Well, let’s take a look at what’s ahead in the sports media for the upcoming week. It’s another busy week and we’ll preview it for you right now.
TELEVISION
NFL Premieres
The NFL continues to dominate the week. Monday has the annual Week 1 doubleheader on ESPN with Philadelphia taking on the DC NFL Team at the interesting time of 6:55 p.m. ET then San Diego hosting the Houston Texans at 10:15. Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Lisa Salters will be in DC. Chris Berman, Trent Dilfer and Sal Paolantonio will be in San Diego.
Monday Night Countdown will have Suzy Kolber host in place of Berman. She’ll be in Bristol with Cris Carter, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson and Keyshawn Johnston. Stuart Scott will be at Landover, MD to host the on-field portion of Countdown. He’ll be joined by new ESPN NFL analyst Ray Lewis, Steve Young and Rick Reilly.
On Thursday, it’s the season premiere of NFL Network’s live schedule. Overall, NFL Network has 13 games. This week, it will be an AFC East matchup between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots live from Foxboro, MA. Returning to call the games will be Brad Nessler, Mike Mayock and Alex Flanagan.
NFL Network will have its traveling road show known as NFL Total Access Kickoff at the stadiums, two hours before the games. Rich Eisen is back to host the pregame show. He’ll have Steve Mariucci, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk as analysts. Reporting from the field will be the aforementioned Flanagan and Stacey Dales. Ian “Beat the Rap” Rapoport will be offering the latest information for the show.
Unless you’re a Verizon Wireless customer, Thursday Night Football will not be streamed online. Verizon Wireless customers will see the game on the NFL Mobile smartphone app. However, there will be live cut-ins on NFL.com. NFL Network tells me there will be exclusive camera angles for the live look-ins, studio analysis and social media integration.
Matt Smith and Solomon Wilcots will provide the exclusive call for NFL.com’s cut-ins. Rebecca Haarlow will be the sideline reporter.
And NFL Mobile will have updates through sideline reporter Haarlow.
College Football’s Latest Game of the Century
Alabama at Texas A&M is the latest Game of the Century in college football. CBS will carry the game at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Uncle Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy “The Wolf” Wolfson will be the crew as this marks the season premiere of the SEC on CBS.
And for this game, plenty of shoulder programming. ESPN’s College GameDay will be at College Station, TX as the network makes a rare visit for a game not on its family of platforms. Chris Fowler and the gang will be live starting at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday.
ESPN’s College Football Live will have a presence from College Station starting later in the week.
CBS’ College Football Today will also be at the game as Tim Brando, Spencer Tillman and Brian Jones, who makes his debut, will have a set at Kyle Field. The show airs at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Other Things of Note
CBS Sports Network’s NFL Monday QB is back for its second season. It airs at a special time of 5 p.m. ET. The extremely loud Adam Schein will have Phil Simms, Rich Gannon and Steve Beuerlein as his analysts.
Jim Rome on Showtime returns Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET.
The only weekly sports business show on television, Sportfolio hosted by Rick Horrow has returned to Bloomberg after a brief hiatus. It airs at 9:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.
BOXING
Floyd Mayweather takes on Canelo Alvarez in a Junior Middleweight title fight from Las Vegas. Showtime and CBS Sports Network continue to air shoulder programming in advance of the bout. The fight is on Pay per view starting at 9 p.m. ET.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Asides from Alabama at Texas A&M, here are some other games that are of interest.
Thursday, September 12
TCU at Texas Tech — ESPN, 8 p.m.
Friday, September 13
Air Force at BYU — ESPN, 8 p.m.
Saturday, September 14
UCLA at Nebraska — ABC, noon
Stanford at Army — CBS Sports Network, noon
Louisville at Kentucky — ESPN, noon
Tulsa at Oklahoma — ESPN2, noon
Boston College at USC — Pac-12 Network, 3 p.m.
Tennessee at Oregon — ABC, 3:30 p.m.
Delaware at Navy — CBS Sports Network, 3:30 p.m.
Washington vs. Illinois at Chicago — Big Ten Network, 6 p.m.
Iowa at Iowa State — Fox Sports 1, 6 p.m.
University of Rhode Island at Albany — Comcast SportsNet (California/Mid-Atlantic)/NECN/The Comcast Network/Time Warner Cable SportsNet NY, 7 p.m.
