College football on television

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

College football on television includes the broadcasting of college football games, as well as pre- and post-game reports, analysis, and human-interest stories. Within the United States, the college version of American football annually garners high television ratings.

College football games have been broadcast since 1939. The introduction of sports-specific television networks has increased the amount of air-time available for coverage. Today, dozens of games are available for viewing each week of the football season. Other coverage includes local broadcasts of weekly coach's programs. These programs have become an important sources of revenue for the universities and their athletics programs.

Televising the games allows alumni to follow their alma mater's team, as well as competing schools and top-ranked schools nationally. Not all games are televised. Coverage is dependent on negotiations between the broadcaster and the college football conference or team. In general, major programs will be televised more often than smaller programs. The televised games may change from year-to-year depending on which teams are having a strong season, although some traditional rivalry games are broadcast each year. Major match-ups between top-ranked teams or major rivals are often broadcast nationally. Some games are traditionally associated with a specific event or holiday, and viewing the game itself can become a holiday tradition for fans. Post-season bowl games, including the Bowl Championship Series, are presently all televised.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Decentralization 2 Broadcast Rights 2.1 Networks 2.2 Cable stations 2.3 Current lineup 3 Televised games 3.1 Annual televised games 3.2 Bowl games 4 Announcers 4.1 Current lineup 4.2 Famous calls or catchphrases 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The first televised college football game occurred during the "experimental" era of television's broadcasting history, when a game between Fordham University and Waynesburg College was broadcast on September 30, 1939. One month later, on October 23, 1939, Kansas State's homecoming contest against the University of Nebraska was the second to be broadcast. The following season, on October 5, 1940, what is described as the "first commercially televised game" between the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania was broadcast by Philco. Fairly sporadic broadcasts continued throughout World War II.

By 1950, a small number of prominent football schools, including the University of Pennsylvania (ABC) and the University of Notre Dame (DuMont Television Network) had entered into individual contracts with networks to broadcast their games. In fact, all of Penn's home games were broadcast regionally on ABC during the 1950 season under a contract that paid Penn $150,000. However, prior to the 1951 season, the NCAA – alarmed by reports that indicated television decreased attendance at games – asserted control and prohibited live broadcasts of games. Although the NCAA successfully forced Penn and Notre Dame to break their contracts, the NCAA suffered withering attacks for its 1951 policy, faced threats of antitrust hearings and eventually caved in and lifted blackouts of certain sold-out games.

For the 1952 season, the NCAA relented somewhat, but limited telecasts to one nationally-broadcast game each week. The NCAA sold the exclusive rights to broadcast the weekly game to NBC for $1,144,000. The first game shown under this contract was Texas Christian University against the University of Kansas, on September 20, 1952.

The NCAA believed that broadcasting one game a week would prevent further controversy while limiting any decrease in attendance. However, the Big Ten Conference was unhappy with the arrangement, and it pressured the NCAA to allow regional telecasts as well. Finally, in 1955 the NCAA revised its plan, keeping eight national games while permitting regional telecasts during five specified weeks of the season. This was essentially the television plan that stayed in place until the University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia filed suit against the NCAA in 1981, alleging antitrust violations.

[edit] Decentralization

On June 27, 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma that the NCAA's television plan violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. As a result, individual schools and athletic conferences were freed to negotiate contracts on their own behalf. Together with the growth of cable television, this ruling resulted in the explosion of broadcast options currently available.

However, in the immediate wake of the ruling, most schools still decided to jointly negotiate their television contracts through the now-defunct College Football Association. When Notre Dame left the CFA to sign an exclusive deal with NBC in 1991, it shocked the college football world and marked the true beginning of the modern era. By 1995, the CFA had fallen apart completely.

One of the most significant side-effects of the changes in television policy since 1984 has been the sharp decrease in independent schools and realignment of athletic conferences, as schools sought to pool and increase their bargaining power. Television has also driven the trend of universities (generally mid-majors) playing football on weekdays rather than the traditional Saturdays, in order to have their games broadcast.

Notably, each college playing a football game is allowed to run a commercial for their school during the halftime break.

