TNT Sports (formerly Turner Sports) has occasionally televisedcollege football games on its networks since 1982; that year, under an agreement with theNCAA,TBS became the first broadcaster to nationally televise college football on cable. After the NCAA broadcasting package was dismantled in 1984 following aSupreme Court ruling, TBS would broadcastSEC football from 1984 to 1992, along with selectedbowl games through 2000.
Regular-season college football returned to TBS in 2002 as part of a sub-licensing agreement withFox Sports Net, broadcasting a package ofPac-10 andBig 12 games through 2006.
In 2024,ESPN announced that it had reached an agreement with TNT Sports to televiseCollege Football Playoff games onTNT beginning that season, with these games being a presentation ofESPN College Football rather than produced by TNT Sports. This was followed by its acquisition of aMountain West Conference package onTruTV for the 2024 season, and a Big 12 package that premiered in 2025 as part of a sub-licensing agreement with ESPN.
In1982,SuperStation WTBS reached a special "supplemental" television contract with theNCAA—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.[1][2] They aired a package of live Division I-AA games on Thursday nights and Division I-A games on Saturdays.[3]
WTBS was only able to show teams that had not been on national television in1981. There were a maximum of four teams that had been on regional television on two occasions. Meanwhile,ABC andCBS 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 andTim Foley were the booth commentators for WTBS during this period. Meanwhile,Craig Sager,Paul Hornung[4] andPepper Rodgers[5] anchored the pregame show for WTBS.
In 1984, theSupreme Court ruled inNCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma that the NCAA's television rights model for college football violated theSherman Antitrust Act, thus allowing individual schools to sell the television rights to their home games. In June 1984, WTBS sports directorTerry Hanson stated that they planned to compete for the national television rights being offered by theCollege Football Association (CFA)—a consortium of major conferences—and would challenge any attempt to impose regionalblackouts. He told the press, "Every organization takes the personality of itsleader. Sowe are obnoxiously aggressive."[6] WTBS would acquire a package of games from theSoutheastern Conference (SEC).[7]
TBS dropped regular season college football after the 1992 season, but acquired rights to theGator Bowl from 1991 to 1995 (after which the game moved toNBC),[8][9][10] and theCarquest Bowl under an agreement with its ownerRaycom Sports (a deal that would be later renewed through 2000).[11][12]
In2002, Turner Sports reached a five-year sub-licensing agreement withFox Sports Net (FSN), under which it would broadcast a package of games from theBig 12 andPac-10 conferences.[13] By then, TBS's pre-game show was branded asBigPlayStation Saturday as part of a sponsorship withSony Computer Entertainment.[14] The agreement ended after the2006 season, after which the package moved toVersus for 2007.[15]
2024–2028: College Football Playoff, Mountain West, Big 12
On May 22, 2024,ESPN announced that it had sub-licensed a portion of theCollege Football Playoff broadcast rights toTNT Sports from the2024 season—the first to feature a new 12-team tournament format—through 2028. Under the agreement, TNT Sports broadcasts two CFP first round games annually beginning in the 2024 season, and will broadcast two of theNew Year's Six bowls hosting the CFP quarterfinals beginning in the 2026 season.[16][17] On June 6, 2025, it was reported that the agreement had been extended to also include one of the CFP semifinal games beginning in the 2026 season.[18]
In the 2024 season, the CFP telecasts were produced by ESPN as part of itscollege football coverage, and used its on-air talent.[19][20] The games are simulcast onTNT, TBS,TruTV, and streaming onMax.[20] 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 amid the end of itslong-running broadcast agreement with the NBA, and to bolsterVenu Sports—a then-upcoming sports streaming service that was to include ESPN and TNT Sports as partners.[21]
On July 1, 2024, TNT Sports also announced an agreement with theMountain West Conference, under which it will carry a package of 14 games onTruTV and streaming on Max.[22] Ahead of the season, TNT Sports hired former playersChamp Bailey,Takeo Spikes, andVictor Cruz to serve as studio panelists, joined byNBA on TNT Tuesday hostAdam Lefkoe.[23] Despite being announced as a multi-year deal, the agreement did not continue after the 2024 season.[24]
On November 16, 2024, as part of a settlement tied to a legal dispute with theNBA 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.[25] TNT Sports' vice president of technology and operations Chris Brown explained that the 2024 season had "helped bring us up to speed on how networks are covering college football", and that lessons from the Mountain West coverage had been used to help retool and enhance its production for the 2025 season.[26]
