A small piece of news from from Saturday gave us a large clue as to how ESPN plans to fit all the pieces of its Week 1 college football TV schedule together.
On Saturday, West Virginia noted that its Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against Alabama is slated for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC. With a number of other big games to be televised by ABC or ESPN that day (Florida State-Oklahoma State, LSU-Wisconsin, Georgia-Clemson, to name three) I think that WVU-Alabama kick off time tells us enough that we can now piece the rest of the schedule together.
Here's how I think the major games of Week 1 will shake out.
For what it's worth, I think GameDay will be in the parking lot at AT&T Stadium to open the season. The defending national champs with the reigning Heisman winner, playing in the stadium where the first College Football Playoff will be decided, is too juicy a storyline for ESPN to pass up.
All times Eastern.
Thursday, Aug. 28
Texas A&M at South Carolina - 6 p.m. - SEC Network
Wake Forest at Louisiana-Monroe - 7 p.m. - ESPNU*
Boise State vs. Ole Miss (at Atlanta) - 8 p.m. - ESPN
Temple at Vanderbilt - 9:30 p.m. - SEC Network
Rutgers at Washington State - 10:30 p.m. - ESPNU
Friday, Aug. 29
BYU at Connecticut - 8 p.m. - ESPN
Bowling Green at Western Kentucky - 8 p.m. - ESPNU
UNLV at Arizona - 10 p.m. - Fox Sports 1
Saturday, Aug. 30
Penn State vs. Central Florida (at Dublin, Ireland) - 8:30 a.m. - ESPN2*
Arkansas at Auburn - 12 p.m. - ESPN
Appalachian State at Michigan - 12 p.m. - ESPN2
UCLA at Virginia - 12 p.m. - ABC
Florida Atlantic at Nebraska - 12 p.m. - ESPNU
California at Northwestern - 3:30 p.m. - ESPNU
West Virginia vs. Alabama (at Atlanta) - 3:30 p.m. - ABC*
Rice at Notre Dame - 3:30 p.m. - NBC*
Ohio State at Navy - 3:30 p.m. - CBS Sports Network
Clemson at Georgia - 3:30 p.m. - ESPN
Southern Miss at Mississippi State - 7 p.m. - ESPNU
North Texas at Texas - 7 p.m. - Longhorn Network
Louisiana Tech at Oklahoma - 7 p.m. - Fox Sports 1
LSU vs. Wisconsin - 7:30 p.m. - ESPN
Florida State vs. Oklahoma State (at Arlington, Texas) - 8 p.m. - ABC
Fresno State at USC - 10:30 p.m. - ESPN
Sunday, Aug. 31
Utah State at Tennessee - 7 p.m. - SEC Network*
SMU at Baylor - 8 p.m. - Fox Sports 1
Monday, Sept. 1
Miami at Louisville - 8 p.m. - ESPN*
* - previously announced
Those are my guesses, what have you got? ESPN has provided the full schedule right here, so give it a gander and come up with your own semi-educated guesses if you're so inclined.