In August of 2007, the Big Ten Network was born onto cable systems across America marking a significant step in sports media rights and coverage for college football. Dave Revsine has been there for all the good and bad of the network’s fifteen years on the air, but he didn’t intend on it.
Revsine, the network’s lead studio host, spoke with Awful Announcing’s Michael Grant about his migration from ESPN to the first conference-affiliated network. He spoke about wanting to go be closer to home (network is in Chicago) after his father died. He also was asked about the “risk” he was taking leaving ESPN to go with something brand new.
“It’s funny,” Revsine began, “I think all my friends at ESPN looked at me as if ‘have you lost your mind?’”
Revsine also said that when he went to interview with the Big Ten Network, he didn’t plan on taking a job there.
“In the beginning, I didn’t interview with the intention of taking the job,” said Revsine, “I interviewed with the intention of getting an offer. And then when I talked to (then-Big Ten Network president) Mark Silverman and (then-Big Ten commissioner) Jim Delany, I understood for the first time, the scope of what they were trying to do.”
He also said that the idea of the Big Ten Network going big, and around-the-clock, appealed to him.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I was blown away and thought ‘Holy cow. This is something I really want to do.’”
