Goodbye Fox

Tuesday night's Fed Ex Orange Bowl marked the end of BCS college football games on Fox Sports. They will continue to broadcast another traditional bowl game, the Cotton Bowl, but the college game's elite will move exclusively to the ESPN / ABC family in 2011. The Rose Bowl will continue to be shown on ABC while the other BCS match-ups will be on ESPN.

I give Fox much credit for becoming a player in college football. More exposure over more networks is always good for any sport. They thought outside the box and tried producing games differently from what we are accustomed to. However at the end of the day, college football fans are conditioned to how ESPN portrays the game, and that is how we expect it every Saturday.

Walking onto the Land Shark Stadium field prior to the Hawkeye's battle with Georgia Tech I saw Holly Rowe, typically the sideline reporter on ABC's #2 college broadcast team. She, along with play by play man, Sean McDonough and analyst Matt Millen were handling the duties for ESPN radio. My first comment to her was that I wished she was there to be on television with her broadcast partners. Dick Stockton, Charles Davis, Laura Okmin and Chris Meyers had the call for Fox.

McDonough, Millen and Rowe have been around the college game all season long. Stockton and crew were calling their first college game together ever. They, along with Fox showed their inexperience during the night. Mispronounciations were common, especially that of Iowa head coach, Kirk Ferentz, facts were incorrect, and an introduction by Jimmy Carter seemed very odd and out of place.

Each year over half of the teams that earn BCS bowl games are not regulars to the party. It is unfortunate that a team like Iowa will remember a historic win with a broadcast team out of touch. Fox tries to show the college game in a different perspective than the traditional networks, but for less than five games a year, they risk ridicule for presentation. Beginning next year, the broadcasts will be more like what ESPN has made us believe the game should look like.

(Photo Courtesy, Scott Southmayd)

FOX Sports at Practice

According to the Iowa Football calendar this Wednesday is a Sunday as the team enters into game week. On this final practice before entering the game week preparation the media was allowed into practice, and that includes the FOX Sports announcing team of Dick Stockton, Charles Davis, and Laura Okmin.

Kirk Ferentz takes time prior to practice for the FOX Sports sideline reporter and analysis.

Members of the local print media as well as network affiliates had access to the first two periods of practice.

My Look at Network TV

One of the advantages of my job is the seat I have for every Hawkeye Football game. Not only do I videotape from the top of Kinnick Stadium, but I also have the opportunity to look in on Gary Dolphin and Ed Podolak broadcast over the Hawkeye Radio Network as well as any of the network television announcers. Today's game with Iowa State was broadcast on the Big Ten Network with Thom Brennaman and Charles Davis to a national television audience. On Friday I had the opportunity to meet the talent when they visited the Jacobson Athletic Complex to watch video and interview Iowa's head coach and coordinators. Thom and Charles were willing to talk and discuss all aspects of college football The attached picture shows these guys in their booth within the pressbox, adjacent to our shooting location.