Your College Basketball Saturday Viewing Guide: December 31, 2022

TCU/Michigan in the College Football Playoff Semifinals starts at 3pm Central time today, followed by Ohio State/Georgia at 7pm CT. It should not be surprising to you that ESPN is effectively turning the entire broadcasting operation over to those two games, and as a result, there’s almost no college basketball on after that point of the day. I say almost because FS1, CBS, and CBS Sports Network each have a 3pm contest, but that’s it. FS1 is carrying the Westminister Dog Show after that, and CBS SN has karate and poker.

Fun!

I guess it makes sense to presume that college sports fans would generally be interested in the football and thus you should program in a different direction, and so they have.

Before that, it’s a pretty good day of nationally televised hoops, leading right off the top with #2 UConn going on the road against #22 Xavier. It’s one of five men’s games with a big broadcast featuring a ranked team going on the road, and as luck would have it, it’s the only one where they’re visiting another ranked team.

Joining that one on the Ranked Team On The Road parade is #13 Virginia at Georgia Tech at the same time, followed by #5 Arizona at Arizona State in the 1pm window. There’s also #12 Baylor at Iowa State going on then, and both of those last two strike me as Better Than They Look games. Finally, there’s #22 New Mexico putting their undefeated season on the line at Wyoming at 3pm Central, and if nothing else, it’s a chance to see the Lobos and what they can do.

Over on the women’s side of things, there’s a ranked team fight, and not just any matchup. How about #14 Michigan visiting #3 Ohio State?! That’s a big deal, huh? Those two schools squaring off with top 15 rankings on both sides? Definitely a better potential watch than Florida State at #17 Duke on the men’s end of things going on at the same time, that’s for sure.

As always, there’s a ton of games available by way of streaming on ESPN3 and ESPN+, so if you find yourself watching a barnburner, pipe up in the comments about it!

Here’s the entire national television schedule for the day!