Saturday Night Football (currently branded as ABC Saturday Night Football presented by Capital One for sponsorship reasons) is an American weekly presentation of prime time broadcasts of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football games that are produced by ESPN and televised on ABC. Games are presented each Saturday evening starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time/6:30 p.m. Central Time during the college football regular season, which has been the case since 2017 (some weeks until 2015 saw no game on ABC, due to Saturday evening Sprint Cup Series NASCAR coverage or to avoid competition with the World Series; ESPN would then carry that week's high-profile game instead, with ESPN2 carrying a secondary game usually seen on ESPN/ABC). Saturday Night Football began in 2006 as both ESPN and ABC are owned by The Walt Disney Company. It is typically ESPN's biggest game of the week and in most cases (outside where other networks carry the game), the city and/or campus of that night's game will host College GameDay.
, the primary broadcast team for the majority of the games includes play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler and analyst Kirk Herbstreit with Holly Rowe and Laura Rutledge as sideline reporters. Kevin Negandhi and Booger McFarland host the halftime show with Jordan Rodgers joining them in the studio. Negandhi also provides in game updates throughout the game. Other ESPN broadcast teams may also occasionally appear for regional (and some national) telecasts.
Overview Saturday Night Football premiered on September 2, 2006, with a game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. While ABC and ESPN have aired college football games on Saturday nights for decades, this program marks the first time that a collegiate sports broadcast has officially been part of any major broadcast television network's primetime schedule.
Twelve weeks of regular season games were televised during the three-month college football season in 2006, 2007 and from 2009 to 2011; the Dr. Pepper Big 12 Football Championship Game closing out each season until a conference realignment in which four university football programs left and two others joined the Big 12 Conference resulted in the Championship Game being discontinued after the 2010 event (the Big 12 Football Championship Game returned in 2017, however, it did not return to ABC until 2018, when the network aired the game in the afternoon instead of in primetime). With the college football season being extended by one week, ABC televised thirteen weeks of games in 2008, closing with the 2008 Big 12 Championship Game on December 6. With the loss of the Sprint Cup Series to NBC and NBCSN, Saturday Night Football expanded its seasonal game schedule full-time to 13 weeks beginning in 2015, starting with the Advocare Classic.
Games from the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12 Conference, the old Big East Conference, the Big Ten Conference, the Pac-12 Conference, the now-defunct Western Athletic Conference and the American Athletic Conference have aired on Saturday Night Football, as well as non-conference games in which teams from these conferences were either playing at home or a neutral-site game to which ABC holds the television rights. All BCS/CFP and Power 5 conferences have appeared on Saturday Night Football, as the Southeastern Conference has had its teams featured in 23 non-conference games. Boise State, Utah State, BYU, Temple, UConn, UCF, Cincinnati, SMU, Tulsa, and Memphis are the only Group of 5 teams to be featured on Saturday Night Football to date, with the latter four teams being featured when they were members of the BCS-aligned Big East or American Athletic Conference.
In recent years, following the loss of some broadcast rights of the Pac-12 Conference to Fox Sports in 2012, the Pac-12's Saturday Night Football appearances have been limited, sometimes including home games against Notre Dame and games against the Southeastern Conference, as well as road games against conferences that still have broadcast rights with ABC.
Besides Pac-12 and Big Ten games, ABC makes most of its game broadcast selections or options twelve days prior to the game (with some being made six days beforehand). This allows ABC to 'flex' the most compelling game it has the rights to broadcast into the Saturday Night Football slot. As a result, the Saturday night game is usually ABC's "game of the week".
With ESPN's acquisition of its top football package beginning in 2024, Southeastern Conference home games began to be featured on Saturday Night Football on ABC for the first time that season. As with afternoon games, SEC home games on Saturday Night Football utilize the distinct SEC on ABC graphics and theme music.
The Cowboys Kickoff Classic had become the opening game for Saturday Night Football beginning in 2011; however in 2013, the matchup between the Georgia Bulldogs and Clemson Tigers served as the opening game with the Classic matchup between LSU and TCU being broadcast on ESPN. The Classic served as the opening game for Saturday Night Football again in 2014, 2015, and in 2016. In 2017, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, which had served as the opening game for Saturday Night Football from 2008 to 2010, served as the opening game in 2017, while the Advocare Classic aired in the 3:30 ET timeslot. In 2018, the new Camping World Kickoff served as the Saturday Night Football season premiere, while the Advocare Classic aired the next night in primetime. The Advocare Classic returned to Saturday Night Football in 2019. Since then, each season of Saturday Night Football has started with an on-campus game, the Duke's Mayo Classic in Charlotte, NC in Week 1, or, since 2023, the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta during Week 0.
Schedules
All rankings are from that week's AP Poll, and that week's CFP rankings since 2014.
