Week #10, College Football: Pac-12 and Mid-American Conference are back but Covid cancels 10 games

Week #10- Despite the pandemic, the season flies!
With the Pac-12 and Mid-American Conference finally hitting the gridiron beginning Wednesday the college football schedule is as full as can be this weekend. The Mid-American is opening with a splash. The league will host six games tonight, five of which will be on one of the ESPN family of networks and one on CBS Sports Network. (See updated cancellations below)
Fox and CBS will be busy and the Big Ten Network runs a couple games.
NBC features a headline game without the headline player. It’ll run #1 Clemson at #3 Notre Dame in primetime Saturday. But due to Covid protocols, Tigers’ star quarterback Trevor Lawrence will be out.
CBS tells us that all its announcers will work from their assigned sites, including games presented on its cable network. CBS’ big game is #8 Florida vs #5 Georgia in Jacksonville. In pre-pandemic days, activities off the field for this annual matchup included rowdy tailgating. It’s why Georgia-Florida has been dubbed as ‘the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party.’
Fox doesn’t disclose the games they’ll call live from site vs. announcers doing it remotely
Interestingly, the Pac-12 Network won’t have live telecasts. Its games will either be somewhere on one of ESPN’s or Fox’ family of networks. The Big Ten Network will air a couple games this weekend. Fox owns a piece of the BTN.
ESPN’s announcers don’t all travel:
ESPN will feature these games this weekend where the announcers will be present in-stadium: West Virginia-Texas, Houston-Cincinnati, Texas A&M-South Carolina and Stanford-Oregon (talent details below).
ESPN confirms that these broadcasters (play-by-play and analysts) will work their assigned games from their home studios. Only the reporters will travel and they’ll be on the field. You’ll see them wearing masks and interviewing guests from a distance. A sampling of ESPN telecasts this weekend where only the reporters are on site:
- Miami-NC State (FRI night) … Benetti, Ware and Marty Smith (reporter)
- Mich State-Iowa … Wischusen, Orlovsky and Paul Carcaterra (reporter)
- Arizona-Utah … Pasch, Golic and Stormy Buonantony (reporter)
- Wash-Cal … Flemming, Gilmore and Allison Williams (reporter)
In virtually all cases, folks working remote broadcasts make the best of it. They don’t complain and most often, viewers wouldn’t know that they’re not in the stadium.
For Bob Wischusen and Dave Pasch, working at home is in some ways a blessing in disguise. Bob does the Jets and Dave the Cardinals. Most NFL teams have their radio announcers calling road games from a make-shift studio in their home stadiums. In other words, this weekend neither Bob nor Dave will have to make tight flight connections to get to their road assignments. It’s home sweet home all weekend!
Per Eye on Sky and Air Sports, the ten cancellations/postponements breaks the record. In week #3, there were seven.
Wednesday, Nov. 4
Eastern Michigan at Kent State | 6 p.m. | ESPN+, David Wilson, John Gregory
Western Michigan at Akron | 6 p.m. | ESPN3, Michael Reghi, Dustin Fox
Buffalo at Northern Illinois | 7 p.m. | ESPN2, Anish Schroff, Tom Luginbill
Ohio at Central Michigan | 7 p.m. | ESPN, Kevin Brown, Mike Golic Jr.
