The 2006 Fiesta Bowl was an instant classic, Boise State ran two of the best trick plays you’ll ever see to edge Oklahoma 43-42. The final play, a walk-off Statue of Liberty two-point conversion in overtime, sealed the victory and made history. Soon, the College Football Playoff will provide similar David vs. Goliath moments.
The plays from Boise State have been replayed thousands of times throughout college football broadcasts and are synonymous with what college football is about. It had everything, even the player scoring the final two points, Ian Johnson, proposing to a cheerleader on the field. Every time the replay is shown, the call of record features…FOX announcer Thom Brennaman. Yes, that Thom Brennaman, he of MLB, NFL, and “There’s a home run by Castellanos to make it 3-0” fame. In a game full of oddities, that one might be the oddest.
Brennaman was paired with other FOX announcers Barry Alvarez and Charles Davis, and Chris Myers was on the sidelines reporting and covering marriage proposals. FOX was doing the game as part of a four-year rights deal to televise three of the four BCS games (the Rose Bowl remained on ABC). Two nights later, Kenny Albert, Terry Bradshaw, and Howie Long called LSU’s 41-14 pounding of Notre Dame in the 2007 Sugar Bowl.
It was an odd time in the College Football TV world. The biggest games of the entire season were broadcast on a network that didn’t do college football by a set of announcers who also didn’t do college football.
As a diehard college football fan, I can’t tell you how jarring it was that these crews were on the biggest games of the year, especially the Sugar Bowl crew. At least Alvarez and Davis had a connection with college football. The Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw crew was ripped right from the Sunday studio show and crammed into a college football booth. Don’t get me wrong, those guys know football but it was just a very uncomfortable sound. The irony is FOX has now become a college football stalwart. In those days it just did not fit.
Fast forward to today and we may have a similar situation. Starting in 2024, the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams. This means more postseason inventory will be up for grabs for the television networks and there are more television networks than ever willing to bid on the increased inventory. ESPN, who will start with the rights to the games, will likely be involved, as will FOX. CBS and NBC are increasing their interest in the Big Ten Conference. There could be an additional bidder, though. According to The New York Post media columnist Andrew Marchand, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports might be ready to jump into the college football game.
Marchand made this prediction on his podcast with the Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, who agreed with Marchand’s assessment. For the record, both do believe the asking price would be too rich for WBD’s blood. It also would make very little sense for them on a couple of fronts.
First, they don’t have the necessary talent for crews. With that said, any booth involving Charles Barkley would have the potential to be very entertaining. Ernie Johnson and Brian Anderson are very solid play-by-play announcers, as they show during the MLB Playoffs, but do little, if any, football. Finding a quality play-by-play announcer would be the easy part, finding a football mind that can complete sentences on camera would be the real challenge. Just because a coach or player is good between the lines does not mean they are good in the booth, far from it. It wasn’t that the FOX BCS announcers were no good, it was just that they parachuted in out of nowhere for the biggest games.
The second issue would be the potential of WBD’s future outside of the College Football Playoff. All the quality conference media rights are currently claimed. Entering the game just for the postseason and not getting anything from the regular season would seem odd. Warner Bros. Discovery would have to ask if the juice is worth the squeeze for such a small package of games, meaningful, but small.
When the rights to an expanded College Football Playoff hit the open market, it is likely the bidding line will start at the door. Will that line include WBD? Only time will tell.
When I was a kid, TBS showed an SEC game every Saturday. The open was a cartoon of all the SEC mascots playing a football game. I loved it. College football has changed a lot since then and WBD hasn’t been along for the ride. Now would be a good time to jump on board but, it seems that train has already left the station.
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.
