AMELIA ISLAND -- As is usually the case when the Atlantic Coast Conference begins a new venture, Florida State's brand name will be significantly leveraged when the new linear ACC Network debuts this fall.
Two of the Seminoles' first three games -- Saturday, Sept. 7, against visiting ULM and Saturday, Sept. 14, at Virginia -- will air on the new network.
The game times for those contests also were released by the ACC and ESPN on Wednesday: The FSU-ULM game will kick off at 5 p.m., and the Virginia game will be at 7:30 p.m.
The Seminoles' season opener against Boise State is expected to be on one of the ESPN family of channels, but that information and kickoff time is still to be determined.
One day before the announcement, FSU athletics director David Coburn said that the Seminoles -- and all conference schools -- understand that they'll need to have games on the network if going to be the major revenue-producing vehicle they need.
"The message we've gotten loud and clear, from both ESPN and from our consultants, is, 'If you want this thing to work, then you've got to be flexible,'" Coburn said.
Now, he said, the schools need to share that message with fans and boosters, who might not love the change from traditional programming, such as a 5 p.m. kickoff.
"There are going to be games on the network at certain times of day that they're not going to be happy about," Coburn said. "But if we're going to make the network work, then we're going to have to do that."
Since it has been a member of the ACC, the Seminoles have been an important carrot in television negotiations.
When Boston College joined the ACC in 2005, the Eagles' first conference game was a home date against FSU. The same was true for Pitt when the Panthers joined the league in 2013; they hosted the Seminoles for a Monday night season opener.
One issue with having games scheduled for the ACC Network right now is the fact that several major cable carriers -- including Comcast, which is the dominant provider in Tallahassee -- have yet to sign up to carry the new channel.
ESPN is continuing negotiations with several providers, and those talks could last until much closer to the August 22 launch date.
FSU and conference officials are planning to urge fans to ask their providers to bring the new channel on board.
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