College Football on NBC Sports

College Football on NBC Sports
Also known as	College Football on USA Network College Football on Peacock
Genre	College football telecasts
Presented by	See List of College Football on NBCSN commentators
Theme music composer	John Colby
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	16
No. of episodes	188 (as of September 18, 2021)
Production
Production locations	Various NCAA stadiums
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	210 minutes or until game ends (inc. adverts)
Production companies	National Collegiate Athletic Association NBC Sports
Release
Original network	USA Network Peacock NBC Universo via Telemundo Deportes (Spanish simulcasts of select games)
Original release	September 16, 2006 (2006-09-16) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Notre Dame Football on NBC
External links
Website

College Football on NBC Sports is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I and Division I FBS college football games produced by NBC Sports and televised on NBCSN, Peacock, CNBC, and USA Network in the United States.

History[]

Versus (2006–2011)[]

As Versus, the channel had approached the National Football League (NFL) about carrying select games during league negotiations for broadcasting contracts following the 2005 NFL season. The channel was rebuffed for a deal, with the league deciding instead to give a portion of the cable television game rights to its own NFL Network.

Versus approached the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for a deal to broadcast college football games, and was awarded a contract to broadcast games from the Mountain West Conference (MW) in a joint deal between the channel's owner Comcast and College Sports Television, which also led to the creation of the MountainWest Sports Network. For its inaugural season of college football broadcasts in 2006, Gary Bender or Bob Papa served as the play-by-play announcer, with Glenn Parker as the analyst and Argy Stathapulos as the sideline reporter for Mountain West football game coverage.

On June 6, 2007, Versus agreed to a multi-year deal with Fox Sports Net to sub-license up to ten college football games annually from the Pac-10 and Big 12 Conferences, taking the cable rights for both conferences from TBS. The Big 12 sub-licensing deal concluded in 2010, at the same time that Versus increased the number of Pac-10 games sub-licensed from Fox Sports Net to seven per season.

In 2008, Versus announced a contract with the Ivy League to broadcast at least three games each year beginning with the 2008 season, culminating in the annual Harvard–Yale game. The initial two-year contract was later renewed in 2010.^[1]

After the 2010 season, the Pac-10 announced a realignment in which it would acquire two teams from the Mountain West Conference (renaming itself the Pac-12 Conference). With addition of rights to one to two extra games to broadcast each week, Fox Sports decided to move some of the Pac-12 games to FX, while Versus would continue holding rights to seven games each season.^[2] This lasted until 2012, when the channel lost the conference's games to the newly launched Pac-12 Networks.

NBC Sports Regional Networks (2007–2016)[]

Between 2007 and 2016, NBC Sports produced and distributed a Colonial Athletic Conference football game to the NBC Sports Regional Networks on select weeks. (Usually weeks when games were not picked up by NBCSN) These games were produced by NBC Sports but did not air on Versus, NBCSN or the USA Network.

During the 2014 college football season a select number of Ivy League football games were also distributed to NBC Sports Regional Networks instead of airing on NBCSN.

NBC Sports Network (2011–2021), CNBC (Harvard-Yale only, 2016-2017)[]

To fill the hole created by the loss of Pac-12 football rights, for 2012, the renamed NBC Sports Network^[3] by signing a contract to broadcast at least five games per year from the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).^[4] The channel announced that it would renew its contract with the Ivy League for two additional seasons, upping the number of broadcasts to six to ten games each season (from three to five games annually); the Harvard-Yale game remained one of the broadcasts NBCSN was guaranteed to air.^[5] The channel also increased the number of annual Mountain West Conference football broadcasts by two. In 2016 and 2017 the annual Harvard-Yale game aired on CNBC instead of NBCSN.

In 2013, NBCSN lost its share of MW rights to ESPN, which had aired a limited schedule of games from the conference in 2012. It also lost the rights to the Atlanta Football Classic to the ESPN networks; the opponents of that game changed from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (which has no unified broadcast agreement) to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (which already had a deal with ESPN) beginning that year.

On April 9, 2013, NBC Sports renewed its broadcasting contract with Notre Dame for ten years through the 2025 season.^[6] As part of the contract, NBCSN acquired the rights to broadcast select home games featuring the team.^[7][8]

In 2014, NBCSN lost a portion of the CAA rights to the American Sports Network, an upstart sports syndication service launched that year by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.^[9] NBCSN also initially declined to renew its television deal with the Ivy League, which would have left that league without a television broadcaster for the 2014 season; the channel's increased emphasis on Premier League soccer matches reduced the number of opportunities for the network to carry college football on Saturday afternoons. However, NBCSN reversed its decision and added select Ivy League games beginning in late October 2014 in a joint agreement with Fox College Sports. NBCSN lost Ivy League rights after the 2017 season as the conference signed an agreement with ESPN the following year, with most games being moved to subscription service ESPN+.

In 2015, NBCSN gained the rights to carry at least one Notre Dame football game on NBCSN in addition to the spring game. They also became the new television home of the Bayou Classic between Grambling State and Southern.

USA Network and Peacock (2020–present)[]

For the first time, during the 2020 College Football season, two Notre Dame home football games aired on the USA Network.

On January 22, 2021, NBC Sports announced that NBCSN would be shutting down at the end of 2021. The Bayou Classic is expected to be moved to the USA Network. For the 2021 season, Notre Dame's home opener was aired exclusively on NBC's over-the-top streaming service Peacock instead of NBC, NBCSN or USA Network.^[10]

Announcers[]

Schedules[]

2000s[]

2006 schedule[]

2007 schedule[]

2008 schedule[]

2009 schedule[]

2010s[]

2010 schedule[]

2011 schedule[]

2012 schedule[]

2013 schedule[]

2014 schedule[]

2015 schedule[]

2016 schedule[]

2017 schedule[]

2018 schedule[]

2019 schedule[]

2020s[]

2020 schedule[]

*Game moved to USA network during game due to speech by President-Elect Joe Biden[25]
**Bayou Classic moved to spring 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic[26]

2021 schedule[]

2022 schedule[]

See also[]

• College football on television

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• College Football Live Stream