ESPN Family Likes Trojans on TV

Eight games involving USC were among 25 Pac-10 Conference games ESPN and its family (ABC, ESPN2) announced this week as part of its overall college football schedule for the 2010 season.

This comes at a time when the NCAA might be nearing an announcement of its own about penalties for USC resulting from improper benefits during Reggie Bush's career with the program.
Still, the Trojans -- with first-year coach Lane Kiffin, who bolted from Tennessee to take the job, and heralded quarterback Matt Barkley remain a solid TV draw and no sanctions have been announced at this point. Plus, they might not take affect as early as this season (and maybe ESPN did a smart thing by announcing a schedule in advance of any NCAA action in order to get an A-list team slated for tube time before it could be prevented).

Along with USC's eight appearances, the schedule includes five games featuring Oregon (and that progam's success on the field as well as its problems off should make for interesting TV) and four four Stanford, which boasts hotshot quarterback Andrew Luck, who has already been projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft by ESPN's Todd McShay.

Here's the just-announced schedule of games ...

• Thursday, Sept. 2 -- USC at Hawaii, 11 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Sept. 3 -- Arizona at Toledo, 8 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Sept. 4 -- UCLA at Kansas State, 3:30 p.m., ABC
• Saturday, Sept. 4 -- Oregon State vs. TCU, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Sept. 11 -- Oregon at Tennessee, 7 p.m., ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 11 -- Stanford at UCLA, 10:30 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Sept. 17 -- California at Nevada, 10 p.m., ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Nebraska at Washington, 3:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Arizona State at Wisconsin, 3:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Iowa at Arizona, 10:30 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Wake Forest at Stanford, 11:15 p.m., ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 25 -- Oregon State at Boise State, TBA, TBA
• Saturday, Sept. 25 -- UCLA at Texas, TBA, ABC
• Saturday, Oct. 2 -- Washington at USC, 8 p.m., TBA
• Saturday, Oct. 2 -- Stanford at Oregon, 11:15 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Oct. 9 -- USC at Stanford, 8 p.m., ABC
• Thursday, Oct. 21 -- UCLA at Oregon, 9 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Oct. 30 -- Oregon at USC, 8 p.m., ABC
• Saturday, Nov. 13 -- USC at Arizona, 8 p.m., ABC
• Thursday, Nov. 18 -- UCLA at Washington, 8 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Nov. 20 -- USC at Oregon State, 8 p.m., TBA
• Friday, Nov. 26 -- Arizona at Oregon, 7 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Nov. 27 -- Notre Dame at USC, 8 p.m., TBA
• Thursday, Dec. 2 -- Arizona State at Arizona, 8 p.m., ESPN