NBC announced its full lineup of college football announcers on Wednesday, and it includes plenty of familiar faces.
The network’s top broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle, analyst Todd Blackledge, and sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen return to call Big Ten Saturday Night for the third consecutive season, beginning with a matchup between Michigan and New Mexico during Week 1.
For the 35th straight year, NBC will also be the broadcast home of Notre Dame football, and the network is keeping the same booth as last season. Dan Hicks will handle play-by-play duties after taking over for Jac Collinsworth last season. Jason Garrett returns as a game analyst for the fourth consecutive year, and Zora Stephenson will be the sideline reporter.
NBC is tapping play-by-play broadcaster Paul Burmeister to call select Big Ten games throughout the season. He’ll be joined by a rotating cast of analysts that includes Football Night in America analyst Chris Simms, his father Phil Simms (who was announced earlier this week), as well as Michael Robinson and Yogi Roth. Michael Grady, who was recently announced as a play-by-play voice for NBC’s NBA coverage, will also chip in on Big Ten coverage.
Ahmed Fareed will again anchor studio coverage alongside analysts Joshua Perry and Nicole Auerbach. The network will send Jordan Cornette on-site each week with analysts Matt Cassel and the aforementioned Michael Robinson.
Consistency seems to be the name of the game for NBC this season as the network chooses to keep its top teams intact. Both the Big Ten and Notre Dame teams will see some marquee matchups coming their way; NBC will air Penn State’s “White Out” game against Oregon next month, as well as a top-20 game between Texas A&M and Notre Dame.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.