Mixing up team names sometimes happens with both announcers and graphics, but it’s always something that gets noticed. And as many noted, play-by-play voice Brian Custer repeatedly called the Oregon State Beavers “the Ducks” (which would be Oregon) on the ESPN broadcast of the No. 11 Beavers’ loss to the Arizona Wildcats Saturday night. Here’s one example of that we found, with Custer discussing turnovers and saying “The Ducks, well, they’ve had a turnover or forced one every game thus far”:
Here's one case of Brian Custer calling the Beavers "the Ducks" Saturday. pic.twitter.com/CDRY0tHnhk
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 29, 2023
But this was noticed by many, and cited as a recurring issue throughout the broadcast:
Been pretty rough for Brian Custer
Called the Beavers the Ducks.
Called a touchdown on a pretty straight forward pass break up in the end zone.
The punt thing here.
Only watched a little of this game but very sloppy on the announcing front https://t.co/cdg08ZUz4q
— Ben Koo (@bkoo) October 29, 2023
Hey @espn tell Brian Custer that
the team he is calling right now is the Oregon State Beavers, not the Oregon Ducks. That’s at least twice he’s messed it up in the first halfMaybe have him read your pregame notes next time
— Doug (@DouglasTS) October 29, 2023
3 or 4 times lol
— MSV1167 (@MSV01167) October 29, 2023
Hey Oregon State Twitter, did ESPN just call the Beavers the Ducks? Not at all surprising, but hilarious
— Andrew Taylor (@andrewtaylor09) October 29, 2023
As mentioned, wrong identifications have long been an issue, so it’s not like this is the only time something along these lines has happened. But there were a lot of complaints about this broadcast beyond that. Some even wondered if announcers Custer and Rod Gilmore were working remotely, something that’s been behind many broadcast issues in the past. But they were at this one in person.
Custer has been particularly known for his Showtime Championship Boxing work since 2014, but he’s done plenty of football play-by-play as well, working for Fox from 2014-21 and ESPN (where he’s also a SportsCenter host) since 2021. He’s in his first year working with the team of Gilmore and sideline reporter Lauren Sisler. Last year, he worked with Dustin Fox and Sisler.
It’s maybe especially unfortunate to see this happen around Oregon State and Oregon considering all the off-field drama between them, and the drama around ESPN and the Pac-12. While this summer’s announcement that Oregon and Washington plan to leave for the Big Ten next year wasn’t the first defection from the conference (USC and UCLA announced departures for the Big Ten last year, and Colorado left for the Big 12 this year before the Ducks and Huskies announced their exits), it was the one that seemed to really doom the conference in its current form.
That exit came very suddenly (even overnight), and it led to more-reluctant exits for the Big 12 (Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State). It eventually led to Cal and Stanford heading to the ACC as well. Oregon State and Washington State are the only two Pac-12 schools intending to stay in the conference next year, and they’re in a legal battle with the departing schools over voting power in the conference and access to its revenues. And while there are still a lot of questions about the future for Oregon State and Washington State, it is clear that they have some complaints against the schools that left. So mixing the Beavers up with one of those schools is definitely rough, especially in a game that was a tough loss for them.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]
