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Where I-A Games Are Televised

Over The Air Networks

- ABC broadcasts the bulk of college football games on network television. ABC generally broadcasts games at 3:30pm EST and a primetime 8pm EST timeslot. ABC has contracts with the following conferences (in parenthesis is the final season of these contracts):

ACC (2010)
Big East (2007, new contract ends in 2013)
Big Ten (2016)
Big 12 (2007, new contract ends in 2015)
PAC-10 (2011)

ABC also has the rights to two bowl games, the Capital One Bowl and the Rose Bowl. In the years where the Rose Bowl also holds the BCS National Championship, ABC will also televise that game. ABC offers about half the games they broadcast in HD.

ABC will use the following announcing crews, listed in order of play-by-play, color commentator(s) and sideline reporter (if used):
Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit and Lisa Salters (Saturday night)
Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Bonnie Berstein
Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham and Jack Arute
Dan Fouts, Tim Brant and Todd Harris
Terry Gannon, David Norrie and Jeanine Edwards

- CBS is the exclusive network TV provider of SEC football and usually airs one game per week at 3:30pm Eastern starting after the tennis U.S. Open. They have the rights to the conference until the end of the 2008 season.

CBS also has contracts for two games involving Navy. They have a contract to broadcast Navy's home game vs. Notre Dame (every other season) and the annual Army-Navy contest. CBS also has two bowl games, the Sun Bowl and Gator Bowl. CBS offers almost all of their college football broadcasts in HD.

Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy Wolfson comprise the primary announcing team for CBS.

- NBC is the rightsholder for all Notre Dame home games until the end of the 2010 season. These games will usually air at 2:30pm or 3:30pm Eastern. NBC also has the rights to the annual Bayou Classic I-AA matchup between Grambling and Southern. NBC offers all their Notre Dame broadcasts in HD.

Bob Papa, Pat Haden and Alex Flanagan are the NBC crew for Notre Dame games.

- FOX does not hold any rights to any regular season college football, but is the new rightholder for the BCS, specifically the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and the newly created national championship game. The contract will expire after the bowl games ending the 2009 regular season. FOX also has the rights to the Cotton Bowl and those rights also expire after the 2009 season. FOX offers all their BCS games in HD.

Pay TV Networks

- ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU broadcast the bulk of college football on pay TV, along with select games on ESPN Classic. The suite of networks hold rights to the following conferences:

ACC (2010)
Big East (2007, new contract ends in 2013)
Big Ten (2016)
Conference USA (2010)
MAC (2010)
PAC-10 (2011)
SEC (2009)
Sun Belt (2007)
WAC (2009)

Notes on these contracts:

ACC - The ACC is guaranteed six appearances per season on Thursday nights. ESPNU can choose games only after selections are completed by ABC, ESPN/ESPN2 and Raycom/LF Sports.

Big 12 - ESPN has sublicensed five games from FSN for airing on a national basis.

Big East - The Big East has signed a new contract to start with the 2008 season. There are various guarantees in terms of appearances on ABC and specific nights on ESPN.

Big Ten - No games may appear on ESPNU. Games that appear on ABC may be shown in outer markets on ESPN/ESPN2.

Conference USA - ESPN has rights to a set number of games and the conference championship game. The rest of the games revert to CSTV. No C-USA game may appear on ESPNU.

PAC-10 - The games that ESPN will televise from the PAC-10 are part of the ABC contract. FSN still owns the pay TV rights to the conference.

SEC - The SEC has no provision for games to appear on ESPNU.

ESPN has a contract for all Army home games and most will be played on Saturday, with ESPN reserving the right to move games to weeknights. This contract expires after the 2009 season. ESPN currently has the rights to all bowl games not televised on network TV, except for the Insight Bowl and Texas Bowl.

ESPNU also shows several I-AA games during the year and has contracts with the Gateway, MEAC and SWAC conferences.

ESPN networks air games at the following times on Saturdays (with some exceptions, all times Eastern):

Because of the sheer volume of conferences ESPN carries, games will also air on weeknights. Thursday is the prime weeknight slot, with games also airing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. All games on ESPN and ESPN2 except games from Hawai'i are televised in HD.

ESPN will use the following announcing crews, listed in order of play-by-play, color commentator(s) and sideline reporter (if used):
Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe (ESPN Primetime)
Chris Fowler, Doug Flutie, Craig James and Erin Andrews (ESPN Thursday night)
Mark Jones, Bob Davie and Stacey Dales (ESPN2 Primetime)
Dave Pasch, Andre Ware and Erin Andrews (ESPN Afternoon)
Pam Ward, TBA and TBA (ESPN2 Afternoon)
Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone (ESPN/ESPN2 Friday nights)
Rece Davis, Mark May, Lou Holtz and Rob Stone/Todd Harris (ESPN/ESPN2 mid-week)
Clay Matvick and Kelly Stouffer (ESPNU noon)
Doug Bell and Charles Arbuckle (ESPNU afternoon)
Dave Armstrong and Mike Gottfried (ESPNU primetime)
Charlie Neal and Jay Walker (ESPNU Thursday HBCU)

- FSN holds the pay TV rights to the Big 12 and PAC-10 conferences.

