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College football games have been broadcast since 1939 . The introduction of Sports-specific Television Networks has increased the amount of air-time available for coverage. Today, dozens of games are available for viewing each week of the football season. Other coverage includes local broadcasts of weekly coach's programs. These programs have become an important sources of revenue for the universities and their athletics programs. Televising the games allows Alumni to follow their Alma Mater 's team, as well as competing schools and top-ranked schools nationally. Not all games are televised. Coverage is dependent on negotiations between the broadcaster and the college football conference or team. In general, major programs will be televised more often than smaller programs. The televised games may change from year-to-year depending on which teams are having a strong season, although some traditional Rivalry games are broadcast each year. Major match-ups between top-ranked teams or major rivals are often broadcast nationally. Some games are traditionally associated with a specific event or holiday, and viewing the game itself can become a holiday tradition for fans. Post-season Bowl Game s, including the Bowl Championship Series , are presently all televised. HISTORY The first televised College Football game occurred during the "experimental" era of Television's Broadcasting History , when a game between Fordham University and Waynesburg College was broadcast on September 30 , 1939 . One month later, on October 23 , 1939 , Kansas State 's Homecoming contest against the University Of Nebraska was the second to be broadcast. The following season, on October 5 , 1940 , what is described as the "first commercially televised game" between the University Of Maryland and the University Of Pennsylvania was broadcast by Philco . Fairly sporadic broadcasts continued throughout World War II . By 1950 , a small number of prominent football schools, including the University Of Pennsylvania ( ABC ) and the University Of Notre Dame ( DuMont Television Network ) had entered into individual contracts with networks to broadcast their games. In fact, all of Penn's home games were broadcast regionally on ABC during the 1950 season under a contract that paid Penn $150,000. However, prior to the 1951 season, the NCAA – alarmed by reports that indicated television decreased attendance at games – asserted control and prohibited live broadcasts of games. Although the NCAA successfully forced Penn and Notre Dame to break their contracts, the NCAA suffered withering attacks for its 1951 policy, faced threats of Antitrust hearings and eventually caved in and lifted blackouts of certain sold-out games. For the 1952 season, the NCAA relented somewhat, but limited telecasts to ''one'' nationally-broadcast game each week. The NCAA sold the exclusive rights to broadcast the weekly game to NBC for $1,144,000. The first game shown under this contract was Texas Christian University against the University Of Kansas , on September 20 , 1952 . The NCAA believed that broadcasting one game a week would prevent further controversy while limiting any decrease in attendance. However, the Big Ten Conference was unhappy with the arrangement, and it pressured the NCAA to allow regional telecasts as well. Finally, in 1955 the NCAA revised its plan, keeping eight national games while permitting regional telecasts during five specified weeks of the season. This was essentially the television plan that stayed in place until the University Of Oklahoma and the University Of Georgia filed suit against the NCAA in 1981 , alleging Antitrust violations. Decentralization On June 27 , 1984 , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in '' NCAA V. Board Of Regents Of University Of Oklahoma '' that the NCAA's television plan violated the Sherman Antitrust Act . As a result, individual schools and athletic conferences were freed to negotiate contracts on their own behalf. Together with the growth of Cable Television , this ruling resulted in the explosion of broadcast options currently available. However, in the immediate wake of the ruling, most schools still decided to jointly negotiate their television contracts through the now-defunct College Football Association . When Notre Dame left the CFA to sign an exclusive deal with NBC in 1991 , it shocked the college football world and marked the true beginning of the modern era. By 1995 , the CFA had fallen apart completely. One of the most significant side-effects of the changes in television policy since 1984 has been the sharp decrease in Independent Schools and realignment of Athletic Conferences , as schools sought to pool and increase their bargaining power. Television has also driven the trend of universities (generally Mid-major s) playing football on weekdays rather than the traditional Saturdays, in order to have their games broadcast. Notably, each college playing a football game is allowed to run a Commercial for their school during the halftime break, as is the teams' conference(s). BROADCAST RIGHTS Networks ABC has been airing college football games for the longest continuous time, since acquiring the NCAA contract in 1966 . Keith Jackson , its best-known college football play-by-play man, announced games from 1967 - 2005 , and was considered by many to be "the voice of college football." The network has contracts with most of the major BCS conferences, which leads it to broadcast most of its games regionally. ABC began airing a weekly Saturday night primetime Football Game in the fall of 2006, when the network's sports division converted to ESPN On ABC . Nearly all ABC games that air on a given Saturday are also available as part of a pay-per-view