Ball State at Miami (Ohio) | 7 p.m. | CBSSN, John Sadak, Ross Tucker
Bowling Green at Toledo | 8 p.m. | ESPNU, Mike Couzens, Rocky Boiman
Thursday, Nov. 5
Utah State at Nevada | 7 p.m. | FS1, Alex Faust, Evan Moore
Wyoming at Colorado State | 9 p.m. | CBSSN, Jason Knapp, Malik Zaire
Friday, Nov. 6
No. 11 Miami at NC State | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN, Jason Benetti, Andre Ware
San Jose State at San Diego State | 9 p.m. | CBSSN, Rich Waltz, Aaron Murray
No. 9 BYU at No. 21 Boise State | 9:45 p.m. | FS1, Aaron Goldsmith, Petros Papadakis
Saturday, Nov. 7
Air Force at Army | 11:30 a.m. | CANCELLED
No. 23 Michigan at No. 13 Indiana | 12 p.m. | FS1, Joe Davis, Brock Huard
West Virginia at No. 22 Texas | 12 p.m. | ABC, Joe Tessitore, Greg McElroy
Nebraska at Northwestern | 12 p.m. | Big Ten Network, Cory Provus, J Leman
North Carolina at Duke | 12 p.m. | ESPN2, Roy Philpott, Kelly Stouffer
Arizona State at No. 20 USC | 12 p.m. | FOX, Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt
No. 18 SMU at Temple | 12 p.m. | ESPN+, Dave Leno, Ken Dunek
South Florida at Memphis | 12 p.m. | ESPN+, Lincoln Rose, LaDerrin McLane
Tulane at East Carolina | 12 p.m. | ESPN+, Evan Leplar, Jay Sonnhalter
Tulsa at Navy | 12 p.m. | CANCELLED
UL Monroe at Georgia State | 12 p.m. | ESPN3, Chris Sylvester, Sam Crenshaw
No. 25 Liberty at Virginia Tech | 12 p.m. | ACC Network, Chris Cotter, Mark Herzlich
Michigan State at Iowa | 12 p.m. | ESPN, : Bob Wischusen, Dan Orlovsky
Arkansas State at Louisiana | 12 p.m. | ESPNU, Dave Neal, DJ Shockley
Troy at Georgia Southern | 1 p.m. | ESPN3, Matt Stewart, Danny Waugh
Boston College at Syracuse | 2 p.m. | ESPN3, Tom Werme, James Bates
UMass at No. 16 Marshall | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN+, Mark Martin, Jake Griffith
Appalachian State at Texas State | 3 p.m. | ESPN+, Brant Freeman, Steven Foster
North Alabama at Southern Miss | 3 p.m. | ESPN3, Jason Baker, Dustin Almond
No. 8 Florida vs. No. 5 Georgia (Jacksonville)| 3:30 p.m. | CBS, Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson
Houston at No. 6 Cincinnati | 3:30 p.m. | ABC, Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge
Purdue at No. 10 Wisconsin — CANCELLED
Kansas at No. 19 Oklahoma | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN, Anish Shroff, Tom Luginbil
Texas Tech at TCU | 3:30 p.m. | FS1, Eric Collins, Ben Leber, Eric Collins, Ben Leber
UTSA at Rice | 3:30 p.m. | CANCELLED
Maryland at Penn State | 3:30 p.m. | Big Ten Network, Lisa Byington, Matt Millen
Minnesota at Illinois | 3:30 p.m. | Big Ten Network, Mark Followill, Anthony Herron
Charlotte at Middle Tennessee | 3:30 p.m. | CANCELLED
Fresno State at UNLV | 3:30 p.m. | CBSSN, Ben Holden, Ross Tucker
No. 14 Oklahoma State at Kansas State | 4 p.m. | FOX, Tim Brando, Spencer Tillman
Arizona at Utah | 3:30 p. m. | CANCELLED
FIU at UTEP | 4 p.m. | CANCELLED
Pitt at Florida State | 4 p.m. | ACC Network, Wes Durham, Roddy Jones
Vanderbilt at Mississippi State | 4 p.m. | SEC Network, Taylor Zarzour, Matt Stinchcomb
Western Kentucky at Florida Atlantic | 6 p.m. | Stadium, Chris Hassel, A.J. Hawk
Baylor at No. 17 Iowa State | 7 p.m. | FS1, Brian Custer, Robert Smith
No. 7 Texas A&M at South Carolina | 7 p.m. | ESPN, Mark Jones, Dusty Dvoracek
Louisiana Tech at North Texas | 7 p.m. | CANCELLED
UCLA at Colorado | 7 p.m. | ESPN2, Beth Mowins, Kirk Morrison
No. 1 Clemson at No. 4 Notre Dame | 7:30 p.m. | NBC, Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy
Stanford at No. 12 Oregon | 7:30 p.m. | ABC, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit
Rutgers at No. 3 Ohio State | 7:30 p.m. | Big Ten Network, Brandon Gaudin, James Laurinaitis
Tennessee at Arkansas | 7:30 p.m. | SEC Network, Tom Hart, Jordan Rodger
South Alabama at No. 15 Coastal Carolina | 8 p.m. | ESPNU, Courtney Lyle, Rene Ingoglia
Louisville at Virginia | 8 p.m. | ACC Network, Postponed
Washington State at Oregon State | 10:30 p.m. | FS1, Alex Faust, Petros Papadakis
Washington at California | 10:30 p.m. | CANCELLED
New Mexico at Hawai’i | 11 p.m. | Spectrum Sports, Robert Kekaula, Rich Miano