This in from NBC Sports Group, the college football schedules for Notre Dame football on NBC; Ivy League, Mountain West and Pac-12 on Versus; as well as the announcers calling the games plus various other college football programming on the networks. NBC Sports Group officially announces a new weekly college football studio show that will air Mondays at 5 p.m on Versus. In addition, there will be a unified halftime studio show that will appear on both NBC and Versus throughout the season.
Overall, NBC will air 7 Notre Dame home games, most called by Tom Hammond and Mike Mayock with Alex Flanagan on the sidelines. I say most because Tom will miss the first game as he will be out of the country calling the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea early next month for both Universal Sports and NBC Sports. Dan Hicks will call the first Notre Dame home game of the season.
Versus will carry five Ivy League games, eight Mountain West games including three involving Boise State and seven Pac-12 Conference games.
NBC will also air the annual Bayou Classic between Grambling State and Southern University in New Orleans.
Liam McHugh who seems to be anointed as the face of Versus/NBC Sports Network will host the college football halftime show on both NBC and Versus. He’ll also host College Football Talk on Mondays.
We have the press release revealing the schedules, the announcing teams and the studio personnel for college football on the NBC Sports Group.
NBC SPORTS GROUP TO AIR 28 COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES
First Fighting Irish Home Primetime Game in 21 Years Highlights NBC’s Notre Dame Schedule
VERSUS’ Coverage Begins on Sept. 10 with Mountain West/Pac-12 Doubleheader Featuring #14 TCU and #25 USC
NBC and VERSUS Feature Quadruple-Header on Nov. 12 Highlighted by Showdown between #14 TCU and #5 Boise State and #16 Notre Dame-Maryland in Primetime
All Games on NBC and VERSUS Will Have Pre- and Post-Game Shows from 30 Rock Studio, While VERSUS Adds New College Football Show on Monday NightsNEW YORK (August 24, 2011) –The NBC Sports Group will air a combined 28 college football games on NBC and VERSUS this season, featuring #16 Notre Dame and top-ranked teams from the Pac-12, Mountain West and Ivy League conferences. The increased coverage includes a new live studio show out of 30 Rock for all games on both NBC and VERSUS; the first home primetime Notre Dame game in more than 20 years on NBC; new on-air commentators, including College Football Hall of Famer Doug Flutie; a quadruple-header featuring several ranked teams on November 12; and a new one-hour college football show on VERSUS on Monday nights this fall.
Coverage begins on NBC when Notre Dame faces South Florida on Sat., Sept. 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET. VERSUS’ college football season kicks off on Sat., Sept. 10, with a doubleheader featuring Air Force as they host #14 TCU at 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by Utah at #25 USC beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
VERSUS, to be re-branded the NBC Sports Network on January 2, will bring the look and feel of NBC Sports production to all its college football coverage and will feature other notable games this season, including #10 Nebraska visiting Wyoming on Sept. 24, Army at Air Force on Nov. 5 and “The Game” between Harvard and Yale on Nov. 19.
“Similar to our efforts with the NHL, golf and horse racing, the upcoming college football season allows us to better serve the viewer by expanding our coverage across all of our platforms,” said Sam Flood, executive producer for NBC Sports and VERSUS. “Whether it’s a Notre Dame, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Ivy League game and regardless of whether it airs on NBC or VERSUS, college football fans can expect coverage consistent with the NBC Sports brand.”
NOTRE DAME – NBC will air seven games this season, including the first Fighting Irish home primetime game in 21 years when they host #25 USC on October 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET. This season’s coverage begins on Sat., Sept. 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET when #16 Notre Dame faces South Florida. The Fighting Irish also host long-time rival #17 Michigan State on Sat., Sept. 17, at 3:30 p.m. ET. NBC will once again team play-by-play commentator Tom Hammond with analyst Mike Mayock and sideline reporter Alex Flanagan. NBC’s Dan Hicks will handle play-by-play for the first Notre Dame game of the season while Hammond is covering the World Track and Field Championships from Daegu, South Korea.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL STUDIO SHOW – NBC will introduce a new live college football studio show this season which provides pre- and post-game coverage as well as halftime reports for every game on both NBC and VERSUS. The show, broadcast from the network’s studio at 30 Rock, will be hosted by Liam McHugh along with 1984 Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie and former NFL tight end and Super Bowl champion Roland Williams. Additionally, during each Notre Dame game on NBC, Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Football Night in America and Mike Florio of ProfootballTalk will join the studio crew at halftime with NFL insider information.
QUADRUPLE-HEADER – On November 12, the NBC Sports Group will air four games across all the college football properties it covers. VERSUS will kick off the day with an Ivy League game featuring Penn at Harvard at 12 p.m. ET, immediately followed by the much-anticipated showdown between 2010 Mountain West champion #14 TCU at #5 Boise State at 3:30 p.m. ET. NBC will then air #16 Notre Dame as they host Maryland in primetime at 7:30 p.m. ET in an off-site home game from FedEx Field in Landover, MD (the second primetime Notre Dame game of the season). VERSUS will end the quadruple-header with live coverage of a Pac-12 game at 10:30 p.m. ET.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL TALK – On Monday nights VERSUS will introduce a new one-hour show titled College Football Talk at 5 p.m. ET. The show, hosted by Liam McHugh with former NFL lineman Ross Tucker as analyst, will feature all the top college football stories and highlights from the weekend with a large portion of the show devoted to Notre Dame Football news. Roland Williams will also be a contributor to the show.