[edit] Broadcast Rights

[edit] Networks

ABC has been airing college football games for the longest continuous time, since acquiring the NCAA contract in 1966. Keith Jackson, its best-known college football play-by-play man, announced games from 1967-2005, and was considered by many to be "the voice of college football." The network has contracts with most of the major BCS conferences, which leads it to broadcast most of its games regionally. However, nearly all ABC games that air on a given Saturday are available as part of a pay-per-view package called ESPN GamePlan. ABC began airing a weekly Saturday night primetime football game in the fall of 2006, when the network's sports division converted to ESPN on ABC.

NBC has an exclusive contract with Notre Dame, which began in 1991. Since that time, NBC has broadcast nationally all of Notre Dame's home games. This contract has allowed Notre Dame to remain an independent in college football.

CBS has historically aired fewer college games than the other networks, but it broadcast some important games in the 1980s, such as the classic Boston College-Miami game that ended with Doug Flutie's Hail Mary on November 23, 1984. The network aired Big East games from 1996-2000, and since 1996 has broadcast SEC games. CBS currently hold the right for the first pick for any game where a SEC team is at home, along with the rights to televise the SEC Championship game.

In addition, some regional syndicators broadcast games on over the air television. Most notably, Lincoln Financial Media, Raycom Sports, and ESPN Plus syndicate their games to broadcast stations.

[edit] Cable stations

TBS became the first cable station to nationally broadcast college football when it began airing games during the 1982 season. The games were aired under a special "supplemental" television contract with the NCAA.^[1] ESPN followed later the same year, broadcasting the Independence Bowl matchup between Kansas State and the University of Wisconsin on December 11, 1982. After subsequently leaving the field for several years, TBS began broadcasting college football again in 2002, showing Big 12 and Pac-10 matchups sublicensed from FSN.

ESPN has been airing regular season games since 1984, ESPN2 since 1994, ESPNU since 2005, and to a lesser extent ESPN Classic will show a few games per season. ABC gets first choice of games over the ESPN networks, however, because ABC and ESPN are owned by the same company. Many marquee games will still air on ESPN so they can air in primetime.

Regional cable networks have long devoted coverage to one or two conferences. The Pac-10 and Big 12 have had deals with Fox Sports Net since 1996, which airs games on its regional family of networks.

Recently, the Mountain West Conference entered into an arrangement with College Sports Television to develop a new regional network called "the Mountain" or "mtn" that will be devoted to broadcasting the league's games.^[2] The Big Ten and SEC are currently developing similar regional networks, with the Big Ten Network set to premier in August 2007.

[edit] Current lineup

By home game:

• ABC: ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East and Pac 10
• CBS: SEC, Army-Navy Game, and Notre Dame-Navy (for games hosted by Navy)
• NBC: Notre Dame home games and the Grambling-Southern game
• ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, and ESPN Gameplan: ACC, Big Ten, Big East, Conference USA, MAC, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC, and Army. Some Pac 10 games starting in 2007.
• FSN: Big 12 and Pac 10
• TBS: Big 12 and Pac 10
• CSTV: Mountain West Conference, Conference USA and Navy
• Versus: Mountain West Conference

[edit] Televised games

[edit] Annual televised games

Some games are traditionally played on a specific date (often a holiday), and are televised every single year. These include:

• University of Southern California (USC) and University of Notre Dame – played every year on National Television. USC-ND is the only rivalry to have a national television audience every year for over 20 years.
• University of Texas and Texas A&M University – played on the day after Thanksgiving.
• University of Colorado and University of Nebraska – played on the day after Thanksgiving.
• Louisiana State University and University of Arkansas - played on the day after Thanksgiving and broadcast on CBS (this is subject to change, as the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn is scheduled to move to Thanksgiving weekend due to a new Southeastern Conference policy requiring teams to play the weekend before the SEC championship game)
• Army-Navy Game – generally played on the last weekend of the regular season.
• Rose Bowl – traditionally held on New Year's Day along with the Rose Parade; however, like all Bowl Championship Series games it may be played later.
• Orange Bowl – traditionally held on New Year's Day.
• Sugar Bowl – traditionally held on New Year's Day.
• Cotton Bowl – traditionally held on New Year's Day.

See also: College rivalry

[edit] Bowl games

The Bowl Championship Series, which began in 1998, was driven from the start by television revenue. Starting in 2007, the Fox Broadcasting Company will broadcast all the BCS games with the exception of the Rose Bowl. ABC previously aired two full cycles of the BCS between 1998 and 2006. Before this, CBS aired the Bowl Coalition and the Bowl Alliance, with the exception of the Sugar Bowl from 1995-1997. The Rose Bowl has aired on ABC since 1989.

