College Football on TBS

College Football on TBS was the American presentation of the TBS cable channel's regular season college football television package.

College Football on TBS
Also known as	TBS Sports NCAA Football TBS Sports SEC Football Big PlayStation Saturday TBS Saturday Night College Football
Genre	College football telecasts
Starring	See list of commentators
Theme music composer	Edd Kalehoff
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	180 minutes or until game ended
Production companies	Turner Sports Fox Sports Net (2002–2006)
Release
Original network	TBS
Picture format	Color
Original release	September 2, 1982 (1982-09-02) – November 4, 2006 (2006-11-04)

History

Initial coverage

TBS became the first cable station to nationally broadcast college football live when it began airing games during the 1982 season.^[1][2] The games were aired under a special "supplemental" television contract with the NCAA.^[3][4] 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.^[5] 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^[6] and Pepper Rodgers^[7] anchored the pregame show for WTBS.

By 1984, WTBS started (primarily) carrying SEC^[8] games. On June 8 of that year, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that allowed individual schools to control their own TV rights. That began the conference syndication packages in earnest and to the glut of games that continues to this day. TBS' coverage from this era was essentially the forerunner to the ESPN's Thursday/Saturday night packages.

2002–2006 coverage

TBS dropped college football after the 1992 season and left the field for several years. However, it again broadcast college football games from 2002–2006,^[9] showing Big 12 and Pac-10^[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 PlayStation Saturday,^{[11][12][13][14]} 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^[15] 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.^[16]

TBS would also use the NFL on TNT theme c. 1997^[17] (dubbed "Warrior Dance"^[18] and composed by Edd Kalehoff) 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.

1980s

1982

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference
Sept. 2 (Thurs.)	UNLV	0	BYU	27	Pacific Coast
Sept. 4	Texas A&M	16	Boston College	38	SWC
Sept. 11	SMU	51	Tulane	7	SWC
Sept. 19	Tulsa	25	Oklahoma State	15	Missouri Valley
Sept. 25	Indiana	17	Syracuse	10	Big Ten
Oct. 2	TCU	0	Arkansas	35	SWC
Oct. 9	Virginia	0	Clemson	48	ACC
Oct. 16	Oregon State	17	Washington	34	Pac-10
Oct. 23	Kansas State	36	Kansas	7	Big Eight
Oct. 30	San Diego St.	21	Utah	17	WAC
Nov. 6	Mississippi	45	Tulane	14	SEC
Nov. 13	Florida State	49	Louisville	14	Independent

November 25 Virginia @ Virginia Tech Additional Thursday game West Virginia vs. Rutgers (at Giants Stadium)

1983

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference
Oct. 8	Tennessee	20	LSU	6	SEC
Oct. 29^[19]	South Carolina	31	NC State	17	Independent
Nov. 5	Vanderbilt	8	Kentucky	17	SEC
Nov. 12^[20]	Tennessee	10	Ole Miss	13	SEC
Nov. 24^[21]	Tulane	7	LSU	20	Independent

There was no football telecast on September 24 as Notre Dame was playing against Miami in prime time on CBS. There also was no football telecast on November 26 as TBS instead, aired a Louisville-Kentucky basketball game with Skip Caray and Joe Dean on the call.

December 3 Air Force @ San Diego State Additional Games: Hawaii @ New Mexico West Virginia @ Maryland

1984 (SEC Full Package begins)

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference	Notes
Sept. 8	Florida	21	LSU	21	SEC
Sept. 15	Georgia Tech	16	Alabama	6	ACC
Sept. 22	Tulane	26	Kentucky	30	Independent
Sept. 29	Auburn	29	Tennessee	10	SEC
Oct. 13	Georgia	18	Ole Miss	12	SEC
Oct. 20	Georgia	62	Vanderbilt	35	SEC
Oct. 27	Kentucky	7	Georgia	37	SEC
Nov. 10	Florida	27	Georgia	0	SEC	Game played in Jacksonville, Florida
Nov. 17	Kentucky	17	Florida	25	SEC
Nov. 24	Mississippi State	3	Ole Miss	24	SEC
Dec. 1	Vanderbilt	13	Tennessee	29	SEC

