Ian Eagle is doing a great job. The man is just better, by the way. According to a report earlier this week, the final March Madness will be called by Jim Nantz after 30 years. Next year's Final Four in Houston makes it the perfect place for him to end his run. While he will still be the voice of football on Sundays for CBS and the Masters in Augusta, his days of calling college basketball's crown jewel are ending.
His replacement was mishandled by the network.
This is not a shot at Ian Eagle who will be taking over. Eagle can do NBA, NFL, and college basketball all at the same time. He's doing well. He's not Johnson, it's just that. Fox's top college football call-man gets to do a few college basketball games each season, even though he hasn't called a tournament game since 2011.
CBS and Fox set a precedent earlier this year when they worked out a deal as part of the Big Ten's new seven-year $7 billion media rights deal that also includesNBC.
The person who lost out on the deal is listed on the website.
“The Big Ten designed the agreement to pair major networks with specific windows on college football Saturdays. Fox will air games beginning at noon ET. CBS, which has a deal with the SEC that expires after the 2023 football season, in 2024 will begin airing Big Ten games in the same midafternoon window. NBC will carry Big Ten games in primetime, which will be branded ‘Big Ten Saturday Night.’ Big Ten games also will appear on Peacock, NBC’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform.
“The Big Ten Network will continue to air football games — up to 50 per year from 2024 through 2029 — as well as most of the league’s men’s and women’s basketball games and Olympic sports. The Big Ten will add a second Black Friday football game on CBS (Iowa and Nebraska have traditionally played a Black Friday game on Fox).
“Fox will carry 24-32 football games per season during the agreement, while NBC will carry 14-16 games on its linear network and eight games per year on Peacock. Beginning in 2024, CBS will carry 14-15 Big Ten games per season.”
The new play-by-play man for the NCAA Tournament can be found if rival networks can work together for the sake of money. The NCAA makes 80 percent of its revenue from the tournament, so they should want the excitement that Johnson brings to games as well.
Kevin Burkhardt was chosen by FOX to replace Joe Buck as the network's play-by-play man for the National Football League. It was an example of how the booths have changed. There are 8 white guys and an Italian in this year's NFL lead broadcasting booths.
The broadcast play-by-play callers were the same as before, with one woman and no black people.
There wasn't a lot of diversity in the broadcast booth when Jim Nantz began calling the NCAA Tournament. A white guy is taking the place of a white guy. Doesn't look like it's moving in the right direction
All Rights Reserved © 2024
