College Football on TBS was the presentation of the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) cable channel's regular season college football television package.
n id="History">History
Initial coverage
TBS became the first cable station to nationally broadcast college football live when it began airing games during the 1982 season. The games were aired under a special "supplemental" television contract with the NCAA. ESPN followed later the same year, starting with a simulcast of the Independence Bowl match-up between Kansas State and the University of Wisconsin on December 11, 1982, which was the first college football game shown live on ESPN.
When TBS (or WTBS as it was officially known at the time) first broadcast college football in 1982, they aired a package of live Division I-AA games on Thursday night and Division I-A games on Saturday. games. WTBS was only able to show teams that had not been on national television in 1981. There were a maximum of four teams that had been on regional television on two occasions. Meanwhile, ABC and CBS had the right to take away a game from WTBS as long as it did so no later than the Monday before the game. Bob Neal and Tim Foley were the booth commentators for WTBS during this period. Meanwhile, Craig Sager, Paul Hornung and Pepper Rodgers anchored the pregame show for WTBS.
By 1984, WTBS started (primarily) carrying SEC games.
2002â€"2006 coverage
TBS dropped college football after the 1992 season and left the field for several years. However, it again broadcast college football games from 2002â€"2006, showing Big 12 and Pac-10 matchups. These were broadcast on the network as part of a sublicensing agreement with Fox Sports Net, who is the national cable partner for both conferences. TBS' coverage was originally known as Big Play Saturday, but this was dropped before the final season. The network aired two games a week for the first four seasons of the contract but dropped to one for some weeks during the final season.
Theme music
Nickelback's (featuring Kid Rock and Dimebag Darrell) 2003 cover of Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" was used as the theme song for TBS' Saturday Night College Football telecasts. In the show's open, the song is accompanied by a drumline and cymbalists, while clips of the two teams playing the night's featured game are interspersed throughout.
TBS would also use the NFL on TNT theme c. 1997 for their Carquest/MicronPC.com Bowl and Senior Bowl coverage and their Saturday Night College Football coverage from 2002-2003.
Games on TBS (Division I-A games only)
Excludes the schedules from the 2002 and 2003 seasons because they could not be found.
1982
1983
1984 (SEC Full Package begins)
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
2004
2005
2006
Commentators
Play-by-play
- Gary Bender
- Chip Caray
- Skip Caray
- Kevin Harlan
- Verne Lundquist
- Bob Neal
- Lindsey Nelson
- Ron Thulin
- Pete van Wieren - After joining TBS Sports in 1975, he covered the Atlanta Flames of the National Hockey League, Big Ten Conference college football games on TBS, the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Falcons NFL pre-season football.
Color commentators
- Trev Alberts
- Charles Davis
- Archie Griffin
- Pat Haden
- Paul Hornung
- Tim Foley
- Mark May
- Alan Page
- Tom Ransey
- Dave Rowe
- Sam Wyche
Sideline reporters
- Erin Andrews - She worked as a studio host for Turner Sports from 2002â€"04, covering the Atlanta Braves and college football for TBS and Atlanta Thrashers and Atlanta Hawks for Turner South.
- Marc Fein
- Craig Sager - Sager reported from the sideline for TBS' Pac-10/Big 12 college football coverage from 2002 to 2006. He also served as the sideline reporter for the 50th annual Delchamps Senior Bowl from Ladd Memorial Stadium in Mobile, AL, and the 1998 and 2000 Micron PC Bowl, formerly known as the Carquest Bowl.
Studio hosts
- Kevin Christopher
- Marc Fein
- Ernie Johnson, Jr.
- Craig Sager
Studio analysts
- Brian Bosworth
- Paul Hornung
- Pepper Rodgers
See also
- List of Champs Sports Bowl broadcasters (1995 (December)-2000)
- List of Gator Bowl broadcasters (1993-1994)
- List of Insight Bowl broadcasters (1989-1991)
- List of Outback Bowl broadcasters (1983-1986)
References
