ESPN’s BCS Announcing Assignments

ESPN has released its Bowl Championship Series announcing teams for its various platforms (TV, Radio, 3-D). As expected, Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit will call the Rose Bowl and the BCS National Championship. Other announcing teams involved in the games will be Sean McDonough and Matt Millen (Sean’s fine, but Matt is absolutely horrible), Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge, and you have the Monday Night Football team of Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Jon “This guy” Gruden doing one game also.

Let’s take a look at the games and the announcing assignments.

Football’s Top Commentators to Work ESPN’s Bowl Championship Series Game Coverage

Tostitos BCS National Championship Game: Musburger, Herbstreit, Andrews and Rinaldi on ESPN; Tirico, Gruden and Schad on ESPN Radio; and Tessitore, Brown, Blackledge and Nix on ESPN 3D

College GameDay & College Football Live originate from site of BCS National Championship

ESPN’s comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the Bowl Championship Series will be highlighted by several of football’s top commentators and analysts calling the network’s first year of exclusive coverage of all five BCS games on ESPN, ESPN Radio and ESPN 3D. In addition to game telecasts, ESPN will provide extensive analysis, news, reports, features and highlights across multiple platforms from Pasadena, Calif. (site of the Rose Bowl) and Scottsdale, Ariz. (site of the Fiesta Bowl and BCS National Championship Game) from Jan. 1-10.

Overall, ESPN will utilize a minimum of 32 personalities to host programs and provide play-by-play, analysis and sideline reports for the network’s exclusive coverage of the five post-season games. Game highlights include announcers for ESPN’s Saturday Night Football college football series and National Football League Monday Night Football telecasts working multiple games, including the BCS National Championship Game.

ESPN’s two-time Emmy-Award winning College GameDay will originate from Pasadena, Calif., site of the Rose Bowl Game Jan. 1 at 10 a.m. on ESPNU and continuing on ESPN at 11 a.m. (game at 5 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN Radio) and Scottsdale, Ariz., site of the BCS National Championship Game (Jan. 10 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Radio and ESPN 3D), for special pre-BCS game editions Jan. 3, 4 and 7 on ESPN, all at 7 p.m. College Football Live, ESPN’s daily college football studio show, will be televised from Scottsdale every day at 3 p.m. on ESPN from Jan. 3-7 and on Jan. 10.

ESPN 3D, ESPN’s newest outlet and the first 3D network to launch in the industry, will provide exclusive 3D coverage of the Fiesta Bowl and BCS National Championship Game.

Commentator assignments are highlighted by:

• The BCS National Championship Game (Jan. 10 at 8:30 p.m. ET) will feature Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on ESPN’s telecast and Monday Night Football announcers Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden, who will be joined by reporter Joe Schad, on ESPN Radio’s broadcast.  ESPN 3D’s coverage will be called by Joe Tessitore, Tim Brown, Todd Blackledge and Wendi Nix.

It will mark Musburger and Herbstreit’s fourth consecutive BCS National Championship, the first two for ESPN Radio and last year’s ESPN on ABC telecast from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. Tirico, Gruden and Nix worked last year’s title matchup for ESPN Radio.

• Musburger, Herbstreit and Andrews – announcers on the ESPN on ABC Saturday Night Football series, broadcast television’s only weekly prime time college football series — will also call ESPN’s telecast of the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 at 5 p.m.

• Tirico and Gruden will be joined by Monday Night Football booth colleague Ron Jaworski on ESPN’s telecast of the Orange Bowl with NFL reporter Michelle Tafoya Jan. 3 at 8:30 p.m.

• Saturday ESPN College Football Primetime announcers Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, who won the National Championship with Penn State in 1982, and Holly Rowe will work ESPN’s coverage of the Sugar Bowl Jan. 4 at 8:30 p.m.

• Chris Fowler will host each on-site edition of College GameDay with analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard. Erin Andrews will anchor several segments of ESPNU’s telecast from Pasadena Jan. 1 at 10 a.m. and contribute reports on additional shows. Analysts Jesse Palmer, Lou Holtz and Mark May, and Saturday day-long studio host Rece Davis, will join the College GameDay crew on the episode leading into the BCS National Championship Game. The daily remote editions of College Football Live will be hosted by John Saunders with Palmer.

• Sean McDonough, Matt Millen and Heather Cox will work ESPN’s telecast of the Fiesta Bowl Jan. 1 at 8:30 p.m. and ESPN Radio’s broadcast of the Sugar Bowl Jan. 4 at 8:30 p.m.

• Bill Rosinski, David Norrie and Schad – ESPN Radio’s weekly game broadcast crew — will call the national network’s Rose Bowl Jan. 1 at 5 p.m. and Orange Bowl Jan. 3 at 8:30 p.m.

• In addition to the BCS National Championship Game, Tessitore and Brown will call the ESPN 3D telecast of the Fiesta Bowl Jan. 1 at 8:30 p.m. Field analyst Ray Bentley will join them.

As part of an extensive four-year agreement with the Bowl Championship Series that begins this year, ESPN will provide exclusive worldwide television coverage, radio broadcasts, digital content and more for the five annual BCS games from January 2011 through January 2014. It will mark the first time ESPN has televised BCS games. ESPN Radio has broadcast every BCS game since 2000.

ESPN will provide extensive BCS and college football analysis, news, reports, features and highlights on remote editions of College GameDay and College Football Live from Jan. 1-10. Every show will originate from Scottsdale, except for College GameDay on Jan. 1, which will be televised from Pasadena.

Date	Time (ET)	Show	Network
Jan 1	10 a.m.	College GameDay (from Pasadena) Chris Fowler, Erin Andrews, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit & Desmond Howard	ESPNU (10 a.m.) & ESPN (11 a.m.)
Jan 3	3 p.m.	College Football Live John Saunders & Jesse Palmer	ESPN
	7 p.m.	College GameDay Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit & Desmond Howard	ESPN
Jan 4	3 p.m.	College Football Live John Saunders & Jesse Palmer	ESPN
	7 p.m.	College GameDay Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit & Desmond Howard	ESPN
Jan 5	3 p.m.	College Football Live John Saunders & Jesse Palmer	ESPN
Jan 6	3 p.m.	College Football Live John Saunders & Jesse Palmer	ESPN
Jan 7	3 p.m.	College Football Live John Saunders & Jesse Palmer	ESPN
Jan 10	3 p.m.	College Football Live John Saunders & Jesse Palmer	ESPN
	7 p.m.	College GameDay Chris Fowler, Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Jesse Palmer, Lou Holtz, Mark May, Erin Andrews & Tom Rinaldi	ESPN

The 2010 college football season on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN 3D, ESPN Classic, ESPN3.com, ESPN Radio, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN Regional Television and ESPN GamePlan totals more than 400 regular-and post-season games, concluding with the entire Bowl Championship Series, highlighted by the BCS National Championship, on ESPN for the first time.

And you can put the -30- on this one.