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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 12pm & 3:30pm EST and a new 8pm EST timeslot was announced for 2006 where each 8pm game will be in HD. ABC has contracts with the following conferences (in parenthesis is the final season of these contracts):

ACC (2010)
Big East (2007, new contact ends in 2013)
Big Ten (2006, new contract ends 2016)
Big 12 (2007)
PAC-10 (2006, new contract ends in 2011)

ABC also has the rights to two bowl games, the Capital One Bowl and the Rose Bowl.

The primary announcing teams for ABC are
Brent Musberger (PxP), Bob Davie & Kirk Herbstreit (CA) & Lisa Salters (SLR)
Brad Nessler (PxP), Bob Griese & Paul Maguire (CA) & Bonnie Bernstein (SLR)
Mark Jones (PxP), David Norrie (CA) and Stacey Dales (SLR)
Dan Fouts (PxP), Tim Brant (CA) and Jack Arute (SLR)
Gary Thorne (PxP), Andre Ware (CA) and Todd Harris (SLR)

- 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. They have the rights to ten conference games, two non-conference games and the conference championship game.

CBS also has contracts for two games involving Navy. They have a contract to broadcast Navy's home game vs. Notre Dame and the annual Army-Navy contest. CBS also has two bowl games, the Sun Bowl and Gator Bowl.

The primary announcing team for CBS is Verne Lundquist for play-by-play, Gary Danielson on color commentary and Tracy Wolfson as the sideline reporter.

- 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.

The primary announcing team for NBC is Tom Hammond on play-by-play, Pat Haden on color commentary and Lewis Johnson as the sideline reporter.

- 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.

Thom Brennamen has been named the play-by-play voice for the BCS National Championship game and one other BCS game. No other personnel decisions have been made.

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 contact ends in 2013)
Big Ten (2006, new contract ends in 2016)
Conference USA (2010)
MAC (2010)
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 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 - The Big Ten has signed a new contract with ESPN set to start in 2007. The new contract will not guarantee any additional appearances, but games that appear on ABC may be shown in outer markets on ESPN.

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.

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 Houston Bowl.

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

The PAC-10, as part of a deal with ABC, will have six to eight games televised on the network starting in 2007. This deal does not preclude games from airing on FSN or TBS.

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

ESPN: 12pm, 7:45pm
ESPN2: 12pm, 7pm
ESPNU: 12pm, 3:30pm, 7pm, 10pm

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 and Fridays.

ESPN Networks uses the following commentator teams
ESPN 12pm: Sean McDonough (PxP), Chris Spielman (CA) & Rob Stone (SLR)
ESPN2 12pm: Pam Ward (PxP), Mike Gottfried (CA) & Jimmy Dykes (SLR)
ESPN2 7pm: Ron Franklin (PxP), Ed Cunningham (CA) & Dr. Jerry Punch (SLR)
ESPN 7:45pm: Mike Patrick (PxP), Todd Blackledge (CA) & Holly Rowe (SLR)
ESPN Thursday: Chris Fowler (PxP), Kirk Herbstreit (CA) & Erin Andrews (SLR)
ESPN2 Friday: Dave Pasch (PxP), Trevor Matich & Rod Gilmore (CA) & Alex Flanagan (SLR)
ESPN/2 Midweek #1: John Saunders (PxP), Craig James (CA) & Todd Harris (SLR)
ESPN/2 Midweek #2: Rece Davis (PxP), Mark May & Lou Holtz (CA) & Rob Stone (SLR)
ESPNU 12pm: Clay Matvick (PxP) & Brian Kinchen (CA)
ESPNU 3:30pm: Dave Armstrong (PxP) & Mike Tomczak (CA)
ESPNU 7pm: Mike Adamle (PxP) & Charles Arbuckle or David Diaz-Infante (CA)
ESPNU 10pm: Beth Mowins (PxP) & Eddie Robinson, Jr. (CA)
ESPNU Midweek HBCU: Charlie Neal (PxP) & Jay Walker (CA)
ESPNU Midweek: Mike Gleason (PxP) & Chris Martin (CA)

- 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 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. For 2006, FSN will televise six "national" games and eleven or twelve "regional" games. The Big 12 contract expires after the 2011 season.

For the PAC-10, FSN shows usually one PAC-10 game per week. This may be the top or second pay tv choice for the conference. FSN will televise thirteen PAC-10 games this season. This contract expires after the 2006 season.

