College Football Countdown

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ESPN College Football Countdown on ABC (branded for sponsorship purposes as ESPN College Football Countdown on ABC presented by Walmart ) is a college football television show that typically airs at 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoons during football season on ABC. The programs precede game action on the network and have been doing so ever since 1981. ESPN College Football Countdown on ABC is a presentation of the American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) regular season American college football television package.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Jackson</span> American sports announcer (1928–2018)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NBC Sports</span> Division of American broadcast network NBC

NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its dedicated national sports cable channels. Formerly operating as "a service of NBC News", it broadcasts a diverse array of sports events, including Major League Baseball, the French Open, the Premier League, the IndyCar Series, NASCAR, the National Football League (NFL), Notre Dame Fighting Irish college football, the Olympic Games, professional golf, the Tour de France and Thoroughbred racing, among others. Other programming from outside producers – such as coverage of the Ironman Triathlon – is also presented on the network through NBC Sports. With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, its own cable sports networks were aligned with NBC Sports into a part of the division known as the NBC Sports Group.

Nationally television broadcasts of National Basketball Association (NBA) games first aired on ABC from 1965 to 1973. In 2002, NBA games returned to ABC as part of a contract signed with the league, along with cable sister network ESPN. After the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney in 2006, broadcasts have since been produced by ESPN, and have primarily used the NBA on ESPN branding and graphics instead of the NBA on ABC branding.

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<i>ESPN College Football on ABC</i> Television series

ABC first began broadcasting regular season college football games in 1950, and has aired games of the now-National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) annually since 1966. After the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney in 2006, broadcasts have since been produced by ESPN, and have primarily used the ESPN College Football branding and graphics instead of the College Football on ABC branding.

<i>Notre Dame Football on NBC</i> US television program

Notre Dame Football on NBC is an American presentation of college football games involving the Notre Dame Fighting Irish that are produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States. NBC Sports has broadcast all Notre Dame home games since September 7, 1991.

ABC first broadcast selected college basketball games of the now-NCAA Division I during the 1960s and 1970s, before it began televising them on a regular basis on January 18, 1987, with a game between the LSU Tigers and Kentucky Wildcats). As CBS and NBC were also broadcasting college games at the time, this put the sport on all three major broadcast television networks.

Sports programming on the American Broadcasting Company is provided on occasion, primarily on weekend afternoons; since 2006, the ABC Sports division has been defunct, with all sports telecasts on ABC being produced in association with sister cable network ESPN under the branding ESPN on ABC. While ABC has, in the past, aired notable sporting events such as the NFL's Monday Night Football, and various college football bowl games, general industry trends and changes in rights have prompted reductions in sports broadcasts on broadcast television.

ABC has been airing college football since acquiring the NCAA contract in 1966. Chris Schenkel and Bud Wilkinson were the number one broadcast team through 1973. Keith Jackson, its best-known college football play-by-play man, announced games from 1966 through 2005 on ABC, and was considered by many to be "the voice of college football." Jackson was ABC's lead play-by play man for 25 years, from 1974 through 1998. He originally was to retire after the 1999 Fiesta Bowl, but agreed to remain on a more restricted schedule and remained with ABC through the 2006 Rose Bowl.

References

  1. Sandomir, Richard (21 August 1992). "TV SPORTS; Lampley's New Look Raises (2) Eyebrows". The New York Times.
  2. Video on YouTube
  3. Sandomir, Richard (23 August 1996). "The College Football Crew at CBS Includes a Point-Spread Maven". The New York Times.