1985

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference
Sept. 14	Georgia	17	Baylor	14	SEC
Sept. 21	Florida State	19	Memphis State	10	Independent
Sept. 28	Vanderbilt	20	Alabama	40	SEC
Oct. 12	Auburn	59	Florida State	26	SEC
Oct. 19	Alabama	14	Tennessee	16	SEC
Oct. 26	Georgia	26	Kentucky	6	SEC
Nov. 2	Ole Miss	0	LSU	14	SEC
Nov. 9	Vanderbilt	31	Kentucky	24	SEC
Nov. 16	Tennessee	34	Ole Miss	14	SEC
Nov. 23	Kentucky	0	Tennessee	42	SEC
Nov. 30	Tennessee	30	Vanderbilt	0	SEC
	Georgia Tech	20	Georgia	16	ACC

Other games in 1985 August 31 Noon ET Florida State @ Tulane, 7:30 ET Washington State @ Oregon

September 28 7:30 ET Boston College @ Army

Oklahoma State @ Washington

September 21 7:30 ET Oklahoma @ Minnesota

1986

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference
Sept. 6	Alabama	42	Vanderbilt	10	SEC
Sept. 13	Tennessee	23	Mississippi State	27	SEC
Sept. 20	Florida State	10	North Carolina	10	Independent
Sept. 27	Michigan	20	Florida State	16	Big Ten
Oct. 4	Georgia	14	Ole Miss	10	SEC
Oct. 18	Georgia	38	Vanderbilt	16	SEC
Oct. 25	Georgia Tech	14	Tennessee	13	ACC
Nov. 1	Mississippi State	3	Alabama	38	SEC
Nov. 8	Kentucky	34	Vanderbilt	22	SEC
Nov. 15	Ole Miss	10	Tennessee	22	SEC
Nov. 22	Ole Miss	24	Mississippi State	3	SEC
Nov. 29	Georgia	31	Georgia Tech	24	SEC

Other Games Illinois @ Nebraska Michigan State @ Arizona State Ohio State @ Purdue Notre Dame @ Navy (in Baltimore) Iowa @ Minnesota

1987

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference	Notes
Sept 5	Miami	31	Florida	4	Independent
Sept 12	Mississippi State	10	Tennessee	38	SEC
Sept 19	Alabama	14	Florida	23	SEC	at Birmingham
Sept 26	Tennessee	20	Auburn	20	SEC
Oct 3	Tennessee	38	California	12	SEC
Oct 17	LSU	34	Kentucky	9	SEC	first telecast from LSU's Tiger Stadium
Oct 24^[22]	Georgia	17	Kentucky	14	SEC
Oct 31	Vanderbilt	27	Rutgers	13	SEC
Nov 7	Georgia	23	Florida	10	SEC	at Jacksonville, Florida
Nov 14	Florida	27	Kentucky	14	SEC

1988

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference	Notes
Sept 10	Auburn	20	Kentucky	10	SEC
Sept 17	Tennessee	9	LSU	34	SEC
Sept 24	South Carolina	23	Georgia	10	Independent
Oct 1	Kentucky	27	Alabama	31	SEC
Oct 8^[23]	Alabama	12	Ole Miss	22	SEC
Oct 15	Vanderbilt	24	Florida	9	SEC
Oct 22	Kentucky	16	Georgia	10	SEC
Oct 29	LSU	31	Ole Miss	20	SEC
Nov 5	Georgia	26	Florida	3	SEC	Game played in Jacksonville, Florida
Nov 12	Mississippi State	3	LSU	20	SEC
Nov 26	Georgia	24	Georgia Tech	3	SEC

1989

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference	Notes
Sept 2	Florida State	26	Southern Miss	30	Independent	Game played in Jacksonville, Florida
	Florida	19	Ole Miss	24	SEC
Sept 16	Georgia	15	Baylor	3	SEC
Sept 23	Alabama	15	Kentucky	3	SEC
Sept 30^[24]	Vanderbilt	14	Alabama	20	SEC
Oct 14	Vanderbilt	16	Georgia	35	SEC
Oct 28^[25]	LSU	39	Tennessee	45	SEC
Nov 4	Alabama	23	Mississippi State	10	SEC
Nov 11	Florida	10	Georgia	17	SEC	Game played in Jacksonville, Florida
Nov 18	Georgia	3	Auburn	20	SEC
Dec 2^[26]	Tennessee	17	Vanderbilt	10	SEC

1990s

1990

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference	Notes
Sept 8	Mississippi State	7	Tennessee	40	SEC
Sept 15	Alabama	13	Florida	17	SEC
Sept 22	Vanderbilt	24	LSU	21	SEC
Sept 29	Florida	34	Mississippi State	21	SEC
Oct 13^[27]	Georgia	12	Ole Miss	28	SEC
Oct 27	Florida State	27	LSU	3	Independent
Nov 3	Mississippi State	0	Alabama	22	SEC
Nov 10	Florida	38	Georgia	7	SEC	Game played in Jacksonville, Florida
Nov 17	Kentucky	15	Florida	47	SEC
Nov 24	Tennessee	42	Kentucky	28	SEC
Dec 1	Georgia	23	Georgia Tech	40	SEC

