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Manchester United vs. West Bromwich Albion — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Southampton vs. Crystal Palace — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Premier League Live — NBCSN, noon
Swansea City vs. Arsenal — NBC, 12:30 p.m.
Match of the Day — NBCSN, 11 p.m.
Sunday, September 29
Premier League Live — NBCSN, 8 a.m.
Stoke City vs. Norwich City — NBCSN/mun2, 8:30 a.m.
Premier League Live — NBCSN, 10:30 a.m.
Sunderland vs. Liverpool — NBCSN/mun2, 11 a.m.
Premier League Goal Zone — NBCSN, 1 p.m.
Match of the Day II — NBCSN, 11 p.m.
GOLF
Golf Channel has coverage of three tours this week, the European PGA Tour, the Web.com and Champions Tour. The PGA tour is off until the start of the new season next month. The Presidents Cup will begin on October 3.
Anyway, the setup is for the week is as follows. The European tour is in Scotland for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The Web.com Tour has its Tour Championship in Ponte Vedera Beach, Florida. And the Champions Tour stop is at Pebble Beach for the Nature Valley First Tee Open (I just copy the tournament, I don’t name them).
Thursday, September 26
European PGA Tour, Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, 1st Round — Golf Channel, 8:30 a.m.
Web.com Tour Championship, 1st Round — Golf Channel, 3 p.m.
Friday, September 27
European PGA Tour, Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, 2nd Round — Golf Channel, 8:30 a.m.
Web.com Tour Championship, 2nd Round — Golf Channel, 3 p.m.
Champions Tour, Nature Valley First Tee Open, 1st Round — Golf Channel, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 28
European PGA Tour, Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, 3rd Round — Golf Chanel, 8:30 a.m.
Web.com Tour Championship, 3rd Round — Golf Channel, 3 p.m.
Champions Tour, Nature Valley First Tee Open, 2nd Round — Golf Channel, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 29
European PGA Tour, Alfred Dunhill Championship, Final Round — Golf Channel, 8 a.m.
Web.com Tour Championship, Final Round — Golf Channel, 3 p.m.
Champions Tour, Nature Valley First Tee Open, Final Round — Golf Channel, 7 p.m.
MLB
Baseball winds down as we go into the final week of the regular season. Next week, the MLB Postseason begins. We have the list of national games for this week.
Monday, September 23
Baltimore at Tampa Bay — MLB Network, 3 p.m.
Washington at St. Louis or Houston at Texas — MLB Network, 8 p.m.
Tuesday, September 24
TBD — MLB Network
Wednesday, September 25
Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs — WGN America, 2:20 p.m.
Tampa Bay at New York Yankees — ESPN, 7 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco — ESPN, 10:15 p.m.
Thursday, September 26
TBD — MLB Network
Friday, September 27
TBD — MLB Network
Saturday, September 28
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati — Fox, 1 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis — WGN America, 7:15 p.m.
TBD — MLB Network
Sunday, September 29
TBD — TBS
MLS
Friday, September 27
Sporting KC vs. Philadelphia — NBCSN, 8 p.m.
Sunday, September 29
Portland vs. LA Galaxy — NBC, 3:30 p.m.
Seattle vs. New York — ESPN, 9 p.m.
NASCAR
The Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series are in Dover for the late season NASCAR stop. Camping World Truck Series is out in Vegas.
Camping World Truck Series
Smith’s 350 — Fox Sports 1, 9 p.m. (Saturday)
Nationwide Series
This Race Goes 250 Miles and has a Very Long Sponsor Name — ESPN2, 4 p.m. (Saturday)
Sprint Cup Series
AAA 400 — ESPN, 3 p.m. (Sunday)
NFL
Monday Night Football tonight has ESPN airing Oakland at Denver at 8:30 p.m. Here are the national games for Week 4. Fox has the doubleheader.
Thursday, September 26
San Francisco at St. Louis — NFL Network, 8:25 p.m.
Sunday, September 29
Philadelphia at Denver or Washington at Oakland or Dallas at San Diego — Fox, 4:25 p.m.
New England at Atlanta — NBC, 8:30 p.m.
NHL PRESEASON
NHL Network has the following games this week.
Monday, September 23
Washington at Boston, 7 p.m.
Phoenix at Vancouver, 10 p.m.
Tuesday, September 24
New Jersey at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Vancouver at San Jose, 10:30 p.m.
Wednesday, September 25
Pittsburgh at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 26
Boston at Winnipeg, 7:30 p.m. (TSN simulcast)
New York Rangers at Vancouver, 10 p.m. (TSN simulcast)
Friday, September 27
Philadelphia at Washington, 7 p.m.
New York vs. Los Angeles at Las Vegas, 10:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 28
Detroit at Toronto, 7 p.m. (CBC simulcast)
Most of NHL Network’s games this week are simulcasts of local broadcasts except where noted.
TENNIS
The ATP and WTA Tours are in Asia now. Tennis Channel has coverage of the WTA Tour’s Pan Pacific Open starting on Thursday. The ATP’s Malaysian and Thailand Opens will be covered through tape delays over the weekend.
WNBA
The WNBA Playoffs continue throughout the week with the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. NBA TV and ESPN2 will have coverage of the postseason. When the matchups are set, I’ll post the schedules in the Viewing Picks.
And that is a look at your Week Ahead in Sports Media.
Next week, the MLB Postseason begins with TBS and MLB Network in their final year of having exclusive coverage of the Division Series. ESPN has a tasty matchup of 3-0 teams on Monday Night Football. The Presidents Cup will start. And the NBA taps off its preseason.
