TNT Sports has further bolstered its lineup of live sports rights, announcing a multi-year deal with the Mountain West for a package of college football games on Monday.
This season, truTV will air 14 Mountain West games, which will also stream on Max. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Here’s the full schedule.
- Thursday, Aug. 29 Sacramento State at San José State 10 p.m.
- Saturday, Aug. 31 Texas A&M Commerce at San Diego State 8 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 7 Idaho at Wyoming 3:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 7 Georgia Southern at Nevada 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 14 Kennesaw State at San José State 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 14 New Mexico State at Fresno State 10:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 21 UTEP at Colorado State 5 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 21 Fresno State at New Mexico 8:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 5 Nevada at San José State 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 12 San José State at Colorado State 3:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 12 Air Force at New Mexico 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 19 New Mexico at Utah State 4 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 26 San José State at Fresno State 8 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 2 Wyoming at New Mexico 4 p.m.
Both TNT Sports and the Mountain West talked up the deal in a statement.
“TNT Sports provides the Mountain West with a third national television partner to showcase the outstanding student-athletes across the league,” said MW Commissioner Gloria Nevarez. “TNT Sports has always been a leader in sports broadcasting, and adding one of the top conferences in the FBS to its lineup will certainly be a benefit to MW and college football fans across the country.”
“We are excited to partner with the Mountain West and bring these compelling college football games to truTV and Max,” said Raphael Poplock, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, Business Development and Partnerships, TNT Sports. “With this agreement, we will further expand our live sports programming on truTV while creating additional exposure for the Mountain West and its student athletes across our TNT Sports platforms.”
TNT Sports is the Mountain West’s third media partner, joining incumbents CBS Sports and Fox Sports. The conference also has a quasi-deal with The CW through Oregon State and Washington State, who will each play roughly half their schedules on the network this season. Several of those games will include Mountain West teams.
This is the third major college sports acquisition made by TNT Sports in recent months, along with a sublicensing deal for two College Football Playoff games and a larger deal with the Big East for men’s and women’s basketball games.
Digging into last year’s schedule a bit, it seems like most of these games would have aired digitally on the Mountain West Network last season. The conference selling them to TNT Sports for national distribution on truTV and Max is a logical move, possibly setting TNT Sports up for a future (larger) media rights deal with the conference when the current deals with CBS and Fox end after the 2025-26 academic year.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.