Vanderbilt at South Carolina — ESPN, 7 p.m.
Mississippi State at Auburn — ESPN2, 7 p.m.
Ohio State at Cal — Fox, 7 p.m.
Notre Dame at Purdue — ABC, 8 p.m.
Oregon State at Utah — Fox Sports 1, 10 p.m.
Wisconsin at Arizona State — ESPN, 10:30 p.m.
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
The EPL is back after a week off for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. NBC Sports Network has a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday. Here’s NBC Sports Network’s schedule of games for this weekend.
Saturday, September 14
Premier League Live — NBCSN, 7 a.m.
Manchester United vs. Crystal Palace — NBCSN/mun2, 7:45 a.m.
Premier League Live — NBCSN, 9:45 a.m.
Sunderland vs. Arsenal — NBCSN, 10 a.m. (tentative)
Aston Villa vs. Newcastle — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Fulham vs. West Brom Albion — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Hull City vs. Cardiff — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Stoke vs. Manchester City — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Norwich City — Premier League Extra Time, 10 a.m.
Premier League Live — NBCSN, noon
Everton vs. Chelseas — NBC/mun2, 12:30 p.m.
Match of the Day — NBCSN, 11:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 15
Premier League Live — NBCSN, 10:30 a.m.
Southampton vs. West Ham United — NBCSN, 11 a.m.
Premier League Goal Zone — NBCSN, 1 p.m.
Match of the Day II — NBCSN, 11 p.m.
FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS
World Cup qualifying continues on Tuesday. ESPN will carry United States vs. Mexico live from Columbus, OH. Bob Ley hosts a pregame show at 7 p.m. and Kasey Keller, Alexi Lalas and Jorge Ramos are the analysts. Calling the game will be Ian Darke, Taylor Twellman and Alejandro Moreno. Jeremy Schaap and John Sutcliffe are the sideline reporters.
beIN Sport has three qualifiers from South and Central America. Here’s what’s on tap for Tuesday.
Bolivia vs. Ecuador — beIN Sport, 3:50 p.m.
Uruguay vs. Colombia — beIN Sport, 5:50 p.m.
United States vs. Mexico — Univision Deportes, 7:30 p.m./ESPN, 7:40 p.m./UniMás, 8 p.m.
Honduras vs. Panama — beIN Sport, 8:50 p.m.
GOLF
The PGA Tour is back after a week off. The FedEx Cup playoffs head to the BMW Championship in Lake Forest IL. Golf Channel and NBC share the coverage.
The LPGA Tour will be in France for its final major tournament of the year, the Evian Championship. Golf Channel will have live four round coverage which will occur in the morning. NBC will provide final round coverage on Sunday.
Here’s how the coverage will shake up.
Thursday, September 12
Evian Championship, 1st Round — Golf Channel, 7:30 a.m.
BMW Championship, 1st Round — Golf Channel, 3 p.m.
Friday, September 13
Evian Championship, 2nd Round — Golf Channel, 7:30 a.m.
BMW Championship, 2nd Round — Golf Channel, 3 p.m.
Saturday, September 14
Evian Championship, 3rd Round — Golf Channel, 6:30 a.m.
BMW Championship, 3rd Round — Golf Channel, 1 p.m./NBC, 3 p.m.
Sunday, September 15
Evian Championship, Final Round — Golf Channel, 8:30 a.m./NBC, noon
BMW Championship, Final Round — Golf Channel, noon/NBC, 1:30 p.m.
Golf Channel will also have coverage of the European PGA and the Web.com Tours
MLB
With the playoff race in full swing, the national networks are focusing again on the Boston Red Sox. First, its series with the Tampa Bay Rays will be shown through either MLB Network or ESPN. Then the Red Sox will be home to face the New York Yankees during the weekend and MLB Network, Fox and ESPN will air the three games. Here’s what the national schedule looks like for the next seven days.
Monday, September 9
Kansas City at Cleveland or New York Yankees at Baltimore — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, September 10
New York Yankees at Baltimore or Boston at Tampa Bay — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, September 11
Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati — WGN America, 12:30 p.m.
Boston at Tampa Bay — ESPN, 7 p.m.
Arizona at Los Angeles Dodgers — ESPN, 10 p.m.
Thursday, September 12
New York Yankees at Baltimore or Boston at Tampa Bay — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh — WGN America, 7 p.m.
