ESPN Releases 2009 College Football Announcing Teams

Thursday, July 09, 2009

There has been very little change with ESPN's announcing teams over years past, but with the addition of Matt Millen this season, there are couple of interesting moves that have been made. Some of the more notable ones include: Millen paired up with Sean McDonough for Saturday games, Todd Blackledge replacing Bob Griese on Saturday nights (paired with Nessler), Andrew Ware being moved to regional SEC coverage and Mike Patrick getting a new partner in Craig James. Here are your pairings for the 2009 season, as well as your studio teams for the year....

Studio Teams:

College GameDay Built by The Home Depot (Saturdays at 10 a.m. on ESPN)- Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard
Pre-game, halftime and post-game, College Football Countdown (Saturdays on ABC)- John Saunders and Jesse Palmer
ABC Saturday reports- Matt Winer
Pre-game, halftime and post-game, College Football Final Powered by Pontiac G6 (Saturdays on ESPN)- Rece Davis, Lou Holtz and Mark May
Pre-game, halftime and post-game (Saturdays on ESPN2)- Wendi Nix, Todd McShay and Robert Smith
Pre-game, halftime and post-game (Saturdays on ESPNU)- Lowell Galindo (prime time) and Rob Stone (afternoon), Jay Walker, Tom Luginbill and David Pollack (prime time) and Matt Stinchcomb (afternoons)
College GameDay on ESPN Radio (Saturdays at noon)- Ryen Russillo, Trevor Matich and TBD
ESPNEWS Overdrive- Dari Nowkah, Kordell Stewart and Shaun King
Inside the Polls (ESPNU)- Lowell Galindo, Tom Luginbill and Tommy Tuberville
SEC syndication studio- Rob Stone and Matt Stinchcomb
SEC Weekly (ESPNU)- Cara Capuano, Matt Stinchcomb, David Pollack or Charles Arbuckle
Big 12 This Week (ESPNU)- Melissa Knowles and Jon Berger

Announcer Pairings:
Saturday Night Football (on ABC)- Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit and Lisa Salters
ESPN College Football Primetime (Saturday)- Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Erin Andrews
ESPN2 College Football Primetime (Saturday)- Mark Jones and Bob Davie
ESPNU SEC Saturday primetime- Eric Collins and Brock Huard
ESPN College Football Primetime (Thursday)- Chris Fowler, Craig James, Jesse Palmer and Erin Andrews
ABC Saturday Afternoon- Sean McDonough, Matt Millen and Holly Rowe
ABC Saturday Afternoon- Mike Patrick, Craig James and Heather Cox
ABC or ESPN Saturday Afternoon- Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham
ESPN College Football (Saturday afternoons)- Dave Pasch, Bob Griese and Chris Spielman
ESPN2 College Football (Saturday afternoon)- Pam Ward and Ray Bentley
ESPNU Saturday noon- Clay Matvick and David Diaz-Infante
ESPNU Saturday afternoon- Todd Harris and Charles Arbuckle
ESPNU late Saturday- Carter Blackburn and TBD
ESPN and ESPN2 Fridays and select ABC Saturdays- Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore
ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 Saturdays and select Fridays- Terry Gannon and David Norrie
ESPN and ESPN2 midweek games- Rece Davis, Mark May, Lou Holtz and Rob Stone
ESPNU Thursday- Charlie Neal and Jay Walker
ESPN Radio games- Bill Rosinski, Dennis Franchione and Joe Schad
SEC Network (ESPN Regional Television syndicated games)- Dave Neal, Andre Ware and Cara Capuano
BIG EAST Network (ESPN Regional Television syndicated games)- Mike Gleason, John Congemi and Quint Kessinich
ESPN Regional Television MAC Syndication- Michael Reghi and Doug Chapman

29 Comments:

I'm a fan of a lot of these changes. Nessler moving to the second biggest game of the day, McDonough moving to the best 3:30 ABC regional, and HOLY COW WHAT A DEMOTION FOR MIKE PATRICK.

Anonymous said...
Jul 9, 2009, 3:50:00 PM  

Andrew Ware?

Anyway those are some big changes.

TJX said...
Jul 9, 2009, 4:02:00 PM  

Yeah I first read that they were minor changes but these are big. Griese getting a big demotion (wasn't he the #1 ABC pbp guy a while back with Musberger and/or Jackson), ditto for Patrick. I really like the McDonough switch to Saturdays. Nessler + Blackledge will be a tremendous team.

Definitely looks like Ron Franklin's never getting back to where he belongs doing ESPN primetime, but hopefully he'll get some good Big 12 games.

mony said...
Jul 9, 2009, 4:05:00 PM  

Griese and Spielman together...ouch.

GMoney said...
Jul 9, 2009, 4:06:00 PM  

Thank God Nessler is moving to Saturday primetime and getting away from Greise and Paul McGuire. Such a step up from Mike Patrick.

Anonymous said...
Jul 9, 2009, 4:25:00 PM  

Nooo Quint Kessinich calling Syracuse games every other week. Bad enough he's always talking about Johns Hopkins when he's calling one of their lacrosse games

Anonymous said...
Jul 9, 2009, 4:30:00 PM  

breaking up Nessler-Griese-Maguire will lose half the material for the Pammies.

