Awful Announcing’s month-long quest to name the Best Broadcast Booth in sports has now reached its final two. And it should be no surprise who has made the championship final.
Much like the two NCAA Tournaments this year, our own bracket has been dominated by chalk. In the final are two broadcast teams that have won Awful Announcing reader rankings in the past two years. Joe Davis and Greg Olsen from Fox Sports represent the NFL. Ian Eagle, Grant Hill, and Bill Raftery from CBS Sports represent college basketball.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, both are very new teams. This was the first year Joe Davis and Greg Olsen worked together, although the results were fantastic. Olsen won an Emmy for his analyst work on Fox’s top team, with Kevin Burkhardt and Davis already rising to call the World Series for Fox. They are a top team in anything but network position only.
For March Madness, Ian Eagle replaced Jim Nantz for the first time last year in calling the Final Four for CBS, and the results have been tremendous. Eagle has always been well liked, and his finally getting a lead announcing gig at a major network has been a feel-good story. The fact that he has so much built-in chemistry with both Raftery and Hill from prior NBA work certainly helps the booth soar.
If you want to look back on the journey to this point, you can check out all the voting results from the Round of 32, Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final 4.
But now there are just two. Either the popular NFL on Fox tandem of Joe Davis and Greg Olsen or the beloved CBS March Madness team of Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, and Grant Hill will be named the best broadcast booth in sports.
Championship Final
Joe Davis, Greg Olsen (Fox NFL) vs Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill (CBS MBB)
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