NBC Sports’ Big Ten Saturday Night Making Its Mark In Crowded College Football Landscape
NBC produces football games for both the Big Ten as well as home games for Notre Dame
Story Highlights
In what has become a busy Saturday for television viewers, NBC Sports is making itself quite a seat at the elite college football table.
A longtime carrier of Notre Dame Football, the network stepped up its game a year ago by adding Big Ten football, introducing Big Ten Saturday Night, the first dedicated weekly primetime game on a national broadcast network in the long history of the league. Here in Season Two, the property has quickly come into its own.
“The team is excited to welcome the four new Big Ten teams from the west coast and it was incredible to be in Nebraska, in particular, two weeks ago,” says Kregg VanMeter, NBC Sports’ Director of Big Ten Operations. “The energy was electric.”
On overhead view of NBC Sports’ Big Ten Saturday Night compound. (Photo Courtesy: NBC Sports)
NBC Sports is making its stamp on college football through image quality: all primetime NBC college football shows are produced and distributed in 1080p HDR (high-dynamic range). Working out of NEP SS7 and ST7, producer Matt Marvin and director Charlie Dammeyer have 16 manned cameras at their disposal on a Big Ten Saturday Night show. That includes eight 6x super slow-mos and six POV cameras. On the audio front, the crew disperses around 25 microphones around the stadium.
One new addition to the operational plan this year is a chroma-key background used in the broadcast booth that gives the illusion the on-air talent is speaking in front of an LED screen. Back for season two are the lead announce team of Noah Eagle (play-by-play), former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge (analyst), and Kathryn Tappen (sideline reporter). They will call all primetime college football games on NBC’s air.
“In my opinion, our announce team is one of the best in the business in telling the story of college football,” says VanMeter.
NBC Sports has also gone all-out in its support of its Big Ten package by building out on on-site pregame studio presence with Big Ten College Countdown. That show leads into any Big Ten game on NBC/Peacock. In addition, College Countdown leads into Notre Dame Football games. Maria Taylor hosts alongside analysts Chris Simms and Joshua Perry, and college football insider Nicole Auerbach from studio while host Ahmed Fareed and analysts Matt Cassel and Michael Robinson report from the field previewing the upcoming game.
When you combine Big Ten and Notre Dame, NBC will present more than 30 football games this season across NBC and Peacock, including 10 Peacock exclusive games.
Remaining confirmed* college football on NBC schedule:
| Sat., Sept. 28 | 3:30 p.m. | Louisville at Notre Dame | Peacock |
| Sat., Sept. 28 | TBD | Ohio State at Michigan State | Peacock |
| Sat., Oct. 12 | 3:30 p.m. | Stanford at Notre Dame | NBC, Peacock |
| Sat., Nov. 9 | 7:30 p.m. | Florida State at Notre Dame | NBC, Peacock |
| Sat., Nov. 16 | 3:30 p.m. | Virginia at Notre Dame | NBC, Peacock |
| Sat., Nov. 23 | 7 p.m. | Army at Notre Dame (at Yankee Stadium) | NBC, Peacock |
| Fri., Nov. 29 | 7:30 p.m. | Nebraska at Iowa | NBC, Peacock |
*as of Sept. 23
