College football is just around the corner, and ESPN3 is dedicated to bringing fans more exclusive live games than ever. This season alone, ESPN3 is slated to carry more than 350 games with 100 plus exclusive matchups.
Marquee teams and regional favorites are well represented on the schedule including appearances by Florida State, Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, Miami (Fla.), Texas Tech, Cincinnati, Pitt, Maryland, NC State, Wake Forest, Indiana and Boston College. In fact, in September, every MAC & Sun Belt-controlled game will be distributed on an ESPN platform including 35 on ESPN3.
ESPN3’s robust college football schedule kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 1, with six simultaneous, exclusive games featuring appearances by Eastern Washington, Idaho, McNeese State, Middle Tennessee State, UCF, Akron, EMU, Ball State, UTSA, South Alabama, Southeast Missouri State and Central Michigan.
“One of the unique strengths of ESPN3 is schedule flexibility,” said Damon Phillips, vice president, ESPN3. “Because the network can accommodate up to 30 live events at once, fans never miss a moment of the action.”
This flexibility is good news for tennis fans because in addition to the outsized package of college football games, ESPN3 will carry nearly 400 hours of US Open tennis starting Aug 27 including up to six courts beginning at 1 p.m. ET the first five days.
Added Phillips, “while college sports and major championships are two core pillars of content for ESPN3, we are also committed to bringing exclusive, live global sports events to our viewers as a key differentiator of the network.”
To that end — beginning on Sept. 17, the ICC World Twenty20 will appear exclusively on ESPN3 at no additional cost to fans for the first time with 84 hours of live coverage. All 28 matches will appear exclusively on ESPN3, starting with the warmup match on Sept. 17 featuring India versus Pakistan.
This will be followed by the CLT20 Champions League which features the world’s top cricket club teams, including clubs from the Indian Premier League and others from Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies. The CLT20 runs Oct. 9-28 from South Africa.
ESPN3 will also have two full days of World Cup Qualifiers in Septembers, 45 matches total including Spain, Portugal and Italy.
With a growing schedule of exclusive content including more than 3,500 events in the year ahead, ESPN3 continues to evolve into a network with unique, valuable programming across all screens — computers, smartphones, tablets and even through Xbox LIVE.
Moving forward, ESPN3 will continue to focus on exclusive events, while also carrying limited live events from ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.
WatchESPN will serve as the primary digital destination by which to consume content from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Goal Line and Buzzer Beater.