Fox College Football
| Fox College Football | |
|---|---|
Former Fox CFB logo.
|
|
| Also known as | 'CFB on Fox Fox CFB' |
| Genre | College football game telecasts |
| Presented by | Gus Johnson Tim Brando Craig Bolerjack Ryan Nece Joey Harrington Charles Davis Joel Klatt Petros Papadakis Eric Crouch Darius Walker (see section) |
| Theme music composer | Scott Schreer |
| Opening theme | "NFL on Fox theme music" |
| Ending theme | Same as opening theme |
| Composer(s) | Scott Schreer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 15 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 180 minutes or until game ends |
| Production company(s) | Fox Sports |
| Distributor | 20th Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | Fox (1999–present) Fox Sports Networks (1999–present) Fox College Sports (2006–present) Fox Sports 1 (2013–present) FX (2011–2012) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) (downconverted to letterboxed 4:3 on SDTV feed since 2009), 720p (HDTV) |
| Original release | January 1, 1999 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | SEC on CBS |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Fox College Football (or Fox CFB for short) is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football games produced by Fox Sports.
Through its broadcast deal with NCAA, Fox Sports holds the rights to televise games from the Pac-12 Conference, the Big 12 Conference, and Conference USA; these telecasts are televised on broadcast television through the Fox network and on cable via Fox College Sports, the Fox Sports Networks regional channels, FX, FS1 (known as FS1 College Football as of September 2015) and Fox Sports 2.[1]
Contents
Coverage history
The Fox network acquired its first college football telecast in 1998, when it obtained the broadcast rights to the annual Cotton Bowl Classic held each January on (eventually, the day after) New Year's Day; the first game to be shown on the network as part of the deal was held on January 1, 1999. Fox renewed its contract to carry the game in 2010, in a four-year agreement that ran through the 2013 NCAA college football season. Fox lost the rights to the Cotton Bowl to ESPN for the 2015 edition, as the cable network holds the television contract to all six bowl games that encompass the College Football Playoff system under a twelve-year deal worth over $7.3 billion. The Cotton Bowl was the only game among the six that was not already broadcast by ESPN.[2][3]
From the 2006 through the 2009 seasons, Fox held the broadcast rights to most of the games comprising the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) – including the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and the Orange Bowl, as well as the BCS Championship Game. Fox paid close to $20 million per game for the rights to televise the BCS games.[4] The network's contract with the BCS excluded any event in the series that was held at the Rose Bowl stadium, such as the Rose Bowl Game and the 2010 BCS National Championship Game, as ABC already had a separate arrangement with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association to serve as the broadcaster for the games.
ESPN, which is majority owned by ABC's corporate parent The Walt Disney Company and serves as the producer for all of ABC's sports coverage, would displace Fox outright as the broadcaster of the BCS beginning in the 2010-11 season. This left the Fox network with only the Cotton Bowl Classic as the sole college football game to which it held the television rights until the 2011-12 season.[5]
Beginning with the 2011 season, sister cable channel FX began airing a "game of the week" on Saturdays featuring matchups from three of the major collegiate football conferences: the Pac-12, the Big 12 and Conference USA.[6] The Fox network also obtained the rights to air the Big Ten Conference's new championship game beginning that season and running through 2016, as part of Fox Sports' involvement with the Big Ten Network.[7] Additionally, Fox broadcast the inaugural Pac-12 Football Championship Game – future editions of the game would alternate between ESPN and Fox.[8]
Beginning with the 2012 season, Fox added regular season games on Saturdays to its lineup; it broadcast eight afternoon games and twelve nighttime games throughout the season, with the latter telecasts airing as part of a new strategy by the network to carry more sports programming on Saturday nights during prime time.
