Georgia’s TV slate lining up

Georgia’s football game Sept. 20 at Arizona State has been picked up by ABC and will kick off shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern time.

The matchup at Sun Devil Stadium could have the hottest starting time in Georgia history. Last season, Arizona State opened with four consecutive home games, and the temperatures at kickoff were 101, 102, 92 and 83 degrees.

Each of those games started at 7 p.m. Pacific time or later, but the Georgia kickoff will be 5 p.m. Pacific.

Though the Arizona State start is Georgia’s first to be made official, CBS senior vice president for programming Mike Aresco recently told the Times Free Press that his network would likely begin its SEC coverage with Georgia’s trip to South Carolina on Sept. 13 (3:30 kickoff). Aresco also said ESPN has used one of its three priority picks on Georgia’s home game Sept. 27 against Alabama (likely 7:45 kickoff).

Should Georgia use traditional 1 p.m. starting times for the first two games against Georgia Southern and Central Michigan, then the first five Bulldogs games may be set. Georgia media relations director Claude Felton said a hitch could be Fox Sports Net South, which gets two SEC games a year involving nonconference opposition.

“I don’t think we’ll find out much more until the SEC spring meetings,” Felton said Friday. “Although we have done it before, I have not heard anything about moving later in the day just for heat relief.”

Aresco said CBS would likely show Georgia’s Oct. 25 game at LSU, its Nov. 1 game against Florida and probably games against Auburn and Georgia Tech. The Oct. 11 game against Tennessee will be on CBS as part of a 3:30 and 8 p.m. doubleheader involving Florida-LSU, but Aresco doesn’t know which game will get which slot.