Fox Sports to Broadcast CFB Primetime Games on Friday Nights Starting in 2024

FOX Sports will begin broadcasting primetime Friday night college football games this fall, the network announced Thursday.

The new Friday night lineup will feature teams from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Mountain West.

The network's ultimate goal is to broadcast the top college football games on Fridays and Saturdays, followed by the top NFL game on Sundays, according to network executive Michael Mulvihill.

The complete 2024 broadcast schedule, including the new Friday night lineup, will be released at a later date, according to the network.

Broadcast decisions likely will not be made until after the television schedule is decided in May and conferences hold selection meetings with networks in June, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic and Joe Reedy of the Associated Press.

The three participating conferences have been featured on Friday night broadcasts in the recent past, but only in limited capacities, according to Reedy.

Despite the Friday night primetime games, FOX Sports will save its biggest college football game of the week for Saturday's Big Noon Kickoff spot, according to Marchand.

The Friday night lineup appears to be an effort to build on the success of Big Noon Kickoff, which FOX Sports began billing as "Saturday's most-watched college football pregame show on any network" last fall after reporting viewership numbers higher than competing programs like ESPN College GameDay.

According to the network, the program averaged more than 6.74 million viewers per episode in 2023, an eight percent increase over the previous year.

The expanded college football slate also fills the void left behind by Friday Night SmackDown, the weekly WWE program that will move to USA Network in October after five years on FOX.

Because the network also broadcasts Monday and Thursday night NFL games, Tuesday and Wednesday nights will be the only days of the week without football on the network this fall.