July 31, 2006

Conference USA has announced its updated television schedule for the 2006 football season. The schedule features more than 40 games to be nationally-televised on CSTV, ESPN, ESPN 2, TBS and Fox Sports Net. Included are a number of unopposed windows that provide tremendous exposure to C-USA, as well as several exciting league match-ups, and many challenging non-conference contests.

This season marks the second year of C-USA's partnership with CSTV: College Sports Television. CSTV and Conference USA signed a six-year initial term in 2005 that includes significant national and regional exposure for football, men's and women's basketball and other C-USA sports. CSTV, the fastest growing independent cable network, has agreements with distributors that serve more than 65 million households nationwide. It deals with the top six distributors - Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and Adelphia, among others.

Conference USA will also be featured on ESPN and its family of networks, having at least 13 regular season contests televised this fall, including 11 games as part of its contract with the network and two additional non-conference games that have been selected by the network through agreements with other conferences. The second annual Conference USA Championship Game will be televised by ESPN 2 on Friday, December 1 at 8 p.m. EST.

"We are very pleased to have so many of our football games on television and distributed to our fans throughout the nation," said Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky. "We had one of the most exciting races in the country last season and we expect more of the same in 2006."

CSTV will air at least 19 national telecasts of C-USA football during the 2006 season, including 15 as part of the conference's package with the network. UTEP visits San Diego State on the opening night of the 2006 season, Thursday, August 31, to kick off the schedule. Two days later, Conference USA's league schedule will get underway on CSTV when cross-town rivals Houston and Rice renew their rivalry. The UH-Rice battle is the first of 11 league contests scheduled to be televised by CSTV.

The ESPN schedule kicks off on Labor Day weekend when mid-South rivals Memphis and Ole Miss meet on Sunday, September 3. C-USA teams are featured in non-conference games against traditional powers on three straight Saturdays, September 16-30. The ESPN schedule also features seven unopposed windows, with four Friday night contests, two games on Tuesday and one Wednesday matchup. Six of those games feature a pair of Conference USA teams in head-to-head matchups.

TBS will feature a Conference USA school on its national package during the opening weekend of the season when UAB visits nationally-ranked Oklahoma on Saturday, September 2. Two weeks later, another C-USA-Big 12 matchup is featured nationally, this time on Fox Sports Net, as Marshall goes to Kansas State on Saturday, September 16.

Additional Conference USA football television exposures remain a possibility, and will be released as soon as they are finalized.

2006 CONFERENCE USA FOOTBALL TELEVISION SCHEDULE

(confirmed games as of July 31)

CSTV NATIONAL

Thursday, August 31	UTEP at San Diego State	10:30 p.m. EDT/9:30 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 2	East Carolina at Navy	5:30 p.m. EDT/4:30 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 2	Houston at Rice	9:00 p.m. EDT/8:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 9	Texas Tech at UTEP	9:00 p.m. EDT/8:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 16	South Florida at UCF	2:30 p.m. EDT/1:30 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 23	Tulsa at Navy	1:30 p.m. EDT/12:30 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 23	UTEP at New Mexico	5:00 p.m. EDT/4:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 23	Oklahoma State at Houston	9:00 p.m. EDT/8:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 30	SMU at Tulane	9:00 p.m. EDT/8:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, October 7	Virginia at East Carolina	6:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, October 14	UAB at Rice	6:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, October 21	Tulsa at Memphis	8:00 p.m. EDT/7:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, October 28	UCF at Houston	4:00 p.m. EDT/3:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, October 28	East Carolina at Southern Miss	8:00 p.m. EDT/7:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, November 4	Tulsa at Houston	4:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. CST
Saturday, November 4	Tulane at Marshall	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Saturday, November 11	UCF at Memphis	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Saturday, November 18	UAB at Southern Miss	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Saturday, November 25	Game TBA	7:30 p.m. EST/6:30 p.m. CST

ESPN SCHEDULE

Sunday, September 3	Memphis at Mississippi	4:30 p.m. EDT/3:30 p.m. CDT
Friday, October 13 	Pittsburgh at UCF	8:00 p.m. EDT/7:00 p.m. CDT
Sunday, November 5 	Southern Miss at Memphis	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Saturday, December 23	Fort Worth Bowl	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Friday, December 29	AutoZone Liberty Bowl	4:30 p.m. EST/3:30 p.m. CST
Sunday, January 7  	GMAC Bowl	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST

ESPN 2 SCHEDULE

Saturday, September 16	Texas at Rice	6:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. CDT
Tuesday, September 26	Southern Miss at UCF	7:30 p.m. EDT/6:30 p.m. CDT
Tuesday, October 3 	Southern Miss at Tulsa	7:30 p.m. EDT/6:30 p.m. CDT
Wednesday, October 4	UCF at Marshall	7:30 p.m. EDT/6:30 p.m. CDT
Friday, October 27 	UTEP at Tulsa	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Tuesday, October 31	UAB at SMU	7:30 p.m. EST/6:30 p.m. CST
Friday, November 10	UTEP at UAB	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Friday, December 1 	C-USA Championship Game	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Friday, December 22	New Orleans Bowl	8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. CST
Saturday, December 23	Birmingham Bowl	1:00 p.m. EST/Noon CST

ESPN OR ESPN 2 SCHEDULE

Saturday, September 23	West Virginia at East Carolina	TBA
Saturday, September 30	Tennessee at Memphis	TBA

ESPN 2/ESPN U/ESPN CLASSIC SCHEDULE

Saturday, September 30	Rice at Army	TBA

TBS

Saturday, September 2	UAB at Oklahoma	7:00 p.m. EDT/6:00 p.m. CDT

FOX SPORTS NET

Saturday, September 9	Rice at UCLA (FSN Prime Ticket)	10:00 p.m. EDT/9:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 16	Marshall at Kansas State	12:30 p.m. EDT/11:30 a.m. CDT