2006 schedule ABC did not air games on either October 21 or October 28 to avoid competing with the World Series. DateAwayHomeNotes September 2 #2 Notre Dame 14 Georgia Tech 10 Series Premiere of Saturday Night FootballCollege GameDay September 9 #1 Ohio State 24 #2 Texas 7 2005 Week 2 rematchCollege GameDay September 16 #19 Nebraska 10 #4 USC 28 College GameDaySeptember 23 #12 Notre Dame 40 Michigan State 37 Michigan State-Notre Dame rivalrySplit-national (79% of the United States) #3 USC 20 Arizona 3 Split-national (21% of the United States) September 30 #1 Ohio State 38 #13 Iowa 17 College GameDayOctober 7 #11 Oregon 24 #16 California 45 Split-national (62% of the United States) #22 Nebraska 28 Iowa State 14 Iowa State-Nebraska rivalrySplit-national (38% of the United States)October 14 #4 Michigan 17 Penn State 10 Michigan-Penn State rivalrySplit-national (79% of the United States) Arizona State 21 #3 USC 28 Split-national (21% of the United States)November 4 #18 Oklahoma 17 #21 Texas A&M 16 Split-national (43% of the United States)College GameDay #23 Virginia Tech 17 Miami (Fla.) 10 Miami-Virginia Tech rivalrySplit-national (38% of the United States, no HD) UCLA 24 #10 California 38 California-UCLA rivalrySplit-national (19% of the United States)November 11 #4 Texas 42 Kansas State 45 Split-national (56% of the United States) #18 Wake Forest 30 Florida State 0 Split-national (44% of the United States) November 18 #17 California 9 #4 USC 23 November 25 #6 Notre Dame 24 #3 USC 44 Jeweled ShillelaghCollege GameDay December 2 #19 Nebraska 7 #8 Oklahoma 21 Big 12 Championship GameNebraska-Oklahoma rivalry
2007 schedule ABC did not air games on either September 8 or October 13 due to broadcasts of NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races. DateAwayHomeNotes September 1 #15 Tennessee 31 #12 California 45 September 15 #1 USC 49 #14 Nebraska 31 College GameDaySeptember 22 Washington State 14 #1 USC 47 Split-national (61% of the United States) Iowa 13 #9 Wisconsin 17 Heartland TrophySplit-national (39% of the United States) September 29 #1 USC 27 Washington 24 October 6 #4 Ohio State 23 #23 Purdue 7 Split-national (83% of the United States) Notre Dame 20 UCLA 6 Split-national (17% of the United States) October 20 #24 Michigan 27 Illinois 17 October 27 #1 Ohio State 37 #24 Penn State 17 Ohio State-Penn State rivalryCollege GameDayNovember 3 Florida State 27 #2 Boston College 17 Split-national (62% of the United States) Texas A&M 14 #5 Oklahoma 42 Split-national (20% of the United States, no HD) Oregon State 3 #13 USC 24 Split-national (18% of the United States)November 10 #5 Kansas 43 Oklahoma State 28 Split-national (63% of the United States) #8 Boston College 35 Maryland 42 Split-national (19% of the United States, no HD) #12 USC 24 #24 California 17 Split-national (18% of the United States) November 17 #3 Oklahoma 27 Texas Tech 34 November 24 #3 Missouri 36 #2 Kansas 28 Border ShowdownCollege GameDay December 1 #9 Oklahoma 38 #1 Missouri 17 Big 12 Championship GameMissouri-Oklahoma rivalryCollege GameDay
2008 schedule ABC did not air games on either September 6 or October 11 due to broadcasts of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. DateAwayHomeNotesAugust 30 #24 Alabama 34 #9 Clemson 10 Chick-fil-A Kickoff GameAlabama-Clemson rivalrySplit-national (71% of the United States)College GameDay Michigan State 31 California 38 Split-national (29% of the United States) September 13 #5 Ohio State 3 #1 USC 35 College GameDay September 20 #3 Georgia 27 Arizona State 10 September 27 #22 Illinois 24 #12 Penn State 38 Split-national (70% of the United States) Virginia Tech 35 Nebraska 30 Split-national (30% of the United States)October 4 #14 Ohio State 20 #18 Wisconsin 17 Split-national (63% of the United States) #23 Oregon 10 #9 USC 44 Split-national (37% of the United States) October 18 #11 Missouri 31 #1 Texas 56 College GameDay October 25 #3 Penn State 13 #10 Ohio State 6 Ohio State-Penn State rivalryCollege GameDay November 1 #1 Texas 33 #6 Texas Tech 39 Texas-Texas Tech rivalryCollege GameDayNovember 8 #8 Oklahoma State 20 #2 Texas Tech 56 Split-national (82% of the United States) #21 California 3 #7 USC 17 Split-national (18% of the United States)November 15 Boston College 27 #20 Florida State 17 Split-national (80% of the United States) #11 Oklahoma State 30 Colorado 17 Split-national (20% of the United States) November 22 #2 Texas Tech 21 #5 Oklahoma 65 College GameDay November 29 #3 Oklahoma 61 #11 Oklahoma State 41 Bedlam SeriesCollege GameDay December 6 #19 Missouri 21 #4 Oklahoma 62 Big 12 Championship GameMissouri-Oklahoma rivalry
2009 schedule ABC did not air games on either September 12 or October 17 due to broadcasts of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.