Signal to Noise said...
Jul 9, 2009, 5:31:00 PM  

Good to see Dave Neil get picked up for the ESPN Regional SEC games. It wouldn't be 12:30 on a Saturday without him.

Brian said...
Jul 9, 2009, 5:41:00 PM  

And Carter Blackburn moves from the network formerly known as CSTV to ESPNU.

JamesCraven said...
Jul 9, 2009, 7:28:00 PM  

And Ray Bentley is contemplating his career choice once again this year...

Todd said...
Jul 9, 2009, 11:15:00 PM  

Brad Nessler and Bob Griese had been together so long that it will be strange seeing them separated. I always enjoyed their broadcasts. ESPN set up a powerhouse team with Nessler and Blackledge, in my opinion the best play by play guy and analyst respectively.

I see that Franklin and Cunningham are slated for ABC/ESPN Saturday Afternoon. I hope this means they will appear on ESPN more than they have the past couple years when they've been assigned a lot of the Big 12 ABC Regional games. Guys like myself on the East Coast haven't gotten to see that duo in action very often. They are my second favorite broadcast team.

NJDevils015 said...
Jul 9, 2009, 11:28:00 PM  

Most of the announcing's fine. Still, I don't really see why ESPN needs four-five different studio show crews though, they seem to manage one fine for the NCAA women's b-ball and men's hockey...

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2009, 1:07:00 AM  

No more Paul McGuire. Isnt it also more accurate to say that Nesler replaced Patrick than Blackledge replacing Griese? BTW, fuck Jon Saunders and lets hope this is as far as Rob Stone ever makes it up the ladder, that snarky little bitch.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2009, 1:13:00 AM  

Kordell Stewart AND Andre Ware in the studio at one time? Was hoping that meant Stewart OR Ware.

Love McDonough getting closer to prime time, still trying to figure out how he got slammed to the cellar for so long. Does anyone know?

TomahawkFlop said...
Jul 10, 2009, 9:55:00 AM  

Blackledge didn't leave the ESPN Saturday night slot...Nessler and EA joined that crew and Mikey Pat and Holly Rowe went to ABC

Unknown said...
Jul 10, 2009, 11:05:00 AM  

re: McDonough, I probably think it had to do with conflicts with doing Red Sox pbp during the first 6-8 wks of the college football season did him in. He also probably did MLB on CBS too early and wasn't well loved (or hated) when he was the main baseball guy for 2 years.

mony said...
Jul 10, 2009, 11:37:00 AM  

Sean is the air-apparent to Brent whenever he leaves.

Nathan Brice said...
Jul 10, 2009, 12:10:00 PM  

Mike Patrick is gaining momentum. That is what happens when someone is going downhill.

Nathan Brice said...
Jul 10, 2009, 12:10:00 PM  

This Andrew Ware character is a fraud. I want Andre back!

Brad James said...
Jul 10, 2009, 1:43:00 PM  

mony - good insight. I've thought for a while that he is top 3 (if not #1) pbp for ABC/ ESPN. Glad he is moving into more prime slots and I hope Nathan Brice is right. This guy deserves it.

TomahawkFlop said...
Jul 10, 2009, 1:57:00 PM  

where is Pammy?

Fairplay said...
Jul 10, 2009, 2:16:00 PM  

Most importantly, I will continue to get Pam Ward and Ray Bentley during big time Big Ten this year!


//Big time meaning Iowa-Northwestern and Illinois-Purdue.

Secor314 said...
Jul 10, 2009, 3:10:00 PM  

Sean probably did not do enough college football early in his career because he was so focused on baseball. However, when he was on CBS with Todd Blackledge and Terry Donohue he was great. ESPN may not have been sure about him doing college football, but I think that they have heard enough from him making something out of almost nothing with Chris Spielman to be convinced.

Nathan Brice said...
Jul 10, 2009, 3:33:00 PM  

He can blame Chris Spielman all he wants and I will not utter a peep.

Nathan Brice said...
Jul 10, 2009, 3:35:00 PM  

Pammy and Ray have to be bummed. Another year of D-list Big Ten teams. While all of these announce teams are decent, my favorites for sure are Uncle Verne and Uncle Gary on CBS Sec Saturday. They are quote machines.

Fairplay said...
Jul 11, 2009, 1:17:00 AM  

I enjoyed Sean when he was doing the SEC games with Blackledge on CBS and was disappointed when he was replaced by grandpa Verne. Glad to see he's moving back up the ladder at ABC. His calls are always full of excitement without going into Gary Thorne screaming territory.

Anonymous said...
Jul 11, 2009, 1:20:00 AM  

Anyone know what happened to Dave Pasch?

J.D. said...
Jul 12, 2009, 4:12:00 PM  

Another year of messburger? Please. Favorite mistake from last year was when he didn't know who Beyonce was and called her Bee-ons. Herbsteit was speechless. Oh well, guess it will be another year of "This kid is probably one of the best players at his position in the country" every Saturday night...gag.

Scott said...
Jul 20, 2009, 10:12:00 PM  

It's about time McShay is on a saturday studio show. He's the only college football analyst that breaks the game down like a pro. the rest of the college guys -- for the most part -- just make stuff up. I like real deep inside football info.

Lauren Sullivan said...
Sep 3, 2009, 1:12:00 AM  

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