Minnesota vs. TCU Game Time Set: 8PM Kickoff On ESPN

This is BIG NEWS folks:

TCU at Minnesota (Thurs) Sept 3 at 9 pm ET on @ESPN; Oregon at Michigan State Sept 12 at 8 pm ET; ABC, ESPN or ESPN2

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) April 23, 2015

It's official. Minnesota vs. TCU will be the biggest game played on the opening night of the college football season. It was always going to be a pretty prominent game, but the 8pm slot on ESPN means that the game will get the maximum level of exposure. TCU will likely come into the season ranked #2. That means this game should get TONS of lead in hype and promotion as ESPN talks about one of the biggest College Football Playoff contenders first game. Again, that would have happened anyway but now they'll be doing it with the goal of getting as many people as possible to tune in to a game that will have no real competition of for the eyeballs of college sports fans (or any sports fan except those poor souls who think preseason NFL football is something to watch).

Imagine a Minnesota/TCU version of this promo:

Or the Gophers getting more attention in this sort of promo:

You can also expect Coach Kill and the Gophers to draw plenty of national media attention coming into the game with a plethora of storylines befitting a game of this stature. You've got Kill's relationship with Gary Patterson, Kill's Big Ten Coach of the Year award (trololol Ohio State fans), Kill's success with controlling his seizure disorder, Minnesota as a darkhorse in the Big Ten, the first game against a Top 5 opponent in TCF Bank Stadium's history, etc.

And if the Gophers shock everyone and beat TCU? They'll be a dominant story on ESPN for the rest of the weekend because Minnesota will have knocked a big playoff contender off in the networks first marquee game of the season.

The atmosphere that night will be fantastic! Can September 3rd hurry up and get here already?