College football fans are still getting used to some of the week’s biggest games airing exclusively on streaming services and non-traditional cable channels in 2024.
One such game in the Week 4 college football schedule features one of the sport’s best rivalries: the “Battle for the Iron Skillet” between TCU and SMU. The 103rd meeting between the programs is scheduled to air on The CW Network, perhaps better known for showing reruns of “Gilmore Girls” or “One Tree Hill’ than football.
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With Saturday’s broadcast taking place on the less traditional TV channel — compared to ESPN, ABC, CBS or Fox, at least — TCU’s account on X (formerly Twitter) took the first shot in its rivalry with SMU: It posted a video titled “one treefroghill” with the caption, “frogs on the cw, unfortunately.”
At the end of the video, a player wearing No. 1 for the Horned Frogs is seen making a call with an automated voice telling him, “All of our representatives are currently busy. Please stay on the line.”
As Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait” begins to play, a message pops up on the screen: “This is ESPN. Well … This is (The CW), unfortunately. Thanks ACC.”
Why are ACC games on The CW Network?
On July 13, 2023, the ACC and The CW Network announced that the network had secured exclusive broadcast rights to 50 conference college football and basketball games each season through 2026-27. The CW acquired the rights for the exclusive broadcasts from Raycom Sports, which sublicenses the rights from ESPN.
SMU, Stanford, and Cal joined the conference this year and will be featured on the same streaming service.
“We are thrilled to be adding The CW to our weekly television lineup for ACC football and basketball games,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said at the time of the announcement. “The CW’s national distribution will directly benefit our student-athletes, teams, alumni and fans. We appreciate ESPN and Raycom working together and look forward to the partnership with The CW.”
TCU vs. SMU (5 p.m. ET) is the first of three games airing on The CW on Saturday, the others being Purdue at Oregon State (8:30 p.m.) and San Jose State at Washington State (10 p.m.).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: TCU football social media takes shot at ACC, The CW ahead of SMU game