For the Big 12, the conference owns the first pay TV choice and the "regional" Big 12 game, which airs on just about all FSN-affiliated regional networks. FSN also approves all PPV airing for Big 12 games not chosen for TV. Any PPV games must air when ABC is not televising a Big 12 game. This means that FSN holds the rights to 20-25 games per season. The Big 12 contract expires after the 2011 season.

For the PAC-10, FSN shows usually at least one PAC-10 game per week and holds the rights to 18 games. This contract expires after the 2011 season.

FSN telecasts select games in HD.

In the past, FSN sublicensed select Big 12 and PAC-10 games to Turner Sports, who would broadcast them on TBS. Because Turner now has access to the MLB playoffs starting this season, they have declined to sublicense any games from FSN. For the Big 12 games, FSN has sold five games to ESPN/ESPN2 and five games to Versus. Versus has also sublicensed five PAC-10 games from FSN.

FSN sometimes mixes up their crews. For Big 12 games, Joel Meyers and Bill Land work on play-by-play, Gary Reasons and Dave Lapham work as analysts and Emily Jones and Jim Knox work as sideline analysts. On PAC-10 telecasts, Barry Tompkins, Petros Papadakis and Jim Watson are the talent primarily used.
- CSTV has the rights to all MWC games and all C-USA games not selected by ESPN. The contract with C-USA ends after the 2010 season and the MWC contract expires after the 2013 season.

CSTV has a contract for all home games for Navy, except the Notre Dame game. This contract ends after the 2009 season. All Navy games will be on Saturdays. They also have a group contract with several I-AA conferences to air games.

Tom Hart (PxP) and Trev Alberts (Analyst) comprise one announcing crew for CSTV and Carter Blackburn (PxP) and Brian Jones (Analyst) work as a second crew, generally on C-USA and MWC games. Pete Medhurst works on Navy home games.

- Versus will broadcast select Big 12, MWC and PAC-10 games. With respect to the MWC, this is in regards to a deal between Comcast and CSTV. See the entry for "the mtn." under the regional television section. For the Big 12 and PAC-10 games, Versus has sublicensed five games from each conference from FSN. Versus as a network does not have any contract directly with a conference.

For 2007, the Versus crews will be:
MWC: Joe Beninati (PxP), Glenn Parker (CA) and Tim Neverett (sidelines)
Big 12: Ron Thulin (PxP), Kelly Stouffer (CA) and Lewis Johnson (sidelines)
PAC-10: Ted Robinson (PxP), Kelly Stouffer (CA) and Lewis Johnson (sidelines)

- The NFL Network has no conference contracts, but has signed up to televise the Insight Bowl and the Texas Bowl. Both games are broadcast in HD.

Regional/Syndication

- ESPN Regional Television is the regional syndicator of the Big East, MAC and Sun Belt conferences. Contracts with ESPN Regional TV are part of the national TV contracts with ESPN for these conferences.

- A new partnership between the Big Ten and Fox Cable Networks, called the Big Ten Network, will air games previously shown on ESPN Regional television or ESPNU. This is a full time, 24 hour network, unlike ESPN Regional Television which syndicates the game telecasts only.

The Big Ten Network will rely on the following talent:
Thom Brennaman & Charles Davis
Wayne Larivee & Chris Martin
Mark Neely & Glen Mason
Roger Twibell & Mike Tomczak
Jim Kelly & Rich Baldinger
Scott Graham & Derrick Walker
Ron Thulin & Butler By'not'e

- "mtn." is the acronym for the Mountain West Conference's regional broadcaster, MountainWest Sports Network. This network was formed by CSTV to distribute games not televised on CSTV. Games produced by the "mtn." will be broadcast on several different platforms, including a new 24 hour regional sports network, web streaming, and mobile internet. Comcast owns the majority of the network and controls operations of the network.

The mtn. will use the following crews:
James Bates, Todd Christensen and Anne Marie Anderson
Rich Cellini, Jon Berger and Joe Staszak
Tim Neverett, Blaine Fowler and Krista Blunk

- CSS (Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast) has a new partnership starting with Conference USA in 2007 as they will broadcast select C-USA games in a deal with CSTV.

- A partnership between Raycom Sports and Lincoln Financial Sports (formerly Jefferson-Pilot Sports) distributes an "ACC Game Of The Week" inside the ACC footprint. This contract expires after the 2010 season.

Steve Martin, Rick "Doc" Walker and Mike Hogewood work most Raycom/LFS games
- Lincoln Financial Sports (formerly Jefferson-Pilot Sports) is the regional syndicator for the SEC. This contract expires after the 2009 season.

Dave Neal, Dave Archer and Dave Baker are the crew working most LFS games.

The PAC-10 does not have a regional syndication package. Any games that are not chosen by their television partners can be televised by each university's contracted television package.

As noted above, the Big 12's regional game is owned by FSN and airs at 12pm or 12:30pm Eastern.

Internet Streaming

- ESPN360 is a broadband service provided to ISPs directly. ISPs are supposed to pay for the service instead of charging customers directly. The service is expected to show ACC, Big East, Big Ten and MAC games not being shown on TV. Games from ABC may also be shown here.

- CSTV's All-Access package provides from streaming of select I-AA games, C-USA games, non-televised MWC games and SEC telecasts from CBS.