FSN also sells a set of Big 12 and PAC-10 games to Turner Sports to air on TBS.

The contracts that the Big 12 and PAC-10 have usually do not allow for games to start on ABC and FSN/TBS at the same time. Because of ABC's new primetime college football schedule, FSN's timeslots for games will depend on when ABC is airing PAC-10 or Big 12 football.

FSN has signed a new contract with the PAC-10 starting next season and lasting through 2011.

FSN uses the following announce teams
Big 12 Regional Game: Joel Meyers (PxP), Dave Lapham (CA) & Jim Knox (SLR)
Big 12 National Game: Bill Land (PxP), Gary Reasons (CA) & John Rhadigan (SLR)
PAC-10 #1: Barry Tompkins (PxP), Petros Papadakis (CA) & Jim Watson (SLR)
PAC-10 #2: Bill Macdonald (PxP), John Jackson (CA) & Lindsay Soto (SLR)

- 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.

CSTV does not have any specific time slots set up to air games. C-USA games will air on Saturdays. MWC games will air on Saturdays, with select appearances on Thursdays and Fridays. The MWC games do have limitations on kickoff times as the games. Games must kick off between 12pm and 6pm local time in each market on Saturdays and not before 6pm local on Thursdays and Fridays.

CSTV will use the following announce teams
Tom Hart (PxP) & Trev Alberts (CA)
Carter Blackburn (PxP) & Brian Jones
Johnathan Coachman (PxP) & Chris Rix (CA)
Pete Medhurst (PxP) & Scott Zolak (CA) (Navy telecasts only)

- Turner Sports does not have a contract with any conferences. It has purchased a set number of Big 12 and PAC-10 games from FSN each season. These games are the "top choice" pay TV games for both conferences. When FSN has the top pay TV choice for the PAC-10, TBS will have the Big 12's top pay TV choice, and vice-versa. In 2006, TBS will air six Big 12 and five PAC-10 games.

This agreement with FSN ends after the 2006 season. TBS's games will usually air at 7pm Eastern.

The primary announcing team for TBS is Ron Thulin on play-by-play, Charles Davis on color commentary and Craig Sager as the sideline reporter.

- The channel currently known as OLN (to be known as Versus starting in September) will broadcast eight MWC games starting this fall. This is in regards to a deal between Comcast and CSTV. See the entry for "the mtn." under the regional television section.

- The NFL Network has no conference contracts, but has signed up to televise the Insight Bowl and the Houston Bowl.

Regional Syndication

- ESPN Regional Television is the regional syndicator of the Big Ten, Big East, MAC and Sun Belt conferences. Contracts with ESPN Regional TV are part of the national TV contracts with ESPN for these conferences. These games will air in various time slots.

This will be the final year that the Big Ten televises games via ESPN Regional Television. Starting in 2007, a partnership between the Big Ten and Fox Cable Networks will create a new channel called the Big Ten Network to air games previously shown on ESPN Regional television.

- "mtn." is the acronym for the Mountain West Conference's new 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. As of 7/27/06, 30 games will air live on the "mtn." regional sports TV network.

On 7/19/06, a 50% stake in the mtn was sold to Comcast in exchange for carriage rights to CSTV and the mtn., along with select MWC games for Comcast's OLN channel (to be Versus in September). Comcast will also assume operations of the network.

- C-USA All Access was formed in 2005 to distribute C-USA games owned by CSTV that were not broadcast on CSTV or Independent Television. These games were available via the internet, some PPV packages, Dish Network and some local television outlets in the C-USA footprint. The others will be available via internet streaming and possibly local television stations in the markets of the competing teams.

- 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. This game will air at 12pm Eastern

- Lincoln Financial Sports (formerly Jefferson-Pilot Sports) is the regional syndicator for the SEC. This contract expires after the 2009 season. This game will air at 12:30pm Eastern.

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. If televised, these games are to air outside of the time slots granted to ABC and FSN/TBS.

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.

- The mtn. network run by the MWC and CSTV will stream all football games shown on CSTV. Games made exclusive to the mtn are likely to be part of a package that users must pay for.

- C-USA All Access provides for all CSTV owned C-USA games to be available to be viewed via the internet. Usually the game is shown from the main scoreboard camera synched up with the radio announcers.

- The WAC will debut WAC.TV in 2006 and stream selected football games this fall.

Fox Sports has provided limited streaming of Big 12 games in the past. When the conference signed a new contract with FSN a couple years ago, there was a component for additional web streaming.