Friday, September 13
New York Yankees at Boston or Baltimore at Toronto — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Saturday, September 14
New York Yankees at Boston or Oakland at Texas — Fox, 1 p.m.
Kansas City at Detroit or San Diego at Atlanta — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Cleveland at Chicago White Sox — WGN America, 7 p.m.
Sunday, September 15
Kansas City at Detroit — TBS, 1 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh — WGN America, 1:30 p.m.
New York Yankees at Boston — ESPN, 8 p.m.
MLS
Friday, September 13
Seattle vs. Real Salt Lake — NBCSN, 10 p.m.
Saturday, September 14
DC United vs. LA Galaxy — UniMás, 4 p.m.
NASCAR
The NASCAR circuit heads to Chicagoland Speedway for three races this weekend.
Camping World Truck Series
Friday, September 13
EnjoyIllinois.com 225 — Fox Sports 1, 9 p.m.
Nationwide Series
Saturday, September 14
Dollar General 300 — ESPN2, 4 p.m.
Sprint Cup Series
Sunday, September 15
Geico 400 — ESPN, 3 p.m
NFL
As mentioned above, NFL Network begins its Thursday Night Football schedule this week. CBS has the doubleheader. There will be nine early games and four late games. The Sunday night game will have San Francisco taking on Seattle in an NFC West battle. Here are the national games for Week 2 in The League Where They Play for Pay.
Thursday, September 12
New York Jets at New England — NFL Network, 8:25 p.m.
Sunday, September 15
Denver at New York Giants — CBS, 4:25 p.m.
San Francisco at Seattle — NBC, 8:30 p.m.
TENNIS
The U.S. Open concludes Monday with the Men’s Final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. CBS carries it at 5 p.m. so in theory, it would end before primetime on the East Coast. Because it’s airing at 5 p.m., check your local listings as some CBS affiliates may choose to shuffle the final to its digital channel or to a co-owned station. This has been an issue for the past four years especially when the Men’s Final was pushed to Monday due to weather delays.
In Providence which is my home market, the local CBS affiliate is opting to air the final.
Later in the week, Tennis Channel airs coverage of the Davis Cup ties between Canada vs. Serbia and Argentina vs. Czech Republic, bouncing between the two from Friday through Sunday.
The WTA Tour heads to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Tennis Channel will carry tape delayed coverage of the semifinals and final on Friday and Saturday.
There’s another WTA Tour stop in Quebec City, Canada and Tennis Channel provides taped delayed coverage of that tournament as well.
OTHER SPORTS
America’s Cup
NBCSN airs the Finals Races 5 and 6 on Tuesday live from San Francisco at 3:30 p.m., then Races 7 & 8 on Thursday also at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday, NBCSN takes Races 9 & 10 also at 3:30 p.m. And Races 11 & 12 will take place on Sunday also at 3:30 p.m. on NBCSN.
Basketball
The FIBA Americas Championships which will qualify teams to go to the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain next year will have its semifinals in Caracas, Venezuela. NBA TV airs the semifinals on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The Bronze and Gold Medal Games will be streamed online the following day through ESPN3. NBA TV airs the Gold Medal on tape delay on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Beach Volleyball
CBS Sports Network has the AVP Tour stop in St. Petersburg, FL, Sunday at 5 p.m.
CFL
Four Canadian Football League games between Friday and Sunday. All will be streamed through ESPN3.
Cycling
Universal Sports continues its coverage of the Vuelta a España as the race heads towards Madrid next Sunday. Coverage begins at 10 a.m. ET all throughout the week.
WNBA
Four games this week. ESPN2 has a game on Wednesday. The rest are on NBA TV.
Wednesday, September 11
Phoenix Mercury at Chicago Sky — ESPN2, 8 p.m.
Thursday, September 12
Minnesota Lynx at Los Angeles Sparks — NBA TV, 10:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 14
Chicago Sky at Minnesota Lynx — NBA TV, 8 p.m.
Sunday, September 15
Phoenix Mercury at Los Angeles Sparks — NBA TV, 3 p.m.
That concludes this look at The Week Ahead in Sports Media. Next week, the PGA Tour ends its season with the Tour Championship in Atlanta. NHL Network begins airing live preseason games. The FIBA qualifying for the World Cup in Spain continues with EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia.
And we’ll go more into depth on other stuff in next week’s edition.
