NCAA Productions is the official film and television production company for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
It was founded by Dick Snider as NCAA Films. One of the earliest programs to be produced was the television show College Football, the first Sunday morning show to nationally broadcast college football highlights. [1]
From 1946 to 1970, Look published the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) Team. After Look folded, the FWAA started a long association with NCAA Films, which produced a 30-minute television show and sold it to sponsors.
In 1979, the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament expanded to add Thursday-Friday first round games. Those games were done by NCAA Productions, who also did the regional semifinals [2] in prior years.
By the 1985 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (with four games being played at each first round site), NCAA Productions (who produced college basketball telecasts for ESPN) typically sent two announcer crews to each site to call two games each. [3] During much of the 1980s, NCAA Productions televised and/or produced all tournament games which CBS did not carry. As previously mentioned, while ESPN provided a national audience for selected NCAA Productions (and sometimes, tape delayed) games, live telecasts were made available (via syndication) to local television stations in the participating markets. [4]
ESPN on ABC is the branding used for sports event and documentary programming televised by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. Officially, the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, in 2006, ABC's sports division was merged into ESPN Inc., which is the parent subsidiary of the cable sports network ESPN that is majority owned by ABC's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with Hearst Communications.
College football on television includes the broad- and cablecasting of college football games, as well as pre- and post-game reports, analysis, and human-interest stories. Within the United States, the college version of American football annually garners high television ratings.
Bradley Ray Nessler is an American sportscaster, who currently calls college football and college basketball games for CBS Sports.
Michael Francis Mayock Sr. is a former American football executive and player in the National Football League (NFL). He played as a safety with the New York Giants. After his playing career, he was a draft analyst for the NFL Network, and a game analyst for NBC's coverage of Notre Dame football. He served as the general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders from 2019 to 2021.
Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Television.
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.
Thursday Night Football is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time.
James Gerard Spanarkel is an American television analyst for College Basketball on CBS and a former professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Dallas Mavericks. He played college basketball for Duke University, where he was an All-American.
Dan Bonner is an analyst and color commentator covering NCAA men's basketball and the NBA. He previously played basketball at the University of Virginia and coached the UVa women's team for two seasons. He also coached girls' basketball and soccer at Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton, Virginia.
Rich Waltz is an American television play-by-play commentator currently calling college football, basketball for CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network. Waltz also calls MLB for MLB Network's Showcase telecasts and Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball. The past two seasons he has filled in on TV for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Angels on Bally Sports. Waltz also called the Phoenix Regional of the World Baseball Classic for MLB Network and MLB International. A three-time Emmy winner, Waltz is formerly known for calling television broadcasts for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball from 2005 to 2017. Waltz's dismissal by Fox Sports Florida and the Marlins was criticized by fans and media. Over the past few years, Waltz has called MLB for MLB Network and Turner Sports, including the Cubs' Alec Mills no-hitter, the sixth MLB no-hitter he has announced. Waltz also called the 2020 AL Wild Card Series for TBS alongside Jimmy Rollins.
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.
College Basketball on NBC Sports is the de facto branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I men's college basketball games produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States. The NBC network broadcast college basketball games in some shape or form between 1969 and 1998. From 1969 to 1981, NBC covered the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. It became the first major network to broadcast the championship game, at a cost of more than US$500,000 in 1969.
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 presentation rather than College Football on ABC.
College Basketball on CBS Sports is the branding used for broadcasts of men's NCAA Division I basketball games that are produced by CBS Sports, for CBS, CBSSN, and Facebook.
ESPN College Basketball is a blanket title used for presentations of college basketball on ESPN and its family of networks. Its coverage focuses primarily on competition in NCAA Division I, holding broadcast rights to games from each major conference, and a number of mid-major conferences.
ACC Network was a syndicated package of college sports telecasts featuring football and basketball events from the Atlantic Coast Conference, produced by Raycom Sports, the sports syndication unit of Montgomery, Alabama-based Raycom Media.
The Pac-12 Network (P12N), sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks, was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities were headquartered in San Ramon, California.
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.
The ACC on Regional Sports Networks was a package of telecasts produced by Raycom Sports, in cooperation with Bally Sports, previously the Fox Sports Networks, featuring Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) college sports. The package was syndicated primarily to regional sports networks.