One of the often cited reasons for the Canadian Football League 's failed American experiment , and part of the reason why the CFL fell behind the NFL in terms of quality players , was the state of the league 's American television contract . The league , which had held a U.S. network television contract in the 1950s and again briefly in 1982 , was then being carried on ESPN2 , at the time a nascent channel devoted to extreme sports that was not nearly as widely available as its parent network and only carried a limited number of the league 's games ( with ESPN itself airing some games to fill in airtime available due to the 1994 Major League Baseball strike , as well as the Grey Cup on tape delay ) . It was not until after the 1995 season that the CFL , mainly through the action of its American franchises , approached CBS to see if it could get coverage . However , by the time negotiations started , the CFL had decided to fold or relocate all of its American franchises , and the negotiations with CBS accordingly fell through . It would not be until several years later that the CFL reached a television contract in the United States , on a much smaller network ( America One ) . The following year , in 1996 , CBS added college football games featuring the Southeastern and Big East conferences on Saturday afternoons . It was the beginning of a rebuilding process that would eventually lead to the return of the NFL to the network
Big East
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
NFL on CBS