ESPNU, which could carry a dozen or more college football games involving ACC teams this season, is about to be in play for most television viewers in the state.

Time Warner Cable has reached an agreement with ESPNU to add the channel to its digital cable package beginning on Aug. 31, one day before the opening round of Saturday games.

Cable customers in the Triangle and most of the North Carolina market will have an option to add the channel to their service.

Starting times and television coverage plans for the opening three weeks of ACC football are on the verge of being finalized, but ESPNU wound up with 13 games involving ACC football teams last season. Assistant commissioner Mike Finn thinks an equal number of league games will fall ESPNU's way in 2007.

Last season, ESPNU was not an option to the 500,000 or so Time Warner subscribers in the Raleigh-Durham area, which includes more than 20 counties in central and eastern North Carolina.

Triangle area Time Warner customers will need to have the digital package to get ESPNU on digital channel 140.

The monthly charge for Time Warner's Digipic tier, which will include ESPNU, is $64.75, but Time Warner's Melissa Buscher said a promotional offer will allow new customers to get the Digipic service for $39.95 for an unspecified period. She said it is not necessary for viewers to have a high-definition television.

Buscher said the addition of ESPNU will not increase prices for customers who already have Digipic.

Exact terms of the Time Warner agreement with the various ESPN channels are not known, but Time Warner spokesperson Maureen Huff said Tuesday that the contractual arrangements are "long term."

The ACC's television contracts with ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and the Lincoln Financial Network do not expire until after the 2010-11 academic school year.

In the pecking order, ESPNU falls last, after ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and Lincoln Financial.

"It's impossible to say right now how many games will be left for ESPNU to consider, but there will be some, just as there were last season," Finn said.

After the first three weekends of games, the ACC and its television partners set game times and coverage assignments on a staggered scale. The majority of the game times are determined two weeks before game day, but a few games are announced seven days out.

Last season, ESPNU landed telecast rights to several games of importance to Triangle-area fans, including N.C. State games against Akron, Georgia Tech and East Carolina. Also on the channel were three UNC games -- Furman, South Florida and Wake Forest.

"With expansion there are obviously more games available, so it stands to reason that ESPNU will get its share of interesting games," Finn said.

That's particularly true of the early season, when most ACC teams are involved in nonconference games and optimism is still high for most fans. On Sept. 1, opening day for 2007, there will be nine games involving ACC teams. The Sept. 8 schedule includes 10 games.

Very few games have been slotted to date. The exceptions are the Thursday night ESPN games, which start at approximately 7:30, and Georgia Tech at Notre Dame (NBC, Sept. 1, 3:30 p.m. Eastern), Virginia at Wyoming (Versus, Sept. 1, 2 p.m.), Florida State at Clemson (ABC, Sept. 3, 8 p.m.), Duke at Northwestern (Big Ten Network, Sept. 15, 8 p.m.), UNC at ECU (CSTV, Sept. 8, 6 p.m.), Duke at Navy (CSTV, Sept. 22, 1 p.m.), Duke at Notre Dame (NBC, Nov. 17, 2:30 p.m.) and the ACC championship game in Jacksonville, Fla. on Dec. 1 (ABC, 1 p.m.).

Triangle area Time Warner customers with the Digipic service will be able to see the UNC-ECU and Duke-Navy CSTV games.

Finn said the ACC should be ready to announce the starting times and television arrangements for the first three weeks of the season by June 1 or shortly thereafter.

"We're close to having it set," Finn said. "There aren't very many things left to get ironed out."