1991

Date	Home Team		Away Team		Host Conference	Notes
Sept 7	Mississippi State	13	Texas	6	SEC
Sept 14	Tennessee	30	UCLA	16	SEC
Sept 21	Tennessee	26	Mississippi State	24	SEC
Sept 28	Florida	29	Mississippi State	7	SEC	Played at Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida
Oct 5	Auburn	9	Southern Miss	10	SEC
Oct 19	Kentucky	26	LSU	29	SEC
Oct 26	Georgia	49	Kentucky	25	SEC
Nov 2	Alabama	13	Mississippi State	7	SEC
Nov 16	Georgia	37	Auburn	27	SEC
Nov 23	Tennessee	16	Kentucky	7	SEC

2000s

2004

Date	Game	Kickoff Time (Eastern Time)	Host Conference
Saturday, Sept 11	Houston at Oklahoma	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Sept 18	Clemson at Texas A&M	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Sept 25	USC at Stanford	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 2	Kansas State at Texas A&M	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
	Arizona State at Oregon	9:15 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 9	Nebraska at Texas Tech	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Oct 16	UCLA at California	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 23	Texas at Texas Tech	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Oct 30	Arizona State at California	9:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Nov 6^[28]	Oklahoma State at Texas	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Nov 13	Washington State at Arizona State	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10

2005

Date	Game	Kickoff Time (Eastern Time)	Host Conference
Saturday, Sept 3	Colorado State at Colorado	2:30 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Sept 10	Wake Forest at Nebraska	6:00 pm.	Big 12
Saturday, Sept 17	Fresno State at Oregon	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Sept 24	Arizona State at Oregon State	9:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 1	Arizona at California	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 8	Texas Tech at Nebraska	3:00 p.m.	Big 12
	California at UCLA	6:30 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 15	Oklahoma at Kansas	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Oct 22	Oregon State at UCLA	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 28^[29]	Texas at Oklahoma State	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Nov 6	Stanford at USC	9:00 p.m.	Pac-10

2006

Date	Game	Kickoff Time (Eastern Time)	Host Conference
Saturday, Sept 2	UAB at Oklahoma	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
	BYU at Arizona	9:15 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Sept 9	Minnesota at California	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Sept 16	Arizona State at Colorado	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Sept 23	UCLA at Washington	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Sept 30	USC at Washington State	6:00 p.m.	Pac-10
Saturday, Oct 7	Missouri at Texas Tech	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Oct 14	Baylor at Texas	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, Oct 28	Texas at Texas Tech	6:00 p.m.	Big 12
Saturday, November 4	Washington at Oregon	2:30 p.m.	Pac-10
	Oklahoma State at Texas	6:00 p.m.	Big 12

Commentators

Play-by-play

• Gary Bender
• Chip Caray
• Skip Caray
• Kevin Harlan
• Verne Lundquist
• Bob Neal
• Lindsey Nelson
• Ron Thulin^[30]
• 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^[31]
• Archie Griffin
• Pat Haden
• Paul Hornung
• Tim Foley
• Mark May
• Alan Page
• Tom Ransey
• Dave Rowe
• Sam Wyche

Sideline reporters

• Erin Andrews^[32] – She worked as a studio host for Turner Sports from 2002–04, covering the Atlanta Braves and college football for TBS and Atlanta Thrashers and Atlanta Hawks for Turner South.
• Marc Fein
• Craig Sager^[33] – 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, Alabama, and the 1998 and 2000 Micron PC Bowl, formerly known as the Carquest Bowl.^[34]

Studio hosts

• Kevin Christopher^[35]
• Marc Fein^[36]
• Ernie Johnson, Jr.^[37]
• Craig Sager^[38]