Fox's coverage of the 2015 season opened with a game on FS1 featuring the Michigan Wolverines at the Utah Utes. As the first game featuring new head coach Jim Harbaugh, the game was heavily promoted through an "Opening Drive" tour, featuring a bus decorated to resemble Harbaugh's on-field wardrobe (the "HarBus"), including a sweater and real khaki fabric, accompanied by a group of "HarBros" dressed in imitation of Harbaugh. The tour concluded at Salt Lake City's Grand America Hotel for game day, although the bus itself was barred from entering the University of Utah's campus.[9][10]
Commentators
The following are weekly regular season college football broadcast teams for the 2015 season on Fox, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports Networks and Fox College Sports (FCS).
| Game | Play-by-play | Analyst | Field analyst/reporter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fox | Gus Johnson | Joel Klatt | Molly McGrath and Chris Myers (Big 10 Championship Game only) |
| Fox or FS1 Saturday | Joe Davis | Brady Quinn | Kris Budden |
| FS1 | Tim Brando | Spencer Tillman | Bruce Feldman |
| FS1 | Justin Kutcher | Steve Hutchinson or Petros Papadakis | |
| FSN (Big 12) | Mark Followill or Aaron Goldsmith | Brian Baldinger | Lesley McCaslin |
| FSN (Big 12) | Mike Morgan | J.C. Pearson | Steffi Sorensen |
| FSN (Big 12) | Ron Thulin | Dave Lapham | |
| FSN (ACC) | Tom Werme | James Bates | Jenn Hildret |
Production
Graphics
College football game telecasts aired on Fox have always used variants of the graphics used for the NFL on Fox telecasts at that time (along with a red variant of its logo for BCS games, which were branded as BCS on Fox), while telecasts on Fox Sports Net had used the current graphics package used for the family of regional sports networks. Telecasts began to use the new standard Fox Sports graphics that were first introduced by NFL on Fox in 2010 (albeit with a scoreboard displaying the names of the teams playing in the game, instead of team logos) beginning with the broadcast of the 2011 Cotton Bowl Classic, with the Fox Sports Networks following suit for the 2011 regular season. Fox Sports' college football and NFL broadcasts would use a new logo bug with text abbreviations in 2012 and 2013.
In 2014, a new graphics package was introduced that utilizes abbreviations on both the NFL and college football broadcasts, however the bug seen during NFL broadcasts display the scores in a stacked fashion, while the version used for the college football telecasts shows the score to the right of each team's name.
Theme music
From 1999 to 2004, Fox's broadcasts of the Cotton Bowl used a marching band arrangement of the Scott Schreer-composed instrumental theme used for NFL on Fox broadcasts. Telecasts on Fox Sports Net used their own distinct theme music; however, the FSN theme was used for the Cotton Bowl telecasts on Fox from 2004 to 2006. From 2007 to 2010, FSN retained its own separate music package, while Fox's BCS and Cotton Bowl broadcasts used a new and distinct instrumental theme. During the 2010-11 season, when Fox reverted to showing only the Cotton Bowl, the Fox Sports Networks telecasts maintained their separate theme, while Fox used the NFL on Fox theme music for the bowl broadcast. In 2011, when Fox began airing regular season college football games, telecasts on Fox and FX used the NFL on Fox instrumental, while FSN continued using its classic theme. Starting in the 2012 season, college football telecasts aired on any Fox-owned networks other than the Fox Sports Networks slate of regional channels (Fox, FX, Fox Sports 1 or Fox Sports 2) have used a slightly updated version of the marching band variant of the NFL of Fox theme, which essentially utilizes the same arrangement. Meanwhile, telecasts on the Fox Sports Networks (which had its coverage reduced to a regional basis beginning with the 2013 season), continued to use their own classic theme through 2014.
Starting in 2015, all Fox College Football games on all channels (Fox, FS1, FS2, FSN) use the marching band version of the NFL on Fox theme.
