| CW Football Saturday | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | CW Football Saturday,ACC on The CW |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until game ends(inc. adverts) |
| Production companies | CW Sports Raycom Sports (ACC) Pac-12 Enterprises (Pac-12) |
| Original release | |
| Network | The CW |
| Release | September 9, 2023 (2023-09-09) – present |
| Related | |
| ACC on Regional Sports Networks | |
CW Football Saturday is a presentation ofcollege football onThe CW throughCW Sports.
The CW began carrying college football broadcasts on September 9, 2023, with a package ofAtlantic Coast Conference games sub-licensed from and produced byRaycom Sports (billed as theACC on The CW), as well as coverage of theArizona Bowl sub-licensed fromBarstool Sports.
In 2024,CW Sports reached an agreement with thePac-12—which, due torealignment, had been reduced to two teams for at least the 2024 and 2025 seasons—to broadcast mostOregon State University andWashington State University home games during the 2024 season. The games are produced by the Pac-12's media department, which CW Sports also subcontracted to produce studio programming for its college football coverage.
AfterNexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW, the company began efforts to broaden the network's demographic reach to encompass older viewers within thekey demographic andlinear television viewership, citing preferences towards streaming platforms by younger viewers. This would include an increased focus on imported programs from other countries, and sports programming. The network began to establish asports division in 2023, initially with the acquisition of U.S. rights to theLIV Golf League.[1]
Raycom Sports has had a long-standing relationship with theAtlantic Coast Conference, havingsyndicated ACC basketball games, and later football, since 1982. Raycom maintained the rights to this package after ESPN acquired the conference's media rights in 2010. The broadcast television package ended after the 2018–19 season, when ESPN acquired its inventory for its newACC Network cable channel.[2][3][4]
As an aspect of this agreement, Raycom also held rights to syndicate aseparate package of ACC telecasts toregional sports networks. In June 2023,Bally Sports—the package's primary rightsholder—announced that it would drop the ACC RSN package, amid the bankruptcy of parent companyDiamond Sports Group.[5] The following month, Raycom announced that it had sold the package to The CW, consisting of 13 football games, 28 men's basketball games, and 9 women's basketball games per-season.[6][7] The CW aired its first ACC football broadcast on September 9, 2023, featuringCincinnati atPittsburgh.[8]
On November 30, 2023, The CW reached an agreement withBarstool Sports to simulcast its coverage of theArizona Bowl, which was previously exclusive to Barstool’s social media platforms since 2021.[9]
On March 26, 2024, it was reported by sports columnistJohn Canzano that CW Sports was nearing an agreement with thePac-12 Conference—whose membership had been reduced toOregon State andWashington State as a result ofrealignment—to televise the two teams' home games during the2024 season.[10] The deal was officially announced on May 14, under which The CW would air 11 broadcasts between the two teams (the remaining two were aired byFox Sports).[11][7]
As part of the expansion, The CW also rebranded its coverage asCW Football Saturday, adding a new pre-game show hosted byMike Yam, and former Fox Sports personalityThom Brennaman as lead commentator for ACC games and selected Pac-12 games. The Pac-12 games, as well as the new studio show, are being produced by the Pac-12's in-house media department Pac-12 Enterprises (which consists of the remainder ofPac-12 Network's staff). BothCW Football Saturday and the Pac-12 football broadcasts would feature a number of former Pac-12 Network personalities, including Yam and commentators such asTed Robinson.[11][12] On May 29, 2024, with Barstool ending its title sponsorship and broadcast rights to the bowl after 2023, CW Sports acquired rights to the2024 Arizona Bowl.[13]
In April 2025, The CW announced a one-year renewal of its agreement with the Pac-12, with plans to air nine Oregon State and Washington State home games in the 2025 season (the remaining four will be split betweenCBS andESPN).[14][15] The 2025 season will add a new pre-game show,CW Football Saturday Countdown, hosted by Yam,Michael Bumpus, andGeorge Wrighster.[16] In August 2025, CW Sports announced a long term agreement with the Pac-12—which will expand with additional teams departing mostly from theMountain West Conference—to air 13 games per season from 2026 to 2030.[17]
With the limited turnaround time between the announcement and the start of the2023 ACC football season, Raycom and The CW subcontracted resources from other broadcasters for its initial season of college football broadcasts, including ESPN (the conference's main rightsholder) temporarily allowing use of theESPN College Football on-air graphics (pending the development of a dedicated CW Sports graphics package in time for basketball season), and its first game atPitt sharing resources withFox Sports (which was already atAcrisure Stadium for anNFL broadcast the following afternoon).[18] Notably, the games are not available live on streaming-specific services like The CW app (replays of Pac 12 games are available on a next day on demand basis) but are available through streaming TV providers.[19]
For the 2024 season, the production was rebranded asCW Football Saturday with a new on-air graphics package; Raycom continues to produce the ACC games under the new banner, while the Pac-12 portion of the package, as well as studio coverage, is produced from the new Pac-12 Studios inSan Ramon, California (which had opened as a new facility for Pac-12 Network the previous season).[20][21] Sister cable networkNewsNation began to also be used as an overflow during doubleheaders.[22]
TheTCU Horned Frogs'Iron Skillet rivalry game against theSMU Mustangs was televised as part of the CW's ACC package in 2024; the team promoted the game via a video satirizing ESPN's "This isSportsCenter" commercials entitled "one treefroghill" (referencing former CW seriesOne Tree Hill), seemingly dissing the network by saying that the game was "unfortunately" on The CW. When SMU beat TCU in the game (its first victory in the rivalry since 2021), the ACC'sX account quipped "'Thank goodness it was only on The CW' – TCU fans, probably."[23][24][25]
CW Courtside Saturday is the presentation ofcollege basketball onThe CW throughCW Sports. Through the same agreement which allows the network to carry ACC football, The CW has the rights to 28 men's basketball games and 11 women's basketball games per-season.[6][12] Like ACC football games, the basketball telecasts are produced byRaycom Sports.
In December 2024, The CW acquired the rights to two additional ACC women's basketball games.[28] In March 2025, The CW announced an agreement to air the Men's HBCU All-Star Basketball Game.[29]
The CW will begin airing Pac-12 basketball games during the 2026–27 season. The agreement, which was announced in August 2025 and will extend through the 2030–31 season, will see The CW air 35 men's basketball games and 15 women's basketball games from the conference, along with the semifinals and championship of thePac-12 Conference women's basketball tournament.[17]