[edit] Announcers

[edit] Current lineup

ABC

• 1. Brent Musburger, Bob Davie, Kirk Herbstreit, & Lisa Salters
• 2. Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire, & Bonnie Bernstein
• 3. Mark Jones, David Norrie, & Stacey Dales
• 4. Dan Fouts, Tim Brant, & Jack Arute
• 5. Gary Thorne, Andre Ware, & Todd Harris

-All have been used to call games on ESPN and ESPN2 in the past.

CBS

• 1. Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, & Tracy Wolfson
• 2. Craig Bolerjack & Steve Beuerlein
• 3. Ian Eagle, Boomer Esiason, & Sam Ryan (Army-Navy game only)

FOX

• 1. Thom Brennaman, Barry Alvarez, Charles Davis, & Chris Myers
• 2. Matt Vasgersian, Terry Donahue, Pat Haden, & Laura Okmin
• 3. Kenny Albert, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, & Jeanne Zelasko
• 4. Pat Summerall, Brian Baldinger, & Krista Voda

NBC

• 1. Tom Hammond, Pat Haden, & Lewis Johnson

ESPN/ESPN2

• 1. Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge, & Holly Rowe (called games for ABC in past)
• 2. Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham, & Jerry Punch
• 3. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, & Erin Andrews
• 4. Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman, & Rob Stone
• 5. Pam Ward, Mike Gottfried, & Jimmy Dykes
• 6. Dave Pasch or Bob Wischusen, Trevor Matich, Rod Gilmore, & Heather Cox
• 7. John Saunders, Craig James, Doug Flutie, & Rob Stone
• 8. Rece Davis, Mark May, Lou Holtz, & Todd Harris
• 9. Dave Barnett, Bill Curry, & Dave Ryan
• 10. Eric Collins, Andre Ware, & Dave Ryan
• 11. Dave LaMont, Ray Bentley, & Vince Welch

FSN

• 1. Joel Meyers, Dave Lapham, & Jim Knox
• 2. Barry Tompkins, Petros Papadakis, & Jim Watson
• 3. Bill Land, Gary Reasons, & Emily Jones
• 4. Brian Davis, Mark Rypien, & Cara Capuano

TBS

• 1. Ron Thulin, Charles Davis, & Craig Sager
• 2. Chip Caray, Tom Ramsey, & David Aldridge

VERSUS (formerly OLN)

• 1. Gary Bender or Bob Papa, Glenn Parker, & Argy Stathopulos

NFL Network

• 1. Derrin Horton, Dick Vermeil, & Alex Flanagan
• 2. Spero Dedes, Mike Mayock, & Sterling Sharpe

ESPNU

• 1. Clay Matvick & Brian Kinchen
• 2. Dave Armstrong & Mike Tomczak
• 3. Mike Adamle & Charles Arbuckle or David Diaz-Infante
• 4. Beth Mowins & Eddie Robinson, Jr.
• 5. Charlie Neal & Jay Walker
• 6. Matt Devlin & Chris Martin

CSTV

• 1. Tom Hart & Trev Alberts
• 2. Carter Blackburn & Brian Jones
• 3. Jonathan Coachman & Chris Rix
• 4. Pete Medhurst & Scott Zolak

See also: List of announcers of major bowl games

[edit] Famous calls or catchphrases

• "You are looking live!" – Brent Musburger
• "Lets it go...caught by Westbrook!" – Keith Jackson
• "Hello Heisman!" – Keith Jackson
• "Not so fast, my friend!" – Lee Corso
• "Reich to throw again off of play action, throwing deep and he's got a man out there, HILL! Greg Hill on the tip, and it's a touchdown! Holy Cow!" – Mike Patrick
• "Flutie flushed, throws it down, caught by Boston College, I don't believe it, it's a touchdown! Phelan is on the bottom of that pile! The Eagles win it!" – Brent Musburger
• "Whoa Nellie!" – Keith Jackson
• "He's going for the corner...He's got it!" - Keith Jackson
• "Middllllllle!" - Brent Musburger
• "Daylight!" - Brent Musburger

[edit] References

[edit] External links