SoCon announces six-game football broadcast TV schedule

The Southern Conference and Nexstar Broadcasting on Tuesday announced a six-game schedule of college football games for broadcast TV on a five-station network covering part of the league's footprint.

This is the smallest schedule of games for a full season since Nexstar and the SoCon started their collaboration in 2019 with 13 games.  After the 2020 fall season was canceled by CoVID, there was a shortened spring schedule in 2021 and only three games were broadcast. There were nine broadcasts in 2021, 10 in 2022 and eight in 2023. WYCW in Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville aired seven games in 2018.

One issue contributing to the dearth of games is the lack of attractive time slots available to the SoCon. Four of the five affiliates for the SoCon network are Nexstar-owned stations affilated with The CW Network.  The CW eschewed college football for many seasons before teaming up with the ACC for a weekly game in 2023.  For this year, The CW is also showing some Oregon State and Washington State games after the collapse of the Pac-12. Nexstar owns 75 percent of  The CW.

The fifth SoCon affiliate is WMUB in Macon, which is owned by Mercer. It is listed as carrying a partial schedule.

A few other observations:

* Samford and Wofford are not included in the telecast schedule.

* Four of the 12 slots go to non-SoCon teams, including North Greenville and Presbyterian.

* East Tennessee State is the only school appearing more than once.
* There are no broadcast outlets listed for the home markets for member schools Chattanooga, East Tennessee State (Tri-Cities), Samford (Birmingham) or UNC Greensboro (Piedmont Triad). UNCG does not field a football team.

* Of the four markets listed above, only Chattanooga does not have a Nexstar-owned station.

All games are expected to be available for streaming at ESPN+.

SoCon/Nexstar TV schedule, 2024
Aug. 29: Presbyterian at Mercer, 7 p.m.

Sept. 7: Campbell at Western Carolina, 1 p.m.

Sept. 14: North Greenville at The Citadel, noon

Sept. 28: Portland State at Chattanooga, 7 p.m.

Nov. 16: Furman at East Tennessee State, noon.

Nov. 23: East Tennessee State at VMI, noon

SoCon

Network stations
(some stations may not carry every broadcast)
WCBD, Channel 2.2, Charleston

WMYT, Channel 55.1, Charlotte.

WWCW, Channel 21.1, Lynchburg-Roanoke, Va. 

WYCW, Channel 62.1, Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville.

WMUB, Channel 38.1, Macon, Ga.