Atlantic Coast Conference releases 2007 pre-Season football television schedule

The Conference, along with its television partners ABC/ESPN and Lincoln-Financial/Raycom Sports, announced its TV selections for the first three weeks of the season as well as Thursday night games for the year and the league's Dr Pepper Football Championship Game, which will be held for the third straight year in Jacksonville, Fla., this year on Saturday, Dec. 1.

The ACC title game, which will be televised nationally on ABC with a 1 pm kickoff, is one of two national exposures on ABC, joining Miami's Sept. 8 game at Oklahoma, set for a 12 noon (ET) kickoff.

Another prominent national exposure for the Conference will be the annual Labor Day Monday Night match-up on ESPN which this year will feature Clemson hosting Florida State in an 8 pm contest. "Bowden Bowl IX" is one of two match-ups of Atlantic Division Championship hopefuls that weekend as defending ACC Champion Wake Forest travels to Boston College on Sept. 1 for a 3:30 pm contest on ABC. Another national exposure that weekend occurs when Georgia Tech travels to Notre Dame in a 3:30 pm contest on NBC.

On Saturday, Sept. 8 alone, the ACC will have eight games televised, a single-day high for the league. Seven of those games will be national exposures including Miami at Oklahoma (12 pm) on ABC, Nebraska at Wake Forest on ESPN (12 pm), NC State at Boston College on ESPN2 (2:30 pm) and Virginia Tech at LSU on ESPN (9:15 pm).

The Conference will also be featured on ESPN's Thursday night national package five times, with all of the games having a 7:30 pm kickoff including West Virginia at Maryland (Sept. 13), Texas A&M at Miami (Sept. 20), Florida State at Wake Forest (Oct. 11), Boston College at Virginia Tech (Oct.25) and Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech (Nov. 1). Lincoln Financial Sports/Raycom, which produces the ACC's regionally- syndicated TV package begins its broadcasts on Sept. 8 with Duke traveling to Virginia in a 12 noon contest. LFS/R also will televise the Virginia at North Carolina game on Sept. 15 as part of its 12 consecutive weeks of telecasts which conclude on Nov. 23.

After the first three weeks of the season, ACC home games are selected on a 12-day option by ESPN/ABC or Lincoln Financial Sports/Raycom. In all, 28 television games are listed including several contests announced earlier by other conferences or schools including three appearances on Notre Dame's NBC package, two games on CSTV, one game on the Versus Cable Network and one game on the new Big Ten Network.

In addition to the games slated for television, ESPN also announced five ACC games which will be available in the first three weeks of the season on their video-streaming service--ESPN 360. The ACC ESPN 360 coverage begins on Sept. 1 with three games at 6 pm in James Madison at North Carolina, Central Florida at NC State and Villanova at Maryland. Two more contests follow on Sept. 15, Ohio at Virginia Tech, slated for a 1:30 pm kickoff and Wofford at NC State, a 6 pm start. Games streamed on ESPN 360 utilize the existing starting time announced by the ACC host school.