College Football on TNT Sports explained

Alt Name:TBS Sports NCAA Football
TBS Sports SEC Football
Big PlayStation Saturday
TBS Saturday Night College Football
Genre:College football telecasts
Starring:See list of commentators
Theme Music Composer:Edd Kalehoff
Country:United States
Language:English
Camera:Multi-camera
Runtime:180 minutes or until game ended
Company:TNT Sports
Fox Sports Net (2002–2006)
Channel:TBS

TNT Sports (formerly Turner Sports) has occasionally televised college football games on its networks since 1982; that year, under an agreement with the NCAA, TBS became the first broadcaster to nationally televise college football on cable. After the NCAA broadcasting package was dismantled in 1984 following a Supreme Court ruling, TBS would broadcast SEC football from 1984 to 1992, along with selected bowl games through 2000.

Regular-season college football returned to TBS in 2002 as part of a sub-licensing agreement with Fox Sports Net, broadcasting a package of Pac-10 and Big 12 games through 2006. In 2024, ESPN announced that it had reached an agreement with TNT Sports to televise College Football Playoff games on TNT beginning that season. This was followed by its acquisition of a Mountain West Conference package for TruTV.

History

Early coverage

In 1982, SuperStation WTBS reached a special "supplemental" television contract with the NCAA—who controlled all college football television rights at the time—to carry a package of live games on cable. TBS became the first cable network to nationally televise college football games.[1] [2] They aired a package of live Division I-AA games on Thursday nights and Division I-A games on Saturdays.[3]

WTBS was only able to show teams that had not been on national television in 1981. There were a maximum of four teams that had been on regional television on two occasions. Meanwhile, ABC and CBS had the right to take away a game from WTBS as long as it did so no later than the Monday before the game. Bob Neal and Tim Foley were the booth commentators for WTBS during this period. Meanwhile, Craig Sager, Paul Hornung[4] and Pepper Rodgers[5] anchored the pregame show for WTBS.

In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma that the NCAA's television rights model for college football violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, thus allowing individual schools to sell the television rights to their home games. In June 1984, WTBS sports director Terry Hanson stated that they planned to compete for the national television rights being offered by the College Football Association (CFA)—a consortium of major conferences—and would challenge any attempt to impose regional blackouts. He told the press, "Every organization takes the personality of its leader. So we are obnoxiously aggressive."[6] WTBS would acquire a package of games from the Southeastern Conference (SEC).[7]

TBS dropped regular season college football after the 1992 season, but acquired rights to the Gator Bowl from 1991 to 1995 (after which the game moved to NBC),[8] [9] [10] and the Carquest Bowl under an agreement with its owner Raycom Sports (a deal that would be later renewed through 2000).[11] [12]

2002–2006: Big 12 and Pac-10 sub-license

In 2002, Turner Sports reached a five-year sub-licensing agreement with Fox Sports Net (FSN), under which it would broadcast a package of games from the Big 12 and Pac-10 conferences.[13] The agreement ended after the 2006 season, after which the package moved to Versus for 2007.[14]

2024–2028: College Football Playoff and Mountain West

On May 22, 2024, ESPN announced that it had sub-licensed a portion of the College Football Playoff broadcast rights to TNT Sports from the 2024 season—which will be the first to see the CFP expanded into a 12-team tournament—through 2028. Under the agreement, TNT will broadcast two of the new first-round games annually. Beginning in 2026, TNT will also broadcast two of the New Year's Six bowls hosting the CFP quarterfinals.[15] [16] The telecasts will be produced by ESPN, and it was reported that ESPN would also keep all advertising revenue from the telecasts for at least the first two years of the agreement; sports media writer John Ourand suspected that that the agreement was intended as leverage in carriage negotiations for TNT as it faces the potential end of its long-running broadcast agreement with the NBA, and to bolster Venu Sports—an upcoming sports streaming service that includes ESPN and TNT Sports as partners.[17]

On July 1, 2024, TNT Sports also announced an agreement with the Mountain West Conference, under which it will carry a package of 14 games on TruTV and Max throughout the 2024 season.[18]

