FROM KEITH GROLLER
CBS Sports Network Acquires Rights to Athletic American Conference Football and Basketball
With its split this year from the Big East, the new American Athletic Conference has a new TV right home with the CBS Sports Network through a sub-licensing deal with ESPN.
The deal, which begins with the 2013-14 college basketball season and continues through 2019-20, calls for 30 men’s basketball games per year, except for the first year, which calls for 25 games. CBS Sports Network also will telecast a minimum of 13, and maximum of 15 football games beginning with the 2014 season.
“We are pleased and excited about this ESPN-CBS agreement, which provides our member institutions unprecedented national exposure on the industry leaders in college sports,” said American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco. “CBS Sports Network is another outstanding national platform for our schools, and we thank ESPN for its role in making this agreement possible. We look forward to giving our fans the best seat in the house as we compete on the biggest stage in college sports in this, our inaugural season as the American, and for many years to come.”
“This deal adds high quality college football and basketball games to CBS Sports Network’s already extensive line-up of live event programming,” said David Berson, President, CBS Sports. “We’re proud to extend our relationship with the American Athletic Conference and look forward to showcasing exciting action on CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network beginning this season.”
Waddle Joins ESPN Radio as NFL Analyst
ESPN Radio announced that it has hired Chicago-based talk radio host Tom Waddle to a multi-year agreement to provide analysis during the national Football Sunday on ESPN Radio program, beginning September 8 at 1 p.m.
The former Bears wide receiver will also appear on Sunday editions of SportsCenter and on ESPN2’s Cowherd on Football (9 a.m.), the new hour-long program focusing on both college and pro football discussion and commentary with host Colin Cowherd.
Waddle will continue his hosting duties on ESPN Radio Chicago.
CBS Sports Network Unveils Cast for NFL Pre-Game Show
CBS Sports today provided more details to its plan to produce a NFL pre-game show on the CBS Sports Network.
The program, entitled That Other Pregame Show, will debut at 9:00am ET on September 8th.
Adam Schein will host with analysis from former NFL player Bart Scott, long-time Oakland Raiders executive Amy Trask, CBS Sports Radio’s Brandon Tierney, CBSSports.com fantasy analyst Nathan Zegura and Lead Off’s Allie LaForce reporting.
Contributions will also be made from the cast of CBS’ NFL Today; Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe and Bill Cowher, as well as host James Brown and Insider Jason La Canfora. CBS Sports’ NFL on CBS announcers will appear regularly from their game sites including Phil Simms, Dan Fouts, Dan Dierdorf, Rich Gannon, Solomon Wilcots, Steve Tasker and Steve Beuerlein.
The show will incorporate social media interaction with the last hour of the show centered on Fantasy Football picks as fans set their line-ups each week.
“In today’s television landscape, there is certainly room for another pregame show if that show offers a unique approach and perspective,” said Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports. “That Other Pregame Show will accomplish that, as we combine all the assets of CBS Sports including CBS Sports Radio and CBSSports.com, creating a show focusing on the fans and how they consume football.”
ESPN.com Assigns Beat Writers to Each NFL Team
ESPN.com has announced that it now will have beat coverage for every team in the NFL as part of its expansion of its NFL Nation Network.
Each of the 32 NFL Nation reporters will contribute multiple daily reports – including news, commentary, analysis, audio and video. In addition to their work on ESPN.com, NFL Nation reporters will contribute to other ESPN platforms, includingNFL Live, NFL Insiders, SportsCenter and other television shows, ESPN Radio national and local affiliate programs, ESPN Audio podcasts, ESPN The Magazine and more.
Here is the list of reporters or each NFL team:
ESPN.com NFL Nation reporters (and previous affiliation):
Baltimore Ravens: Jamison Hensley (ESPN AFC North blogger)
Buffalo Bills: Mike Rodak (ESPN Boston)
Carolina Panthers: David Newton (ESPN NASCAR writer) *
Chicago Bears: Michael C. Wright (ESPN Chicago)
Cincinnati Bengals: Coley Harvey (Orlando Sentinel)
Dallas Cowboys: Todd Archer (ESPN Dallas)
Denver Broncos: Jeff Legwold (Denver Post)
Green Bay Packers: Rob Demovsky (Green Bay Press Gazette)
Houston Texans: Tania Ganguli (Houston Chronicle)
Indianapolis Colts: Mike Wells (Indianapolis Star)
Miami Dolphins: James Walker (ESPN AFC East blogger)
Minnesota Vikings: Ben Goessling (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
New England Patriots: Mike Reiss (ESPN Boston)
New York Giants: Dan Graziano (ESPN NFC East blogger)
New York Jets: Rich Cimini (ESPN New York)
Oakland Raiders: Paul Gutierrez (CSNBayArea.com)
Philadelphia Eagles: Phil Sheridan (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Pittsburgh Steelers: Scott Brown (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
St. Louis Rams: Nick Wagoner (StLouisRams.com)
San Francisco 49ers: Bill Williamson (ESPN AFC West blogger)
Seattle Seahawks: Terry Blount (ESPN NASCAR writer) *
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Pat Yasinskas (ESPN NFC South blogger)
Tennessee Titans: Paul Kuharsky (ESPN AFC South blogger)
Washington Redskins: John Keim (Washington Examiner and Washington Post)
New roles have also been created for two current NFL Nation bloggers:
Mike Sando (NFC West blogger): ESPN Insider NFL columnist
Kevin Seifert (NFC North blogger): NFL Nation national writer
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