Studio analysts

• Brian Bosworth^[39]
• 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

1. WTBS, Ted Turner's superstation, also has carried college football this year for the first time. But WTBS isn't as polished as ABC or CBS and never had a chance to make our TV Bowl.
2. The NCAA said O.K., but the other college football broadcasters—WTBS, Ted Turner's SuperStation, and ABC—wouldn't allow CBS to broadcast extra games without extracting several pounds of teleflesh. Turner wasn't even disposed to let CBS move a Division I-A game from Saturday to Sunday without the network making what it considered unreasonable concessions. For example, he wanted CBS to promise not to schedule college telecasts opposite the proposed NFL Players Association All-Star games, the rights to which he owns.
3. "Turner Cable TV Gets N.C.A.A. Football Pact". The New York Times. January 28, 1982. Retrieved 2006-09-06.
4. College Football has aired frequently on TBS throughout the years. Here's a nice Quantel-made promo for a matchup between West Virginia and Maryland.
5. Next month the College Football Association (CFA) will award its Saturday night cable TV rights for '85. "We're going to take a serious swing at it," says Turner. Last year ESPN paid $9.3 million for the CFA. This year, only Turner may know where the bidding will stop. ESPN has to be uneasy. Says its president, Bill Grimes, "Turner was our competitor last time, on the USFL. Since we edged him out for it, I'm sure he'll be more motivated than last time."
6. And oh, yes, there's a third winner of sorts, Paul Hornung, co-host of the Saturday studio show on WTBS, the Turner superstation (see box). When the NCAA controlled TV, it kept Hornung off college games because of his NFL suspension for gambling and his closer identification with the pro game.
7. OUR FIRST ANNUAL SHAME-ON-YOU AWARD—To WTBS-TV, Ted Turner's superstation, for allowing the NCAA to have veto power over its football announcers. TBS had to get rid of Pepper Rodgers and Paul Hornung when the censors from Shawnee Mission, Kans., found them unsavory.
8. You have your choice of either another CFA game on ESPN or an SEC matchup on WTBS, the Ted Turner superstation.
9. TBS dropping Big XII football games
10. TBS College Football TV Spot on YouTube
11. September 2003 - TBS College Football Promo on YouTube
12. 2003 Oklahoma vs Colorado on YouTube
13. 2003 Oklahoma vs Iowa State on YouTube
14. Texas v Tulane 2003 on YouTube
15. 2005 Oklahoma vs Kansas on YouTube
16. "OSU v Texas Tease". YouTube. 2006-12-15. Retrieved 2012-08-31.^{[dead YouTube link]}
17. NFL on TNT Theme Music (1995-1997) on YouTube
18. NFL on TNT '95 ("Warrior Dance") on YouTube
19. 1983 East Carolina - NC State on YouTube
20. 1983 Tennessee vs Mississippi on YouTube
21. LSU vs TULANE 1983 Football in the Superdome on YouTube
22. 1987 Georgia vs. Kentucky on YouTube
23. 1988 OM 22 v ALA 12, The Brick Bowl on YouTube
24. TBS 1989 Alabama vs Vanderbilt Football Commercial on YouTube
25. 1989 # 11 Tennessee vs LSU on YouTube
26. 1989 # 8 Tennessee vs Vanderbilt on YouTube
27. TBS Sports: SEC Football, Georgia v Ole Miss (circa 1989) on YouTube
28. Texas v Oklahoma State 2004 on YouTube
29. Texas @ Oklahoma State 2005 2nd Half on YouTube
30. . Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
31. Davis will serve as the analyst for TBS' college football coverage of the Pac-10 and Big 12 for the third consecutive year. 2012-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
32. Erin Andrews returns to provide atmosphere pieces from the site that showcase the tradition and pageantry of these two great conferences.
33. For the third consecutive year, he will also report from the sideline for TBS' Pac-10/Big 12 college football coverage. 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
34. . News.turner.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
35. Following a successful seven-year career in New York as a stage actor, television commercial and voice-over artist, Kevin Christopher switched career gears and signed on as the Sports Anchor for Turner Broadcasting's TBS Evening News in the spring of 1980. For the next seven years he was the main studio anchor for Atlanta Braves baseball, Atlanta Hawks basketball, NBA basketball, SEC College football and the Sunday night Coors Sports Page highlight show, as well as a contributor to CNN and Headline News. 2010-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
36. Marc Fein will serve as studio host for TBS’s coverage of Big 12 and PAC-10 college football in 2006. He previously handled sideline reporting duties for the networks’ college football coverage in 2004. 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
37. He also hosted college football games on TBS Superstation for the 2002-03 season, dubbed Big Play Saturday. 2012-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
38. He was a sports anchor for CNN while also serving TBS Sports as the anchor of College Football Scoreboard for four years (1982-85). 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
39. Turner Sports announced today that legendary Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Brian Bosworth will join TBS Superstation's Big PlayStation Saturday this season as a studio analyst for its pre-game, post-game and halftime shows.

External links

• TBS College Football at IMDb