Story courtesy of Curtis Snyder, CU Athletics
Colorado’s 2024 season opener against North Dakota State will air on ESPN and kickoff at 6 p.m. MT, Disney announced Tuesday as part of its Upfront, a presentation showcasing the network’s concentrated portfolio of sports, entertainment, news and streaming platforms to advertisers.
CU now knows its time and television for the first two games of the season following NBC’s announcement of the Colorado at Nebraska game in Week 2 at its Upfront on Monday. That game will air on NBC at 5:30 p.m. MT.
The Buffaloes and Bison will kickoff off the second season under Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders with CU’s first two games airing on network television or the flagship ESPN channel for the second straight season and just the seventh time in history along with the 1990, ’95, 2003, ’19, ’22 and ’23 seasons.
One of the most watched teams in the nation last year, the Buffs were on network television five times and three more games on the flagship ESPN station and had nine games overall not on regional or conference networks. CU’s five network games and eight games on network or the flagship ESPN are the most in CU history, and the nine overall games not on a regional or conference network matched the most in program history.
This will be the first meeting between the two schools. North Dakota State is one of the top FCS programs in the nation with 17 National Championships and 37 conference championships to its credit. The Bison have won nine Division I FCS titles since 2011 and will be in the first year under coach Tim Polasek, who was the offensive coordinator and QB coach at Wyoming the previous three seasons and has 10 years of prior experience on the NDSU staff.
On top of Monday’s announcement at NBC’s Upfront, the Buffs were also part of the Upfront last season when FOX announced the season opener at TCU on Big Noon Kickoff as part of its presentation.
The start time and television for CU’s other non-conference game at Colorado State on Sept. 14 is expected in late May, when CU could also find out the time and TV for its regular season finale against Oklahoma State at Folsom Field on Friday, Nov. 29 (Black Friday), which is the only Friday game on CU’s schedule this season.