Men's college basketball on television

Men's college basketball on television includes the broadcasting of college basketball games, as well as pre- and post-game reports, analysis, and human-interest stories. Within the United States, the college version of basketball annually garners high television ratings.

Televising the games allows alumni to follow their alma mater's team, as well as competing schools and top-ranked schools nationally. Not all games are televised. Coverage is dependent on negotiations between the broadcaster and the college basketball conference or team. In general, major programs will be televised more often than smaller programs. The televised games may change from year-to-year depending on which teams are having a strong season, although some traditional rivalry games are broadcast each year. Major match-ups between top-ranked teams or major rivals are often broadcast nationally. Some games are traditionally associated with a specific event or holiday, and viewing the game itself can become a holiday tradition for fans.

History

College basketball was first televised during the "experimental" era of television's broadcasting history, when W2XBS broadcast a men's basketball doubleheader from Madison Square Garden in New York City on February 28, 1940. Fordham University and the University of Pittsburgh played in the first game, and New York University played Georgetown University in the second game.^[1][2][3]

In 1968, the "Game of the Century", played between UCLA and Houston, was syndicated by the TVS Television Network, attracting a significant television audience. The game is widely cited as a catalyst for the explosion and expansion of the televised college basketball landscape.

Broadcast rights

Networks

In addition, some regional syndicators broadcast games on over the air television. Most notably, Raycom Sports syndicate their games to broadcast stations. ESPN Plus, which was a syndication unit of ESPN, also previously syndicated basketball games from various conferences to stations until its 2014 closure in the wake of Big 12 games moving to the ESPN cable networks, and the inception of the cable-only SEC Network. In 2014, Sinclair Broadcasting launched a new syndication programming service, the American Sports Network, to syndicate basketball games in various areas of the country, including a few NCAA Division II games (beginning in 2016).

Raycom in the early 1990s paid ABC $1.8 million for six weeks of network airtime of 26 regional games. The format allowed Raycom to control the games and sell the advertising.^[4]

Cable stations

Regional cable networks have long devoted coverage to one or two conferences. The Pac-12 and Big 12 have had deals with Fox Sports since 1996, which airs games on its regional family of networks.

In 2007, the Big Ten conference was the first to establish its own television network, the Big Ten Network. The Pac-12 Networks debuted in 2012. Two years later, ESPN and the Southeastern Conference launched the SEC Network.

The Big Ten has a similar regional network, with the Big Ten Network having made its debut in August 2007. Texas has their own deal which created the Longhorn Network in fall of 2011. While BYU has BYUtv, it is not a separate deal that created a regional sports network.

ESPN

ESPN has been airing regular season games since 1980, ESPN2 since 1993, ESPNU since 2005, and to a lesser extent ESPN Classic will show fewer games per season.

College basketball has been a staple for nearly the whole history of ESPN. Scotty Connal, then-vice president of the all-sports network in Bristol, Conn., offered Dick Vitale a position, shortly after being fired from the Detroit Pistons. The coverage of college basketball and the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament increased both college basketball and ESPN's credibility.^[5]

Virtual Reality

In 2016, Fox partnered with NextVR to live stream four Big East Conference games in virtual reality.^[6]

Current lineup

By home team

• ACC Network/Raycom Sports: ACC (including the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament)
• American Sports Network: A10, American, Big South, CAA, Conference USA, Horizon, Ivy, MAC, OVC, Patriot, SoCon, Southland, WAC
• CBS/TBS/TNT/TruTV: ACC, American, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC
• ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPNU: A10, ACC, American, America East, Atlantic Sun, Big 12, Big South, Big Sky, Big Ten, Big West, Conference USA, Horizon, MAC, MAAC, MEAC, MVC, MWC, NEC, Pac-12, SEC, SoCon, Southland, Summit League, Sun Belt, SWAC, WAC, WCC
• Fox/Fox Sports 1: Big East, Big West, Big 12, Pac-12
• Fox Sports Networks: ACC and SEC
• CBS Sports Network: Mountain West Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Atlantic 10 Conference, American, Northeast Conference and Patriot League
• NBCSN: Atlantic 10 Conference, Colonial Athletic Association (including the Colonial Athletic Association Men's Basketball Tournament), Ivy League, Mountain West Conference
• beIN Sports: Conference USA
• Big Ten Network: Big Ten
• BYUtv: BYU, BYU-Hawaii, and West Coast Conference
• Longhorn Network: Texas
• Pac-12 Network: Pac-12
• SEC Network: SEC
• AXS TV: Night games for the inaugural Paradise Jam Tournament.
• Root Sports: Big Sky

Postseason

NCAA Tournament

In 1974, Brent Musburger started using the term March Madness when describing the tournament.^[7]

In 1991, CBS received exclusive rights to the entire tournament for the first time. Previously, ESPN had aired early round games. Beginning in 2011, CBS shared the early tournament rounds with TBS, TNT, and TruTV. The Final Four will alternate between CBS and TBS starting in 2016.^[8]

NIT

The ESPN family of networks currently air the NIT games.

CBI

AXS TV carries select games from the CBI.

CIT

CBS Sports Network has broadcast the semifinal round and championship game of CIT since 2014. The rest of the tournament games are available for free stream on the tournament website.

