Michael James Hall (born February 20, 1982, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois) is an American sports broadcaster who works for the Big Ten Network. He can also be found as a sideline reporter for National Football League (NFL) games on Fox. Hall is a graduate of the University of Missouri where he majored in journalism.
Hall is perhaps best known for being the winner of the first season of ESPN's reality television show Dream Job . For his efforts, Hall won a one-year contract to be an anchor on ESPN's popular sports news program SportsCenter and a new Mazda 3. On the night that he won, March 28, 2004, Hall also took a sports quiz to raise his salary. His salary started at $70,000. He then answered five trivia questions, each correct answer worth $5,000, to bump his first-year salary to $95,000.
On May 15, 2004, Hall graduated from the University of Missouri. At 1 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on July 20, 2004, Hall began his stint as an official SportsCenter anchor alongside Linda Cohn, having already done some work for ESPNews. Before Missouri, he attended historic Glenbard West High School. Hall also appeared on ESPN, and occasionally ESPN2, broadcasting college games including the Division I NCAA Frozen Four National Championship. He used to be the featured on-air personality at ESPN's network devoted to college sports, ESPNU. On March 4, 2005, he was the opening promo for the first ever program on ESPNU, a basketball game at Gallagher-Iba arena on the campus of Oklahoma State University (OSU) between OSU and Texas. ESPN's Pardon the Interruption reported during its "Happy Trails!" segment on April 27, 2007, that Hall was leaving ESPNU to move back to the Chicago area, where he would pursue other job opportunities.
Beginning in 2007, Hall is employed with the Big Ten Network. While at the network, Hall has hosted signature programs including Big Ten football pregames/halftimes/postgames, Friday Night Tailgate, Big Ten Football Report, BTN Live on Sirius/XM satellite radio, Big Ten Basketball & Beyond and Big Ten Basketball pre-game, halftime, and wrap-up segments. [1]
Hall also makes appearances doing sideline reporting for The NFL on Fox .[ citation needed ] [2] as well as for the network's coverage of the Big Ten men's basketball tournament.
In 2016 the network gave Hall his own late night comedy show, Sports Lite. It was a sports twist on "The Soup" where he did a monologue in front of a live studio audience, and aired feature pieces with him in the field showing athlete's goofing off with him, as well as utilizing comedians in NYC and LA interviewing famous Big Ten fans.
Hall performed improv comedy at iO Chicago for more than a decade with various teams including Wonderbat (co-starring SNL's Alex Moffat), Electric Mayhem, and Coup de Grace [3] and at The Playground with Boyish. [4] He frequently would be seen showing up at Second City to do guest performances during the improv sets.
ESPNews is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications.
Dream Job is an American reality television show made by ESPN, which began on February 22, 2004. It was the network's second reality show, with two editions of Beg, Borrow & Deal having previously aired. However, this was the first reality show from a network to offer its winner an on-air place on one of its shows. The show was hosted by Stuart Scott.
Brian David Griese is an American professional football coach and former player who is the quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). A former quarterback in the NFL, he played college football for the Michigan Wolverines and was selected by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 1998 NFL draft.
Danyelle Sargent-Musselman is a former American sports television reporter.
ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Communications. The channel is primarily dedicated to coverage of college athletics, and is also used as an additional outlet for general ESPN programming. ESPNU is based alongside its sister networks at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.
Dave Revsine, is an American sportscaster, and sports columnist and journalist who currently serves as the lead studio host for the Big Ten Network. Previously, he was a journalist at ESPN anchoring on SportsCenter and ESPNEWS, along with play-by-play on select college basketball games.
Michele Tafoya is an American reporter and retired sports broadcaster. Most notably, from 2011 to 2022, she worked primarily as a sideline reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football. Over the course of her career, she covered the National Football League, the Olympics, and professional basketball. Since Tafoya's departure from sportscasting, she has worked as a conservative political consultant and makes television appearances to discuss the state of American politics and culture.
Craig Graham Sager was an American sports reporter who covered an array of sports for CNN and its sister stations TBS and TNT, from 1981 until his death in late 2016.
Big Ten Network (BTN) is an American sports network based in Chicago, Illinois. The channel is dedicated to coverage of collegiate sports sanctioned by the Big Ten Conference, including live and recorded event telecasts, news, analysis programs, and other content focusing on the conference's member schools. It is a joint venture between Fox Sports and the Big Ten, with Fox Corporation as 61% stakeholder and operating partner, and the Big Ten Conference owning a 39% stake. It is headquartered in the former Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House building at 600 West Chicago Avenue in Chicago.
ESPN Megacast, formerly known as ESPN Full Circle, is a multi-network simulcast of a single sporting event across multiple ESPN networks and services—with each feed providing a different version of the telecast making use of different features, functions or perspectives. These simulcasts typically involve ESPN's linear television channels and internet streaming platforms, and may occasionally incorporate other Walt Disney Television networks at once.
Alex Flanagan is the Vice president of Broadcasting for the Montag group, a Wasserman company and a former American sportscaster. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona. She began her career as a news reporter and anchor and began covering sports in 1998. She has worked for networks including, NBC Sports, NFL Network, ESPN, and Fox Sports.
Cara Capuano is an American sports anchor for ESPNU. Before joining ESPNU in 2008, she was a former sports reporter for FSN. She joined Fox Sports Northwest in August 2004, as a reporter and anchor for the Northwest Sports Report and the Detroit Sports Report. She is a Southern Californian and will often go by the nickname "Cappy."
Samantha Ponder is an American sportscaster who most recently hosted Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN. Prior to hosting Sunday NFL Countdown, Ponder worked as a reporter & host for ESPN college football and as a basketball sideline reporter. Ponder replaced Erin Andrews on College GameDay Saturdays at 10 AM ET on ESPN, as well as co-host of the Saturday 9 AM ET edition on ESPNU. In addition to her duties on College Gameday, Ponder had been the regular sideline reporter for ESPN's Thursday Night College Football with Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, and David Pollack from August 2012 until 2014. Ponder also appeared on the ESPN-owned Texas-oriented regional network Longhorn Network.
Molly Anne McGrath is a Sports Emmy nominated American sportscaster and studio host who works as a sideline reporter for ESPN’s college football and college basketball telecasts.
Suzette Maria Taylor is an American sportscaster for NBC Sports. She has worked for ESPN and the SEC Network. She has covered college football, college volleyball, National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), and men's and women's college basketball.