It’s been a long and winding road for Ryan Leaf. And now the former Washington State star and San Diego Chargers quarterback, who has been very public about his battles with his personal demons along the way, will have his highest profile broadcasting job yet.
According to Andrew Marchand at The Athletic, Leaf will be named as the lead football analyst for USA Sports covering the Pac-12.
USA will be one of the homes of the new-look Pac-12 this year after the Conference of Champions was resurrected thanks to a number of schools joining Washington State and Oregon State following the exodus of the vast majority of the league to greener pastures.
In their deal struck last fall with USA Sports, the network will air 22 football games, 50 men’s basketball games, and a collection of women’s basketball games as well. The CW also signed an extension with the Pac-12 as a rights partner as well.
This will be the first year of the conference’s new era with Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Texas State, and Utah State joining as full members. Gonzaga will also join for basketball.
The interesting element of Leaf’s deal with USA is that he will also call select basketball games in addition to his football work. The former quarterback starred as a dual sport athlete in his high school days. We’ve never heard Leaf call a basketball game before and rarely ever seen a top analyst work two different sports, so at least from a broadcast experiment angle, it will bear watching.
Ryan Leaf has had a growing broadcast career that has seen him make stops at ESPN, The CW, and Pac-12 Networks. During his time at ESPN, he was arrested for battery charges in 2020 in the latest of a long list of legal troubles. In 2023, he said his criticism of College GameDay cost him his job at the network. However, he was able to get his career back on track at The CW and now has a great opportunity to continue his trajectory forward with USA Sports.
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