Iowa State football: Kickoff announced against Baylor in Waco

A national audience will be able to watch the Baylor Bears’ homecoming game against the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday, October 19th, in primetime.

October 27, 2012; Ames, IA, USA; Iowa State Cyclones linebacker A.J. Klein (47) and defensive back Drake Ferch (34) tackle the Baylor Bears running back Jarred Salubi (21) at Jack Trice Stadium. Iowa State beat Baylor 35-21. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

ESPNU is set to televise the game at 6:00 PM Central time. In recent years, ESPNU has dedicated the 6:00 PM slot to lower-tier SEC football matchups, but that won’t be the case beginning this Saturday when they will televise Georgia Tech-BYU at the same time slot.

This will be Iowa State’s fifth kickoff in primetime and if I’m not mistaken, this will be their first football game shown live on ESPNU. No one could imagine ESPN picking up a game like this before the season, but after Baylor’s impressive victory over West Virginia, they’ve been receiving national recognition and boosting up the polls.

Other Big 12 matchups have been set for week eight as well. TCU-Oklahoma State and Texas Tech-West Virginia have been set for an 11:00 AM Central kickoff on FOX and FOX Sports 1, respectively. Oklahoma-Kansas could be on ABC with a possible reverse mirror, ESPN or ESPN2 at 2:30 PM Central time.

Usually, Des Moines’ local ABC affiliate, WOI-TV, shows Big 12 games but they will definitely be showing the Iowa-Ohio State matchup. If OU-Kansas is on ABC not reverse mirrored, it could possibly be on a subchannel.

Kansas State and Texas will have a BYE week during week eight.