Earlier in the week, the 2017 season opener between UCLA and Texas A&M was moved from Saturday, Sept. 2 to Sunday, Sept. 3. Presumably, this change was facilitated in order to help television exposure for the match-up and, on a jam-packed college football weekend, it made a great deal of sense to pull the trigger.
Just hours later, the powers that be at Virginia Tech and West Virginia followed suit in moving their kick-off from Saturday to Sunday with a 7:30 pm ET kick-off time on ABC.
The game between the Hokies and Mountaineers will take place at FedEx Field in Landover (Md.) and, much like the decision between Texas A&M and UCLA, this appears to be motivated greatly by television. Saturday's slate already includes a heavy-hitting contest between Florida State and Alabama in Atlanta. Beyond that, Michigan and Florida will also face off in Arlington (Tex.) while BYU and LSU will get together on the field in Houston.
With that as the backdrop, it will be interesting to see how the TV networks (and start times) shape up with Virginia Tech-West Virginia against Texas A&M-UCLA but the former already has announced its television partner and that is intriguing to say the least. The countdown to kick-off is on.
