ESPN will be presenting approximately 12 different broadcast offerings as part of its MegaCast production during the first round of the expanded College Football Playoff on Friday and Saturday. Beginning on Friday, Dec. 21 when No. 10 Indiana faces No. 7 Notre Dame, ESPN and ABC will simulcast the main telecast featuring broadcasters Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy, Molly McGrath and Katie George.
ESPN2 will present the Command Center feed on Friday, which is a multi-angle presentation that displays up to four vantage points at one time featuring real-time player and team statistics. The broadcast feed will air on ESPNU for Saturday’s matchup between No. 9 Tennessee and No. 8 Ohio State, which will also have its main telecast airing both on ABC and ESPN.
On Saturday night, Pat McAfee and the cast of his eponymous weekday sports talk program will return for its third season Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show. The alternate broadcast will offer commentary from the field level with McAfee and the crew of AJ Hawk, Darius Butler, Connor Campbell, Ty Schmit and Anthony DiGuilio live from Ohio Stadium.
Both prime time college football games begin at 8 p.m. EST and will also be broadcast on ESPN Radio. Mike Couzens, Max Starks and Alyssa Lang will call the Indiana-Notre Dame game, while Marc Kestecher, Kelly Stouffer and Ian Fitzsimmons will be at Tennessee-Ohio State. The television call of Tennessee-Ohio State will include Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Holly Rowe and Marty Smith.
Spanish-language coverage of all four first-round games will air live on ESPN Deportes, as well as the ESPN app and Max depending on the television broadcast network. ESPN is sublicensing two first round games to TNT Sports in the first season of a five-year agreement between the two companies. Tennessee fans wishing to listen to the local radio broadcast of the Volunteers with Bob Kesling, Pat Ryan, Brent Hubbs and Jayson Swain can watch the SkyCast presentation on SEC Network with the audio feed. The ESPN App will highlight halftime marching band performances from both games for the fourth consecutive year as well.
The College Football Playoff will be available to view on ESPN-affiliated networks and businesses overseas that will reach sports fans worldwide through 64 linear networks and digital platforms in 141 countries. ESPN is also going to distribute College Football Playoff action through several partnerships in Canada, France, Spain and several other countries. The company has also extended its theatrical distribution agreement with Theater Sports Network to present all 11 CFP games at venues around the country.
Earlier in the year, ESPN and the College Football Playoff reached an agreement to expand its current media rights package for the final two years of the existing deal. Furthermore, the two entities reached a new six-year media rights deal for the entirety of the College Football Playoff and ancillary programming, reportedly worth $1.3 billion per year. Both deals allow ESPN to sublicense a select number of games.
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