VERSUS ON-AIR TALENT – NBC and VERSUS will have an analyst reporting from the sidelines for all college football games to provide first-person analysis from the field and interact with the play-by-play and color announcers in the booth.
- MOUNTAIN WEST: Paul Burmeister will helm VERSUS’ Mountain West Conference coverage and the former University of Iowa quarterback and host for NFL Network will be joined by former NFL quarterback Shaun King as analyst and former NFL defensive end Anthony Herron as sideline analyst.
- PAC-12: Ted Robinson and Glenn Parker will lead VERSUS’ Pac-12 Conference coverage as play-by-play announcer and analyst, respectively. They will be joined by former NFL linebacker Akbar Gbaja-Biamila on the field as the sideline analyst for all Pac-12 games.
- IVY LEAGUE: Randy Moss, a new member of NBC’s award-winning horse racing team and contributor to NFL Network, will serve as the play-by-play announcer for all VERSUS Ivy League games and will be joined in the booth by Ross Tucker as lead analyst. Carolyn Manno, sports reporter for Comcast SportsNet New England, will serve as in-game reporter.
BAYOU CLASSIC – On November 26, NBC will once again air The State Farm Bayou Classic, the annual college football game between Grambling State University and Southern University on November 26.
NOTRE DAME EXTRA: For the second consecutive season, all of NBC’s Notre Dame games will be streamed live on NBCSports.com. “Notre Dame Extra” will feature a simulcast of the broadcast feed in full HD quality plus one additional online-only bonus camera. The video player will include picture-in-picture capability and full DVR functionality, allowing the user to pause the live video and even review plays in “slo-mo.”
New features for this season include live in-game tweets from sideline reporter Alex Flanagan and a live in-game chat from Inside the Irish blogger Keith Arnold. Additionally, fans can also watch live coverage of the Notre Dame and visiting teams’ bands at halftime, in-game highlights, as well as a live, online-only postgame footage that will include head coach Brian Kelly’s press conference. Click on Notre Dame Central at NBCSports.com to access Notre Dame Extra: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25889627/
NOTRE DAME CENTRAL APPS: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users can get complete NBC Sports coverage of the Notre Dame 2011 college football season with the Notre Dame Central apps. Users can get free, live access to every NBC Sports broadcast of Notre Dame football games. Plus, the app includes live scores, news, video highlights and much more. The iPhone and iPad updates for the 2011 season will be available prior to the Sept. 3 season opener against South Florida.
ADDITIONAL ONLINE FEATURES – NBCSports.com’s college football coverage will also feature video highlights and features from all of VERSUS’ Mountain West, Pac-12 and Ivy League games. In addition, NBCSports.com will feature online-only analysis from all of the VERSUS’ college football experts.
VERSUS RE-BRAND – As part of a new strategy to bring all four tiers of its assets (broadcast network, two national cable networks, 11 regional sports networks and digital) into a consistent framework of branding, VERSUS will be re-named the NBC Sports Network. In addition, the NBC Sports Group will implement a redesigned NBC Sports logo. Both changes take effect January 2, 2012.
NBC Sports Group’s College Football Schedule (all times ET, subject to change):
NBC
September 3 — Notre Dame vs. South Florida, 3:30 p.m.
September 17 — Notre Dame vs. #17 Michigan State, 3:30 p.m.
October 8 — Notre Dame vs. Air Force, 3:30 p.m.
October 22 — Notre Dame vs. #25 USC, 7:30 p.m.
October 29 — Notre Dame vs. Navy, 3:30 p.m.
November 12 — Notre Dame vs. Maryland, 7:30 p.m. (FedEx Field in Landover, MD)
November 19 — Notre Dame vs. Boston College, 4:00 p.m.November 26 — The State Farm Bayou Classic, 2:30 p.m.
- Grambling vs. Southern
VERSUS
Mountain West Conference
September 10 — #14 TCU at Air Force, 3:30 p.m.
September 17 — Texas Tech at New Mexico, 3:30 p.m.
September 24 — #10 Nebraska at Wyoming, 7:30 p.m.
October 1 — Nevada at #5 Boise State, 2:30 p.m.
October 22 — Air Force at #5 Boise State, 3:30 p.m.
November 5 — Army at Air Force, 3:30 p.m.
November 12 — #14 TCU at #5 Boise State, 3:30 p.m.
December 3 — UNLV at #14 TCU, 2:30 p.m.Pac-12 Conference
September 10 — Utah at #25 USC, 7:30 p.m.
October 8 — TBD, 7:30 p.m.
October 15 — TBD, 7:30 p.m.
November 5 –TBD, TBD
November 12 — TBD, 10:30 p.m.
November 19 — TBD, 7:30 p.m.
November 26 — TBD, 7:30 p.m.Ivy League
September 24 — Cornell at Yale, 12:00 p.m.
October 15 — Penn at Columbia, 3:30 p.m.
October 22 — Yale at Penn, 12:00 p.m.
November 12 — Penn at Harvard, 12:00 p.m.
November 19 — Harvard at Yale, 12:00 p.m.
That’s going to do it.