Game schedules
2012
| Away | Home |
|---|---|
| Hawaii 10 | #1 USC 49 |
| #16 Nebraska 30 | UCLA 36 |
| #2 USC 14 | #21 Stanford 21 |
| #15 Kansas State 24 | #6 Oklahoma 19 |
| #12 Texas 41 | Oklahoma State 36 |
| Arizona 48 | #18 Stanford 54 (OT) |
| #8 West Virginia 48 | #11 Texas 45 |
| Utah 14 | UCLA 21 |
| #11 USC 24 | Washington 14 |
| #22 Stanford 21 | California 3 |
| #4 Kansas State 55 | #17 West Virginia 14 |
| #15 Texas Tech 24 | #4 Kansas State 55 |
| TCU 39 | #21 West Virginia 38 (2OT) |
| #4 Oregon 62 | #17 USC 51 |
| #11 Oregon State 23 | #14 Stanford 27 |
| #2 Kansas State 23 | TCU 10 |
| #18 USC 28 | #17 UCLA 38 |
| #12 Oklahoma 50 | West Virginia 49 |
| #25 Washington 28 | Washington State 31 (OT) |
| Baylor 52 | Texas Tech 45 (OT) |
| #8 Stanford 34 | #17 UCLA 17 |
| #14 Nebraska 31 | Wisconsin 70 |
2013
| Away | Home |
|---|---|
| West Virginia 7 | #16 Oklahoma 16 |
| #4 Ohio State 52 | California 34 |
| #23 Arizona State 28 | #5 Stanford 42 |
| Arizona 13 | #16 Washington 31 |
| TCU 17 | #11 Oklahoma 20 |
| #15 Baylor 35 | Kansas State 25 |
| TCU 10 | #21 Oklahoma State 24 |
| #10 Texas Tech 30 | #15 Oklahoma 38 |
| #18 Oklahoma State 52 | #15 Texas Tech 34 |
| USC 62 | California 28 |
| Texas 47 | West Virginia 40 (OT) |
| #12 Oklahoma State 38 | Texas 13 |
| #5 Baylor 63 | Texas Tech 34 |
| #17 Arizona State 38 | #14 UCLA 33 |
| Washington State 17 | Washington 27 |
| #25 Notre Dame 20 | #8 Stanford 27 |
| #25 Texas 10 | #9 Baylor 30 |
| #2 Ohio State 24 | #10 Michigan State 34 |
2014
| Away | Home |
|---|---|
| #7 Michigan State 27 | #3 Oregon 46 |
| Illinois 19 | Washington 44 |
| #12 UCLA 20 | Texas 17 |
| #4 Oklahoma 45 | West Virginia 33 |
| #16 Stanford 20 | Washington 13 |
| #7 Baylor 49 | Iowa State 28 |
| #4 Oklahoma 33 | #25 TCU 37 |
| Arizona State 38 | #16 USC 34 |
| #12 Oregon 42 | #18 UCLA 30 |
| Texas Tech 27 | #10 TCU 82 |
| Stanford 16 | #5 Oregon 45 |
| #9 Kansas State 20 | #6 TCU 41 |
| Washington 26 | #17 Arizona 27 |
| Texas 28 | Oklahoma State 7 |
| Oklahoma State 28 | #6 Baylor 49 |
| #13 Arizona State 35 | #12 Arizona 42 |
| Notre Dame 14 | USC 49 |
| Arizona 13 | #3 Oregon 51 |
| #11 Wisconsin 0 | #6 Ohio State 59 |
2015
| Away | Home |
|---|---|
| Virginia 16 | #13 UCLA 34 |
| Iowa 31 | Iowa State 17 |
| California 45 | Texas 44 |
| #3 TCU 55 | Texas Tech 52 |
| #18 Utah 62 | #13 Oregon 20 |
| Arizona State 38 | #7 UCLA 23 |
| #2 TCU 52 | Kansas State 45 |
| West Virginia 38 | #2 Baylor 62 |
| #3 Utah 24 | USC 42 |
| USC 27 | California 21 |
| #5 TCU 29 | #12 Oklahoma State 49 |
| #13 Utah 34 | Washington 23 |
| Oregon 38 | #7 Stanford 36 |
| UCLA 17 | #18 Utah 9 |
| #10 Baylor 45 | #4 Oklahoma State 35 |
| #20 Washington State 10 | Washington 45 |
| #4 Notre Dame 36 | #13 Stanford 38 |
| #5 Michigan State 16 | #4 Iowa 13 |
Nielsen ratings
Seasonal
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Fox College Football Night on Fox.
| Season | Episodes | Timeslot | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Season Rank |
Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 13 | Saturday 8:00 | September 1, 2012 | December 1, 2012 | 2012–2013 | #140 | 3.24[11] |
| 2nd | TBD | Saturday 8:00 | September 7, 2013 | December 7, 2013 | 2013–2014 | TBD | TBD |
See also
- College football on television
- Bowl Championship Series on television and radio
- The Official BCS Ratings Show
References
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- ↑ http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/05/29/complete-list-of-2012-13-season-tv-show-viewership-sunday-night-football-tops-followed-by-ncis-the-big-bang-theory-ncis-los-angeles/184781/
