# College Football on TNT Sports

TNT Sports (formerly Turner Sports) has occasionally televised college football games on its networks since 1982; that year, under an agreement with the NCAA, TBS became the first broadcaster to nationally televise college football on cable. After the NCAA broadcasting package was dismantled in 1984 following a Supreme Court ruling, TBS would broadcast SEC football from 1984 to 1992, along with selected bowl games through 2000.
Regular-season college football returned to TBS in 2002 as part of a sub-licensing agreement with Fox Sports Net, broadcasting a package of Pac-10 and Big 12 games through 2006.
In 2024, ESPN announced that it had reached an agreement with TNT Sports to televise College Football Playoff games on TNT beginning that season, with these games being a presentation of ESPN College Football rather than produced by TNT Sports. This was followed by its acquisition of a Mountain West Conference package for TruTV, and a Big 12 package that will premiere in 2025 as part of a sub-licensing agreement with ESPN.

## History
### Early coverage

In 1982, SuperStation WTBS reached a special "supplemental" television contract with the NCAA—who controlled all college football television rights at the time—to carry a package of live games on cable. TBS became the first cable network to nationally televise college football games. They aired a package of live Division I-AA games on Thursday nights and Division I-A games on Saturdays.
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 and Pepper Rodgers anchored the pregame show for WTBS.
In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma that the NCAA's television rights model for college football violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, thus allowing individual schools to sell the television rights to their home games. In June 1984, WTBS sports director Terry Hanson stated that they planned to compete for the national television rights being offered by the College Football Association (CFA)—a consortium of major conferences—and would challenge any attempt to impose regional blackouts. He told the press, "Every organization takes the personality of its leader. So we are obnoxiously aggressive." WTBS would acquire a package of games from the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
TBS dropped regular season college football after the 1992 season, but acquired rights to the Gator Bowl from 1991 to 1995 (after which the game moved to NBC), and the Carquest Bowl under an agreement with its owner Raycom Sports (a deal that would be later renewed through 2000).

### 2002–2006: Big 12 and Pac-10 sub-license

In 2002, Turner Sports reached a five-year sub-licensing agreement with Fox Sports Net (FSN), under which it would broadcast a package of games from the Big 12 and Pac-10 conferences. By then, TBS's pre-game show was branded as Big PlayStation Saturday as part of a sponsorship with Sony Computer Entertainment. The agreement ended after the 2006 season, after which the package moved to Versus for 2007.

### 2024–2028: College Football Playoff, Mountain West, Big 12

On May 22, 2024, ESPN announced that it had sub-licensed a portion of the College Football Playoff broadcast rights to TNT Sports from the 2024 season—the first to feature a new 12-team tournament format—through 2028. Under the agreement, TNT Sports will broadcast two CFP first round games annually, splitting the games with ESPN and ABC. Beginning in 2026, TNT Sports will also broadcast two of the New Year's Six bowls hosting the CFP quarterfinals. The games are simulcast on TNT, TBS, TruTV, and streaming on Max.
The CFP telecasts are produced by ESPN as part of its college football coverage, and use its on-air talent. John Ourand reported that ESPN would also keep all advertising revenue from the telecasts for at least the first two years of the agreement; he suspected that the agreement was intended as leverage in carriage negotiations for TNT as it faces the end of its long-running broadcast agreement with the NBA, and to bolster Venu Sports—a then-upcoming sports streaming service that was to include ESPN and TNT Sports as partners.
On July 1, 2024, TNT Sports also announced an agreement with the Mountain West Conference, under which it will carry a package of 14 games on TruTV and streaming on Max throughout the 2024 season. Ahead of the season, TNT Sports hired former players Champ Bailey, Takeo Spikes, and Victor Cruz to serve as studio panelists, joined by NBA on TNT Tuesday host Adam Lefkoe.
On November 16, 2024, as part of a settlement tied to a legal dispute with the NBA over its next round of media rights, it was reported that ESPN had agreed to sublicense a package of Big 12 football and basketball games to TNT Sports beginning in the 2025 season.

## Commentators
### Current
#### Play-by-play

* Ari Wolfe, lead play-by-play commentator
* J.B. Long, #2 play-by-play commentator
* Mark Jones, College Football Playoff play-by-play (via ESPN sublicense)
* Dave Pasch, College Football Playoff play-by-play (via ESPN sublicense)

#### Color commentators

* Darius Walker, lead color commentator
* Mike Golic, Jr., #2 color commentator
* Roddy Jones, College Football Playoff color commentator (via ESPN sublicense)
* Dusty Dvoracek, College Football Playoff color commentator (via ESPN sublicense)

#### Sideline reporters

* Jared Greenberg, lead reporter
* Lauren Jbara, alternate reporter
* Nabil Karim, alternate reporter
* Bridget Howard, alternate reporter
* Quint Kessenich, College Football Playoff reporter (via ESPN sublicense)
* Tom Luginbill, College Football Playoff reporter (via ESPN sublicense)
* Taylor McGregor, College Football Playoff reporter (via ESPN sublicense)
* Laura Rutledge, College Football Playoff reporter (via ESPN sublicense)

#### Studio hosts

* Adam Lefkoe, lead studio host
* Kevin Negandhi, College Football Playoff studio host (via ESPN sublicense)

#### Studio analysts

* Champ Bailey, lead studio analyst
* Takeo Spikes, lead studio analyst
* Victor Cruz, lead studio analyst
* Booger McFarland, College Football Playoff studio analyst (via ESPN sublicense)

### Former
#### Play-by-play

* Bob Neal (1982–1991, 1996–1997, 2004–2005)
* Lindsey Nelson (1985)
* Pete van Wieren (1985–1986)
* Mel Proctor (1986)
* Skip Caray (1986)
* Gary Bender (1992–1994)
* Verne Lundquist (1995)
* Kevin Harlan (1998–2000)
* Ron Thulin (2002–2006)
* Chip Caray (2006)

#### Color commentators

* Tim Foley (1982–1991)
* Paul Hornung (1985–1986)
* Ron Kramer (1985–1986)
* Archie Griffin (1986)
* Pat Haden (1992–1995)
* Mark May (1996–1998)
* Trev Alberts (1999)
* Sam Wyche (1999)
* Dave Rowe (2000)
* Charles Davis (2002–2006)
* Tom Ramsey (2004–2006)

#### Sideline reporters

* Craig Sager (1989–1994, 1996–2000, 2002–2006)
* Kevin Kiley (1995)
* Erin Andrews (2002–2003)
* Darren Eliot (2004)
* Kip Lewis (2005)
* David Aldridge (2006)

#### Studio hosts

* Kevin Christopher
* Marc Fein
* Ernie Johnson, Jr.
* Craig Sager

#### Studio analysts

* Brian Bosworth
* Paul Hornung
* Pepper Rodgers