ESPN rolling out MegaCast for Ohio State-Indiana opener; Les Miles, Dan Dakich among special analysts

ESPN’s MegaCast isn’t just for college football championship games anymore. The network is bringing out its multi-channel artillery for its 2017 college football season opener on Thursday, Aug. 31, when Ohio State visits Indiana.

Previous MegaCast broadcasts for national championship games and College Football Playoff semifinals provided 14 different options for viewers to watch. The Ohio State-Indiana telecast will be a slimmer version, offering six alternate broadcasts for fans to enjoy.

The main broadcast will be on ESPN with Dave Flemming calling play-by-play, Kirk Herbstreit providing analysis and Laura Rutledge as the sideline reporter. Another of the broadcasts will be Coaches Film Room on ESPNews, which will feature the network debut of Les Miles (who’s doing TV after all), along with fellow former coaches Mack Brown, Gene Chizik and Mark Helfrich. That broadcast will be hosted by Tom Luginbill and Greg McElroy.

MegaCast will also include a homers’ broadcast on ESPNU. Currently, Dan Dakich is set as the analyst for the Indiana side, paired with play-by-play man Joe Tessitore. The Ohio State homer analyst has yet to be named, but he will be partnered with Adnan Virk calling play-by-play.

Other parts of ESPN’s MegaCast offered on ESPN3 will include:

** An All-22 broadcast will show a view of the entire field, like what coaches and players watch, from above the end zone.

** A Skycam perspective of the game that provides an especially compelling look from behind the offense.

** DataCenter, which will include on-screen analytics, drive charts, win probability updates and reaction from social media.

** Command Center, which will be a split-screen presentation that includes multiple camera angles and isolated feeds on specific players and coaches. Advanced statistics and drive charts will also be included on this telecast.

ESPN’s coverage will also include a two-hour College GameDay pregame show from Bloomington, Indiana. (Former Indiana coach Lee Corso back on campus!) The show will broadcast from a set inside Memorial Stadium. Prior to that, the network will have one-hour editions of College Football Live and College Football Countdown, while ESPNU will offer an alternate pregame show. In total, five hours of pregame will be devoted to the Ohio State-Indiana game and the opening of the 2017 college football season. Hoosiers football hasn’t ever seen anything like this.

The MegaCast broadcast of Ohio State-Indiana will be on Thursday, Aug. 31 at 8 p.m. ET.