Credit: ACC Network
By Brendon Kleen on

The ACC Network picked a great time to think bigger.

As Miami gets ready for a home national championship game on Monday night, the ESPN-owned network will be at Hard Rock Stadium with wall-to-wall coverage of its first finalist in six years. While the nation watches to see whether the U is truly back, ACC Network will cap off a successful year of experimentation across its studio shows and game coverage.

For years, talent and production staff pushed for ACC Network to transition its live pregame show from an addendum to the network’s primetime game to its own, standalone showcase. Under new leadership with a new panel led by host Taylor Tannebaum and first-time analyst Jimbo Fisher, they got their way. ACC Network launched its own Saturday-morning show, on-site for the conference’s best game of the day.

Live for an additional hour from 10-noon to kick off the day of ACC football, ACC Huddle was in the mix all season. The show met fans where they were: the start of the Bill Belichick era, the Clemson rollercoaster, and a fateful early-season Miami win over Notre Dame.

“You want your best product on display with your biggest show. For so long, that 8 p.m. was the third or fourth game on the docket because ESPN takes the top one or two,” Tannebaum told Awful Announcing at a hotel in Phoenix, shortly before the Fiesta Bowl. “We thought we were missing out on an opportunity to showcase our stuff on the best stage possible.”

Fans of the conference have rewarded the decision. According to ESPN, viewership for ACC Huddle was up 18 percent compared with the 10-noon window on Saturdays in 2024. VP of production Alex Farmartino said the show received a “significant uptick” in viewership year over year.

Following the momentum of the season to energize campuses each week allows ACC Network to mirror the hype of College GameDay and SEC Nation. Even when ACC Network traveled to a game that wasn’t kicking off until hours later, Tannebaum said local fans came out in swarms right away:

“They felt like because we were prioritizing a big game, it felt like the show was bigger.”

The show made a point to interact with fans on-site. And as the season rolled on, they noticed more campus groups organizing activations around the show. Turnout grew.

After deciding to allocate more resources to ACC Huddle this season, Farmartino and his team launched ACC Network’s Field Pass for a handful of key games.

“When we go through the numbers of when people watch ACC Network, the number one thing is they’re going to watch games,” he told Awful Announcing.

“And we put a lot of time and energy into those studio shows and several podcast shows we’ve launched … those are all meaningful parts of what we do, but games are always going to be king. And so with us having all these resources deployed at these big events, the question came pretty quickly, is there an opportunity for us to be able to showcase our own show?”

Without Field Pass, the ACC Network is fairly quiet during games that air on ESPN. ACC faithful can watch a live feed with stats or, sometimes, the home radio broadcast simulcast on top of the main video feed.

By putting Tannebaum and Fisher, as well as fellow panelists Eddie Royal and Eric Mac Lain, on-air for an ACC-focused, more casual broadcast, the network makes something from nothing:

“We have the resources here, we’re spending the money to get the truck, to have everyone in position. We might as well make TV while we’re here,” said Farmartino.

ESPN has used the format for top talent such as Pat McAfee and Robert Griffin III in the past. While it is found money for ACC Network, there is an adjustment having the smaller production team — which is used to producing studio shows — broadcasting a live game.

And Tannebaum, a strong interviewer and comfortable host, was in her first season hosting Huddle. Playing point for the Field Pass is an even newer skill set. Tannebaum defers to the analysts rather than trying to call the game like a play-by-play announcer.

“I’m just a vessel to make sure they’re all in place to give their educated voices on the topic,” she said. “We’ve tried to do it a little more conversationally rather than play-by-play, analyst.”

The crew’s first-ever Field Pass came in Tallahassee as the Seminoles hosted Miami, which also marked Fisher’s first time back at a Florida State game since he left the school in 2017. Farmartino called Fisher a “great teammate” who has become fond of the analyst role.

Last week, ACC Network announced Belichick would join Huddle and Field Pass for the national championship game.

The network’s growth — and Miami’s run — have also given Tannebaum quite a spotlight. The former daytime host and sideline reporter is now one of the faces of ACC Network and a talent to watch at ESPN.

“She’s a natural fit on the ACC Network because she’s grown up in the league, she’s passionate about it,” Farmartino said. “She’s been one of the stars for us on ACC Network, and I’m thrilled she’s part of it.”

Tannebaum, a Florida State alum who came up through local news in Alabama and Indiana, is an exuberant host who puts analysts in a position to succeed. During Field Pass at the Fiesta Bowl, she rifled between Royal, Mac Lain, and Fisher (a wide receiver, offensive lineman, and coach), depending on the nature of the play. Live on-site, Tannebaum embraces the crowd and leans into the environment.

Perhaps because of her personal connection to the conference, she has strong opinions as well.

The ACC nearly had the dishonor of having no representation in the College Football Playoff this year, after Duke beat Virginia in the conference title game. At the last second, the CFP committee placed Miami as the 10-seed, over Notre Dame, which competes in the conference for non-football sports.

In the lead-up to the committee’s final vote, ACC Network aired the Week 1 Miami-Notre Dame game around the clock. When the Fighting Irish were snubbed, Notre Dame’s president and the ACC commissioner battled with kindly worded statements back and forth for days.

“I was a fan of the network doing what it had to do to remind people of what happened all the way back in Week 1,” Tannebaum told Awful Announcing. “A little petty? Sure. Wrong? No. It made headlines, and it got people talking. And sometimes that’s all you need these days.”

Tannebaum saw a network learning its lesson after Florida State was infamously snubbed from the Playoff in 2023, despite being undefeated.

“The league was talked about as not doing enough for the ‘Noles, not helping enough, not being vocal enough,” she said. “Then they turn around this year and try to advocate for their full-time member, and in Notre Dame’s eyes, it was ‘too much.’”

And if Notre Dame truly has an issue with preferential treatment, Tannebaum said she believes they would be accepted into the ACC at any time.

Beyond Notre Dame, Tannebaum also believes the conference learned its lesson from Duke’s run to fix its championship game tiebreakers.

“You’ve got to start putting your teams in the best position possible to have as many teams in the Playoff as possible,” she explained.

“Some of these leagues do that, and they position their best teams and biggest brands to have the most success, and that’s just the game that has to be played. And I think for the league, you have to learn the hard way sometimes … and now Miami’s making a run.”

The Hurricanes are giving more than a touchdown to Indiana on Monday night, despite lucking into a home game at the Orange Bowl. ACC Network will provide pregame, Field Pass, and postgame coverage.

About Brendon Kleen

Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.

View all posts by Brendon Kleen