package called '' ESPN GamePlan ''. NBC has an exclusive contract with Notre Dame , which began in 1991 . Since that time, NBC has carried nationally all of Notre Dame's home games, paying $9 million per season for broadcast rights. Even in down years, Notre Dame's ratings remain consonant with that of teams from major conferences, reflecting the team's appeal. CBS has historically aired fewer college games than the other networks, but it broadcast some important games in the 1980s, such as the classic Boston College - Miami game that ended with Doug Flutie 's Hail Mary on November 23 , 1984 . The network aired Big East games from 1996 - 2000 , and since 1996 has broadcast SEC games. CBS currently holds the right for the first pick for any game where a SEC team is at home, along with the rights to televise the SEC Championship game. In addition, some regional syndicators broadcast games on over the air television. Most notably, Lincoln Financial Media , Raycom Sports , and ESPN Plus syndicate their games to broadcast stations. Cable stations TBS became the first cable station to nationally broadcast college football when it began airing games during the 1982 season. The games were aired under a special "supplemental" television contract with the NCAA.1 ESPN followed later the same year, broadcasting the Independence Bowl matchup between Kansas State and the University Of Wisconsin-Madison on December 11 , 1982 . After subsequently leaving the field for several years, TBS began broadcasting college football again in 2002, showing Big 12 and Pac-10 matchups sublicensed from FSN. TBS stopped broadcasting college football after the 2006 season when they purchased the rights to Major League Baseball postseason games. For 2007, FSN has sublicensed 5 Big 12 games to ESPN, as well as 5 Big 12 and 5 PAC-10 games to VERSUS. ESPN has been airing regular season games since 1984 , ESPN2 since 1994 , ESPNU since 2005 , and to a lesser extent ESPN Classic will show a few games per season. ABC gets first choice of games over the ESPN networks, however, because ABC and ESPN are owned by The Same Company . Many marquee games will still air on ESPN so they can air in primetime. Regional cable networks have long devoted coverage to one or two conferences. The Pac-10 and Big 12 have had deals with Fox Sports Net since 1996, which airs games on its regional family of networks. Recently, the Mountain West Conference entered into an arrangement with College Sports Television to develop a new regional network called " The Mountain " or "mtn" that will be devoted to broadcasting the league's games.2 The Big Ten and SEC are currently developing similar regional networks, with the Big Ten Network set to premier in August 2007. Current lineup ''By home team''
TELEVISED GAMES Annual televised games Some games are traditionally played on a specific date (often a holiday), and are televised every single year. These include:
See Also: College rivalry Bowl games The Bowl Championship Series , which began in 1998, was driven from the start by television revenue. Starting in 2007, the Fox Broadcasting Company will broadcast all the BCS games with the exception of the Rose Bowl . ABC previously aired two full cycles of the BCS between 1998 and 2006. Before this, CBS aired the Bowl Coalition and the Bowl Alliance , with the exception of the Sugar Bowl from 1995-1997. The Rose Bowl has aired on ABC since 1989. ANNOUNCERS Current lineup (for 2007) ;ESPN on ABC # Brent Musburger , Kirk Herbstreit , and Lisa Salters # Brad Nessler , Bob Griese , Paul Maguire , and Bonnie Bernstein # Ron Franklin , Ed Cunningham , and Jack Arute # Dan Fouts , Tim Brant , and Todd Harris # Terry Gannon or Bob Wischusen , David Norrie , and Jeanine Edwards ;CBS # Verne Lundquist , Gary Danielson , and Tracy Wolfson # Craig Bolerjack and Steve Beuerlein ;FOX (2006) # Thom Brennaman , Barry Alvarez , Charles Davis , and Chris Myers # Matt Vasgersian , Terry Donahue , Pat Haden , and Laura Okmin # Kenny Albert , Terry Bradshaw , Howie Long , and Jeanne Zelasko # Pat Summerall , Brian Baldinger , and Krista Voda ;NBC # Bob Papa , Pat Haden , and Alex Flanagan ;ESPN/ESPN2 # Mike Patrick , Todd Blackledge , and Holly Rowe # Chris Fowler , Doug Flutie , Craig James , and Erin Andrews # Mark Jones , Bob Davie , and Stacey Dales # Dave Pasch , Andre Ware , and Erin Andrews # Sean McDonough , Chris Spielman , and Rob Stone # Pam Ward , Ray Bentley , and Quint Kessenich # Rece Davis , Mark May , Lou Holtz , and Rob Stone or Todd Harris # Eric Collins and Bill Curry # Dave LaMont , James Hasty or Rod Gilmore , and Rob Stone ;FSN # Joel Meyers , Dave Lapham , and Jim Knox # Barry Tompkins , Petros Papadakis , and Jim Watson # Bill Land , Gary Reasons , and Emily Jones # Matt Devlin , Warren Moon , and Michael Eaves ;Versus # Ron Thulin or Ted Robinson , Kelly Stouffer , and Lewis Johnson or Krista Blunk # Joe Beninati , Glenn Parker , and Tim Neverett ;NFL Network (2006) # Derrin Horton , Dick Vermeil , and Alex Flanagan # Spero Dedes , Mike Mayock , and Sterling Sharpe ; ESPNU # Dave Armstrong and Mike Gottfried # Doug Bell and Charles Arbuckle # Clay Matvick and Larry Coker # Charlie Neal and Jay Walker # Mike Gleason and John Congemi # Beth Mowins and David Diaz-Infante ;CSTV # Tom Hart and Trev Alberts # Carter Blackburn and Brian Jones # Jonathan Coachman and Roland Williams # Pete Medhurst and Scott Zolak ; Big Ten Network # Thom Brennaman and Charles Davis # Wayne Larrivee and Chris Martin # Mark Neely and Glen Mason # Roger Twibell and Mike Tomczak # Jim Kelly and Richard Baldinger # Scott Graham and Derrick Walker # Ron Thulin and Butler By'not'e See Also: List of announcers of major bowl games Famous calls or catchphrases
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