COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Mountain West announced its national television package and six New Mexico football games were selected for national broadcast. One game is slated for ESPN, two are slated for ESPN2, one is to be determined and two will be on CBS Sports Network. It marks the most preseason ESPN/ESPN2 selections for New Mexico since the advent of the Mountain West. In 2005 New Mexico was preseason selected for two ESPN2 games.
The three games on ESPN and ESPN2 are all the national telecasts, putting the Lobos in 94.3 million households each time. The games on CBS Sports Network will have a reach of over 61 million homes. Last year New Mexico was on ESPN2 for each of its final three games, and then the Lobos were on ESPN for their bowl game, defeating UTSA in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.
Of the 22 games selected by ESPN for the league, 17 are currently listed as “ESPN Networks”, with just five guaranteed to be on ESPN or ESPN2. New Mexico’s three guaranteed games is the most in the conference.
“Having six games selected for national broadcast, and three of those in prime ESPN and ESPN2 slots brings tremendous national exposure and attention to our football program and university,” said Paul Krebs, Vice President for Athletics. “It’s a credit to the growth and excitement of our football program under Coach Davie that we are an attractive team for television.”
Four of the games selected for national broadcast have been moved off Saturday, with two of those at home and two of those on the road. New Mexico’s home game against Colorado State was moved to Friday, October 20 and will kick off at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN2. UNM’s final home game with UNLV will move to Friday, November 21 and will be on ESPN2, with kickoff to be announced later.
The road games moved were UNM’s conference opener at Boise State, which was moved to Thursday night, and will kick off at 6 p.m. as the national Thursday Night Football game on ESPN as well as UNM’s final game of the season, at San Diego State. That was moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving and will kick off on CBS Sports Network at 1:30 p.m. Mountain Time. The game with Boise State is the national prime time game, and opens up the week of football coverage for ESPN and its networks.
The other two national games announced by the league office for the Lobos are UNM’s September 30 home game with Air Force, which will kick off at 5 p.m. on CBS Sports Network, and UNM’s game at Wyoming on October 28, which will appear somewhere on ESPN’s family of networks. That kick off time hasn’t been determined.
New Mexico’s other three home dates, September 2 against Abilene Christian, September 9 against New Mexico State and November 4 against Utah State, were not selected for national broadcast, along with UNM’s road game on October 14 at Fresno State. Those games are now eligible to be selected by the league’s other television partners, specifically ROOT SPORTS and the Mountain West Network on Campus Insiders.
Six Football Games Selected for ESPN Networks/CBSSN
