CBS carries two games that have definite BCS implications, the traditional Iron Bowl between bitter rivals Alabama and Auburn on Friday and LSU-Arkansas in Little Rock on Saturday. There’s talk that the SEC could get two teams into the BCS fray and both games could impact which teams get into college football’s “postseason”. We have the press release plus some comments from SEC on CBS analyst Gary Danielson.
“SEC ON CBS” THANKSGIVING LINE-UP STUFFEDUNDEFEATED AND NO. 2-RANKED AUBURN AT NO. 11-RANKED ALABAMA IN “IRON BOWL” ON FRIDAY, NOV. 26 HIGHLIGHTS SCHEDULENO. 5-RANKED LSU PLAYS NO. 12-RANKED ARKANSAS ON SATURDAY, NOV. 27AUDIBLES with CBS Sports’ Lead College Football Analyst Gary DanielsonCBS Sports’ Thanksgiving weekend coverage of SEC college football features the game of the week on Friday, Nov. 26 (2:30-6:00 PM, ET) with undefeated and *No. 2-ranked Auburn at No. 11-ranked Alabama in the “Iron Bowl” and continues on Saturday, Nov. 27 (3:30-7:00 PM, ET) with No. 5-ranked LSU taking on No. 12-ranked Arkansas.Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy Wolfson, CBS Sports’ lead college football announce team, handle the call for Auburn-Alabama from Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Craig Silver, the Network’s coordinating producer of college football, produces and Steve Milton directs.On Saturday, Craig Bolerjack and Steve Beuerlein call the action for the LSU-Arkansas contest from War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark. Steve Scheer produces and Jim Cornell directs.COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY, the Network’s pre-game, halftime and post-game studio show on both Friday and Saturday is hosted by Tim Brando along with analysts Spencer Tillman and Archie Manning. COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY will keep viewers updated on all the games throughout the afternoon with scores and highlights. Vin DeVito produces and Linda Malino directs. Harold Bryant is Vice President, Production, CBS Sports.After CBS Sports’ live SEC game coverage each Saturday throughout the season, CBS COLLEGE SPORTS NETWORK takes over with SEC TONIGHT (7:00-8:00 PM, ET), providing a recap of all the news, scores and highlights from around the SEC. Adam Zucker hosts along with analysts Brian Jones and Howard Cross.Both games will be streamed live and free of charge on CBSSports.com. Each week CBS Sports’ “SEC Game of the Week” is available exclusively on CBSSports.com, CBS Sports Mobile and can also be accessed through a link on the websites of all CBS affiliates.*BCS Poll as of 11/21/10* * * * *
AUDIBLES with CBS Sports’ Lead College Football Analyst Gary DanielsonNick Saban vs. Cam NewtonThe “gear-heads” of college football, those that really like the X’s and O’s of the games not the passion, are really going to tune in to find out if Nick Saban, with two weeks and a whole year of game film, can figure out a way to stop Cam Newton and the spread. Can it be stopped? It’s the genius of defensive schemes with his recruited team, 10 game films, two weeks, no excuses. To me it’s almost like we are going to have a final debate on whether or not there is global warming. If Nick can do it, people are going to say, ‘Ok it can be done.’ If Nick can’t do it, a lot of people are going to say, ‘It might not be able to be done.’SubplotsAs a broadcaster I have never been in a game that has had so many sidebars. You have the BCS stuff, whether a little school should get in over the big schools. You have the Cam Newton situation. There is the Heisman drama. And the Auburn drama of going undefeated in 2004 and not getting to go the title game. And everyone in the country wants the SEC to get knocked off because this conference has produced the last four national champions. You have the in-state battle with these teams hating each other. You can do the whole game and not have either team run a play and still have enough to fill 3 ½ hours. You could literally just have both teams come out and do interviews for 3 /12 hours, just do a pregame show from the stadium, and people would be riveted.On AuburnEverybody, except Auburn fans, are hoping Auburn loses. The little schools want them to lose. The Big Ten wants them to lose. The people that don’t want to vote for Cam Newton want them to lose. Everyone for one reason or another is rooting against them and rooting for the guy they love to hate, Nick Saban. People love to hate Nick Saban but they are all on his side for this gameAuburn knows what they have. They know what they are. They are not a dominating defensive team. But they have the two best players in the league. Both of them come with baggage right now. The best player on offense is Cam Newton. The best player on defense, Nick Fairley, has been widely criticized by many players in the SEC as the dirtiest player in the league. I think he’s had dirty plays. I think he’s had cheap plays but I wouldn’t classify him as a dirty player. Can these two great players be enough to take on the Alabama machine?Auburn has gone through so much, coaching changes, offensive coordinators; they fired a coach in the middle of the season. They hired the coach that everybody didn’t want them to hire. It was the most unpopular coaching hire I have ever seen and now he’s got a chance to win the national championship. His team has rallied around him and they are ready to take on Alabama. There are 85 guys on the team, the other 83 are ready to stand behind the three people that have been attacked, their coach, their quarterback and their defensive lineman. The 83 other guys have their backs.On AlabamaJust four weeks ago, everybody thought top-to-bottom, inside-and-out, from player one to player 85 that the best team in the country was Alabama. If Auburn is going to win a championship they have to go through arguably one of the top teams in the country. Alabama can lineup and beat anybody. They haven’t, but they could. They have this game at home against their dreaded rival and they want this badly.
And we’ll end it here.