Commentators

Play-by-play

Color commentators

Sideline reporters

Studio hosts

Studio analysts

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: January 28, 1982 . Turner Cable TV Gets N.C.A.A. Football Pact . 2006-09-06 . The New York Times.
  2. News: Jeyarajah . Shehan . May 22, 2024 . College Football Playoff to feature select games on TNT Sports in sublicense deal with ESPN through 2028 . May 22, 2024 . CBS Sports.
  3. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119136/index.htm Next month the College Football Association (CFA) will award its Saturday night cable TV rights for '85. "We're going to take a serious swing at it," says Turner. Last year ESPN paid $9.3 million for the CFA. This year, only Turner may know where the bidding will stop. ESPN has to be uneasy. Says its president, Bill Grimes, "Turner was our competitor last time, on the USFL. Since we edged him out for it, I'm sure he'll be more motivated than last time."
  4. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122707/index.htm And oh, yes, there's a third winner of sorts, Paul Hornung, co-host of the Saturday studio show on WTBS, the Turner superstation (see box). When the NCAA controlled TV, it kept Hornung off college games because of his NFL suspension for gambling and his closer identification with the pro game.
  5. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126263/2/index.htm OUR FIRST ANNUAL SHAME-ON-YOU AWARD—To WTBS-TV, Ted Turner's superstation, for allowing the NCAA to have veto power over its football announcers. TBS had to get rid of Pepper Rodgers and Paul Hornung when the censors from Shawnee Mission, Kans., found them unsavory.
  6. News: 2023-12-27 . Turner Plans to Make a Bid For College Football Package . 2024-05-23 . Washington Post . en-US . 0190-8286.
  7. Web site: Taaffe . William . 2012-10-25 . A Supremely Unsettling Smorgasbord . https://web.archive.org/web/20121025185828/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122523/index.htm . 2012-10-25 . 2024-05-23 . Sports Illustrated.
  8. Web site: Online . Pilot . 1991-11-13 . VIRGINIA WAITING ON GATOR BOWL . 2024-05-23 . The Virginian-Pilot . en-US.
  9. Web site: 2011-12-24 . Gators have fond memories of Fog Bowl in '92 . 2024-05-23 . ESPN.com . en.
  10. Web site: 1998-05-08 . NBC SAYS IT RENEWS GATOR BOWL, BUT DOES THE BOWL KNOW THAT? . 2024-05-23 . Sports Business Journal . en.
  11. Web site: Stewart . Larry . 1995-12-29 . Jackson Has Lost None of His Edge, on Course or Behind Microphone . 2024-05-23 . Los Angeles Times . en-US.
  12. Web site: 1997-11-11 . MEDIA NOTES . 2024-05-23 . www.sportsbusinessjournal.com . en.
  13. Web site: 2002-02-04 . Fox hands off some grid games to TBS . 2024-05-23 . Sports Business Journal . en.
  14. Web site: Ourand . John . Writer . Staff . 2007-06-06 . Versus Sublicenses Ten College Football Games . 2024-05-23 . Sports Business Journal . en.
  15. News: Jeyarajah . Shehan . May 22, 2024 . College Football Playoff to feature select games on TNT Sports in sublicense deal with ESPN through 2028 . May 22, 2024 . CBS Sports.
  16. Web site: 2024-05-22 . TNT to air CFP games via sublicense with ESPN . 2024-05-23 . ESPN.com . en.
  17. Web site: Ourand . John . Is There Life After the NBA? . 2024-06-10 . Puck . en-US.
  18. Web site: Staff . S. V. G. . 2024-07-02 . TNT Sports and Mountain West Reach Multi-Year College Football Agreement Beginning This Season . 2024-07-03 . Sports Video Group . en.
  19. Web site: Thulin will begin his third-consecutive year as the play-by-play announcer for TBS' 2004-05 college football coverage. . 2009-12-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110928011720/http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,34823,00.html . 2011-09-28 . dead .
  20. http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,34819,00.html Davis will serve as the analyst for TBS' college football coverage of the Pac-10 and Big 12 for the third consecutive year.
  21. http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=1518967 Erin Andrews returns to provide atmosphere pieces from the site that showcase the tradition and pageantry of these two great conferences.
  22. http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,34822,00.html For the third consecutive year, he will also report from the sideline for TBS' Pac-10/Big 12 college football coverage.
  23. http://www.lex18.com/news/kevin-christopher-lex-18-news-anchor/ Following a successful seven-year career in New York as a stage actor, television commercial and voice-over artist, Kevin Christopher switched career gears and signed on as the Sports Anchor for Turner Broadcasting's TBS Evening News in the spring of 1980. For the next seven years he was the main studio anchor for Atlanta Braves baseball, Atlanta Hawks basketball, NBA basketball, SEC College football and the Sunday night Coors Sports Page highlight show, as well as a contributor to CNN and Headline News.
  24. http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,83966,00.html Marc Fein will serve as studio host for TBS’s coverage of Big 12 and PAC-10 college football in 2006. He previously handled sideline reporting duties for the networks’ college football coverage in 2004.
  25. http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,34821,00.html He also hosted college football games on TBS Superstation for the 2002-03 season, dubbed Big Play Saturday.
  26. http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,34822,00.html He was a sports anchor for CNN while also serving TBS Sports as the anchor of College Football Scoreboard for four years (1982-85).
  27. http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=1518967 Turner Sports announced today that legendary Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Brian Bosworth will join TBS Superstation's Big PlayStation Saturday this season as a studio analyst for its pre-game, post-game and halftime shows.

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