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Vanderbilt Season Opener To Be Televised By ESPN-U 6/7/2005 Sept. 1 Encounter at Wake Forest Marks Network’s First Game Ever The 2005 Vanderbilt football season opener at Wake Forest on Thursday, Sept. 1 will be televised nationally by the ESPN’s newest network, ESPN-U. The Commodores and Demon Deacons will kick off the season at 6:00 p.m. CT. The game will be played in Groves Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. According to ESPN officials, the Vanderbilt-Wake Forest game will be the first college football game carried on ESPN-U, the network that opened in March with an emphasis on intercollegiate athletics. Vanderbilt Head Coach Bobby Johnson was happy to earn news that his squad will be opening the season before a national audience. “I think it’s great for both schools, a chance for two outstanding institutions to showcase their teams and universities,” Johnson said. Though no official word has been announced, the Commodores are expected to make other television appearances during the 2005 season. For the past decade, the Commodores’ early season encounter against Ole Miss has appeared across the Southeast on Jefferson-Pilot (JP) Sports. The SEC and its broadcast partners are not expected to announce definite television matchups for that September weekend until later this summer. Last year, the Commodores played four games on television, including three aired by JP Sports and another at Navy broadcast on HDNet systems. Vanderbilt opens the 2005 season with road games at Wake Forest and Arkansas, then returns to Nashville for its first home game against Ole Miss on Sept. 17. The Commodores then play consecutive home games against Richmond, Middle Tennessee, LSU and Georgia, respectively, before returning tot the road. The last game in Vanderbilt Stadium is against Kentucky in mid-November. |
