College football remains one of the few entities to which television networks can attach themselves at the hip.
With more options than ever for people to spend their viewership time and money on, sports are one of the few things sure to attract ratings, and no sport in America is more popular than football. That's why the Big Ten was able to sign its seven-year, $7 billion media rights deal with FOX, CBS and NBC.
As such, while it's athletic departments and conferences that set a team's week-to-week schedule, it's those networks that dictate where fans can watch prospective games and at what time they'll be played.