College Football's First Prime Time Game

College football games televised in prime time used to mean something, but it's just not that big of a deal anymore. Sure, playing in the featured game on Saturday night on ABC, NBC, Fox, or ESPN has some luster. It generates enough viewership to provide billions of television dollars to college football programs, but the exclusivity and focus are gone. Back in the day, when they broadcast only one or two games per week, everyone watching football tuned into the same game. It made for a shared national experience among sports fans.

Televised football is a different game today. Based on my hand count for this week, there were or will be three prime-time games available on Tuesday night, two each on Wednesday and Thursday, and three on Friday. Saturday has 30 games available during the day and 17 with some or all of the games in prime time, based on the Eastern time zone. That is a lot of football available to viewers, and it does not include college games at other levels watched through streaming and other services.

Televised and prime-time football is a given today, but there was a time when that was not the case. The first regular-season game broadcast in prime time on one of the three major networks (NBC, CBS, ABC) came on October 4, 1969. Like many television innovations, it was Roone Arledge's idea to show a game in prime time, and they made arrangements to televise the game that spring. 

Part of the reason for showing the game in the evening was that the 1969 season was the first in which major league baseball split into divisions, and the opening games of the first American and National League championship series were on television that afternoon. The evening broadcast also meant a juggling of ABC's regular Saturday lineup, which included The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, The Lawrence Welk Show, and now, NCAA Football between Ole Miss and Alabama, coming live from Birmingham.

The prognosticators saw Ole Miss as the SEC favorite in 1969. (1969 Kessler Football Fan Guide)