During USA's first three seasons (1980-1982), they broadcast several games (they in essence, cherry picked games from regional and national syndicators likeRaycom,Mizlou, and Katz) a week. These broadcasts were shown on atape delayed basis as much as two days later. For USA's final four seasons (1983-1986), they narrowed their coverage to only one game a week. Initially, the games were selected from virtually every conference. However, in the later years, USA would frequently (but not exclusively) air games involvingPittsburgh,Penn State,Notre Dame,Boston College andMaryland. More to the point, by1984, USA primarily aired games from theBig Eight Conference.
"The Play" - The Play refers to a last-secondkickoff return during acollege football game between theUniversity of California Golden Bears and theStanford University Cardinal on Saturday, November 20,1982. After Stanford had taken a 20-19 lead on a field goal with four seconds left in the game, the Golden Bears used fivelateral passes on the ensuing kickoff return to score the winningtouchdown and earn a 25-20 victory. Members of theStanford Band had come onto the field midway through the return, believing that the game was over, which added to the ensuing confusion and folklore. There remains disagreement over the legality of two of the laterals,[2][3][4] adding to the passion surrounding the traditional rivalry of the annual "Big Game."
The biggest highlight ofUniversity of Maryland quarterbackFrank Reich's college career was the comeback he led against theUniversity of MiamiHurricanes on November 10, 1984 at theOrange Bowl Stadium. Reich came off the bench to play forStan Gelbaugh, who had previously replaced him as the starter after Reich separated his shoulder in the fourth week of the season againstWake Forest. Miami quarterbackBernie Kosar had led the 'Canes to a 31-0 lead at halftime. At the start of the third quarter, Reich led theMaryland Terrapins multiple scoring drives. Three touchdowns in the third quarter and a fourth at the start of the final quarter turned what was a blowout into a close game. With the score 34-28 Miami, Reich hit Greg Hill with a 68-yard touchdown pass which deflected off the hands of Miami safetyDarrell Fullington to take the lead. Maryland scored once more to cap a 42-9 second half, and won the game 42-40, completing what was then the biggest comeback in NCAA history.
1985Cherry Bowl - The end of NCAA control over television rights resulted in a major increase in televised games, and TV rights fees dropped sharply amid the resulting glut, something not anticipated by the Cherry Bowl organizers.
Since 2011, at least two games per-season are played inprimetime often played at neutral venues for the purposes of recruiting and financial benefits for playing at those sites, a high-profile matchup involving a major opponent, or to schedule around conflicts with other NBC Sports or NBC News programming. On occasion, selected games may be shifted to anNBCUniversal-owned cable channel, such asNBCSN orUSA Network.
Notre Dame's September 19, 2020, game againstSouth Florida was shifted toUSA Network due to conflicts with the2020 U.S. Open on NBC, and co-produced with the school's in-house production armFighting Irish Media due to NBC's main production unit already being used for the tournament.[5]
Notre Dame's double-overtime win againstClemson on November 7, 2020, was NBC's most-watched Notre Dame game since 2005, despite game coverage moving temporarily toUSA Network (due to coverage ofJoe Biden's acceptance speech after being declared consensus winner of the2020 presidential election).[6]