Announcers

• College Basketball on CBS/TBS/TNT/TruTV (2016-2017)^[9]

1. Jim Nantz/Bill Raftery and Grant Hill/Tracy Wolfson
2. Brian Anderson/Steve Smith/Dana Jacobson
3. Brad Nessler/Jim Spanarkel/Allie LaForce
4. Kevin Harlan/Reggie Miller and Dan Bonner/Lewis Johnson
5. Ian Eagle/Chris Webber and Len Elmore/Evan Washburn
6. Spero Dedes/Doug Gottlieb/Rosalyn Gold-Onwude
7. Andrew Catalon/Steve Lappas/Jamie Erdahl
8. Carter Blackburn/Mike Gminski/Jaime Maggio

• ESPN/ESPN2 (2016–17)^[10]

1. Dan Shulman/Jay Bilas/Maria Taylor (Saturday Primetime)
2. Sean McDonough/Jay Bilas or Dick Vitale or Doris Burke/Allison Williams (ACC Monday)
3. Bob Wischusen/Fran Fraschilla/Holly Rowe (Big 12 Monday)
4. Dave Flemming or Dan Shulman/Dan Dakich/Molly McGrath(Big Ten Tuesday)
5. Brent Musburger/Sean Farnham/Kaylee Hartung (SEC Tuesday)
6. Jon Sciambi/Miles Simon (Big 12 Tuesday)
7. Dave Pasch/Bill Walton (Pac-12 Wednesday and Thursday)
8. Karl Ravech/LaPhonso Ellis (ACC Wednesday)
9. Joe Tessitore/Sean Farnham (SEC Thursday)
10. Adam Amin/Len Elmore (AAC Thursday)
11. Dave O'Brien/Dick Vitale or Doris Burke/Allison Williams (ACC Saturday)
12. Dave Flemming/Dan Dakich (Big Ten Saturday)
13. Bob Wischusen or Rich Hollenberg or Mark Neely/Fran Fraschilla or Miles Simon or Mark Plansky (Big 12 Saturday)
14. Tom Hart or Beth Mowins/Kara Lawson or Dalen Cuff (SEC Saturday)
15. Allen Bestwick/Tim Welsh (AAC Saturday)
16. Rece Davis or Jason Benetti/Jim Calhoun (Big Ten Thursday)
17. Mitch Holthus/Mark Adams (MVC Saturday)
18. Eric Rothman/Adrian Branch (WCC Saturday)
19. Mike Corey/Jason Capel (Atlantic 10 Friday and Saturday)

• ESPNU (2016–17)

1. Rich Hollenberg/Dino Gaudio (Tuesday AAC)
2. Mike Couzens/Brooke Weisbrod (Tuesday SEC)
3. Ted Emrich/Malcolm Huckaby (Wednesday ACC)
4. Clay Matvick/Tim Welsh (Wednesday Big 12)
5. Roy Phillpot/Brad Daugherty (Wednesday Pac-12)
6. John Brickley or Drew Fellios/Sean Harrington (Thursday WCC)
7. Jordan Bernfield/Brooke Weisbrod (Friday Horizon League)
8. Doug Sherman/Julianne Viani (Friday MAAC)
9. Alex Faust/Mark Wise (Saturday AAC)
10. Clay Matvick/Sean Harrington (Saturday Big Ten)
11. Jason Benetti/Reid Gettys (Saturday Big 12)
12. Sam Barber/Richie Schueler (Saturday Big West)
13. Kevin Fitzgerald/Chris Spatola (Saturday SEC)
14. Anish Shroff/Cory Alexander (Sunday ACC)
15. Mitch Holthus/Mark Adams (Sunday MVC)
16. Roxy Bernstein/Corey Williams (Sunday Pac-12)

• ESPN Plus (2016–17)

1. Adam Amin or Tom Hart or Richard Cross or Mike Morgan or Dave Neal/Pat Bradley or Dane Bradshaw or Barry Booker or Tony Delk or Daymeon Fishback or Jarvis Hayes or Kyle Macy or Jon Sundvold or Antoine Walker (SEC Network)
2. Lowell Galindo/Lance Blanks (Longhorn Network)

• FSN (2014-2015)

1. Steve Physioc/Marques Johnson/Rebecca Haarlow (Pac-12)
2. Barry Tompkins/Reggie Theus/Courtney Jones (Pac-12)
3. Tim Brando/Mike Gminski/Jenn Hildreth (ACC)
4. Ron Thulin/Dan Bonner/Debbie Antonelli (ACC)
5. Bob Rathbun/Larry Conley (SEC)
6. Rich Waltz/Mark Wise (SEC)

• Big Ten Network (2014-2015)
• ACC Network (2014-2015)^[11]

1. Steve Martin/Dan Bonner
2. Tim Brando/Mike Gminski
3. Tim Brant/Cory Alexander

• Pac-12 Network^[12]

1. Kevin Calabro/Don MacLean
2. Ted Robinson/Ernie Kent
3. Roxy Bernstein/Lenny Wilkens
4. JB Long/Detlef Schrempf
5. Rich Cellini/Brevin Knight
6. Mark Rogondino/Lamar Hurd
7. Paul Sunderland/Dan Belluomini
8. Jim Watson/Joe Cravens

• CBS Sports Network (2014-2015)
• NBC Sports Network (2014–15)

1. Steve Schlager/Blaine Fowler (MWC)
2. Paul Burmeister/Stan Van Gundy (MWC)
3. Dave Strader/Dave Kaplan (Atlantic 10)
4. Todd Harris/Ronny Thompson (CAA)
5. Randy Moss/Dalen Cluff (Ivy League)

• BYUtv (2014–15)

1. Dave McCann or Spencer Linton/Blaine Fowler or David Nixon/Spencer Linton (BYU and WCC Tournament)
2. Lad Panis/Dave Porter (BYU-Hawaii)

Famous calls or catchphrases

• "You are looking live at (Insert stadium or arena or co-ed)!" – Brent Musburger
• "It's awesome, baby!" – Dick Vitale
• "(Any team) will go man-to-man", "Onions!", "Send it in, Jerome!" - Bill Raftery
• "Hack-a-Polack" - Andrew Catalon

References

External links

• 1968-1981 College Basketball TV history