Entering this season, No. 18 South Florida at No. 5 Miami wasn’t expected to be a matchup of ranked college football teams. Now, Saturday’s in-state showdown is kind of a big deal.
USF-Miami is one of only three matchups between top 25 teams this weekend, and the CW—not ESPN, CBS, ABC, NBC or Fox—will air it. Additionally, the game’s finish could run unopposed to the other two, depending on how long the game takes.
Miami was ranked No. 10 in the preseason polls, expected to play well with prized transfer quarterback Carson Beck under center. USF, however, has been arguably the nation’s biggest surprise so far this season after two wins over top 25 teams, including a victory at Florida.
For the Nexstar-owned network, landing the game was a bit of luck combined with advanced planning.
“I don’t think anyone thought that USF was going to beat a ranked Boise [State] team and then a ranked Florida team,” CW president Brad Schwartz said in a video interview. “Sometimes you get lucky, but also it’s two years of building relationships with ESPN, the ACC, the schools and the athletic directors to really make sure that everybody’s winning.”
The decision for who would broadcast USF’s visit to Miami has been set for a while.
ESPN is the ACC’s anchor media rights partner, with a deal that was recently extended until 2036. Yet through a four-year licensing deal with ESPN, the CW can pick 13 ACC football games per year that are produced by Raycom Sports.
Those are usually selected 12 days in advance. During that window, the CW consults with ESPN and Raycom in selecting games. However, for the first three weeks on the schedule, broadcasters have more lead time to make their picks before the season starts.
Prominent college football writers Stewart Mandel and Chris Vannini, both for The Athletic, pointed out that the game would be televised on a relative newcomer to sports TV, prompting a wide range of social media responses. The CW’s social media team has been happy to play along, knowing that plenty of college football fans are just as surprised by the good fortune.
“I think that’s just the underdog, scrappy nature of us being kind of a new entrant in the sports world,” Schwartz said. “People aren’t expecting these million-viewer NASCAR races and these million-viewer college football games. Historically, people don’t associate the CW with sports.”
In two years, the CW went from zero sports on the schedule to 500 hours of live events, and sports accounts for 40% of the programming schedule. CW Sports began with a little-regarded two-year deal with LIV Golf in 2023 but has expanded to college sports, NASCAR Xfinity Series, WWE NXT and more. Although much of the press about CW Sports has been on its alignment with the Pac-12, the two most-watched regular season games on the network have involved ACC teams.
“There’s a lot of positive comments, and there’s a lot of snark—’Oh, are we going to interrupt a Vampire Diaries marathon?’” Schwartz said. “I think as a scrappy, growing upstart in the sports business that we have licensed to have a little fun with it as well.”
Baylor’s 48-45 double overtime win over SMU last Saturday on the CW was the third most-watched game in network history with 1.003 million viewers, only bettered by North Alabama/FSU’s 1.329 million in November 2023. The Baylor/SMU audience peaked at 2.045 million viewers.
According to the network, 5.8 million people watched at least six minutes of the three football games it aired last Saturday, which included Fresno State vs. Oregon State and San Diego State vs. Washington State.
Schwartz didn’t give a definitive answer on the ACC’s future with the network beyond 2027, when the licensing deal with ESPN ends, but while lauding both the conference and ESPN, he said that there’s certainly room for both the ACC and the Pac-12 as the latter conference brings on seven new members (including six for football) in 2026.
“It all creates this wonderful flywheel where it’s all starting to feed each other,” Schwartz said. “And that’s where our growth is really coming from, that we have enough sports properties now that we can keep audiences cycling through all of it.
“We’re really supporting the schools, ESPN and ABC, obviously they drive the bus, but we still have the opportunity to give broadcast exposure to ACC schools. Broadcast reach is still delivering the biggest numbers of any platform, and I think the ACC schools recognize that and want to make sure their games are viewed by as many people as possible.”
