| College Basketball on ABC | |
|---|---|
| Genre | College basketball telecasts |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 24 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 120 minutes or until end of game |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | January 18, 1987 (1987-01-18) – present |
| Related | |
| ESPN College Basketball | |
ABC first broadcast selectedcollege basketball games of the now-NCAA Division I during the 1960s and 1970s, before it began televising them on a regular basis on January 18, 1987, with a game between theLSU Tigers andKentucky Wildcats). AsCBS andNBC were also broadcasting college games at the time, this put the sport on all threemajor broadcast television networks.
After theABC Sports division was merged intoESPN Inc. by parent companyDisney in 2006, broadcasts have since been produced by ESPN and have primarily used theESPN College Basketball branding and graphics instead of theCollege Basketball on ABC branding.
After a five-year hiatus, ABC returned to airing college basketball in 2019 with five games on the network, and has continued to do so since.[1]
ABC first broadcast college basketball games in 1962, when the network aired theNCAA Championship Game on a day-behind delayed basis, as part of itsWide World of Sportsanthology series. On December 15, 1973, ABC aired what is considered to be the first[2] telecast of a regular season college basketball game by a major broadcast network. A feature of the afternoon episode of the program,ABC's Wide World of Sports, the game was a special presentation rather than the start of regular telecasts.,[3] and matchedUCLA andNorth Carolina State inSt. Louis). Previously, postseason games in the NCAA tournament had been shown on NBC. Regular season college basketball games, though not on ABC, NBC or CBS, had beensyndicated to U.S. television stations, such as the so-called ""Game of the Century"" sold to stations nationwide by theTVS Television Network in 1968. ABC (which had recently lost theNBA rights toCBS) televised this game using its former NBA announcing crew ofKeith Jackson andBill Russell.
In the 1977–78 season,C.D. Chesley (who controlled the rights to theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC) at the time) wanted NBC to televise select ACC games as part of its national package as it had done the previous few years. However, NBC wanted to feature intersectional games. This action greatly upset Chesley, who wound up selling the rights to theACC Tournament final to ABC. ABC would televise the 1978 ACC Tournament final as part ofWide World of Sports. The game, called byKeith Jackson and Bill Russell, marked the first timeDuke University's Blue Devils basketball team played on national television.
When ABC's coverage[4][5] began in 1987,[6][7][8] the network primarily covered[9][10] theBig Ten,[11]Big 8[12] andPac-10 Conferences.
In the 1987–88 season, ABC did not air any college basketball games during the last three weekends of February due to the network'scoverage of theWinter Olympics.
Coverage by ABC steadily increased during the early 1990s;[13] by the 1991–92 season, ABC was carrying regional games in many timeslots on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
By1991 (around the timeNBC was phasing out their own college basketball coverage), ABC ramped up its basketball coverage in an effort to fill the void.[14][15] As a result, the network also started to cover games focusing on teams from theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC) andSoutheastern Conference (SEC). Otherwise, it was essentially, a considerable hodge-podge with an ACC game one week, or a Pac-10 or Big 10 game the next. The games that were broadcast were a hodge-podge of conference matchups even after theESPN on ABC brand change, with SEC and Big East match-ups occasionally being shown alongside frequent ACC, Big 12 and Pac-10 match-ups.
ABC's early regular season broadcasts were, for the most part, technicallytime buys from organizations such asRaycom[16][17][18][19] (particularly, around 1990–91) or sister networkESPN. This in return, was a way to avoid union contracts which require that 100% of network shows had to use crew staff who were network union members.[20] During the early 1990s, Raycom paid ABCUS$1.8 million for six weeks of network airtime of 26 regional games. The format allowed Raycom to control[21] the games and sell the advertising.[22]
By 1997, ABC's presenting sponsor wasPaine Webber.[23]
Starting in 1997,[24][25][26]coverage of the PGA Tour limited the number of games that the network showed; this continued through 2006.
Coverage of theNBA further decreased college basketball coverage on the network when ABC Sports acquired the broadcast rights to the league (through a production arrangement with ESPN) beginning in 2002. Beginning with the 2007 season, all games were rebranded as part of the integration of ABC Sports into ESPN as ESPN on ABC (meaning that all sports telecasts on ABC would exclusively feature ESPN's graphics, music and announcers) and Sunday games were discontinued. From 2007 to 2009, all games began at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, which was a departure from the differing broadcast times that were previously assigned to the game telecasts.
From 2010 to 2013, ABC broadcast the semi-finals and finals of theSEC men's basketball tournament. In 2014, ABC only broadcast the semi-final round of the tournament.[27]
For the first time since 2009, ABC returned to airing regular season college basketball games in 2019. The network would air 5 games, starting on December 8, when theTexas Longhorns hosted theTexas A&M Aggies, and has slowly increased since then.[1][28]
Beginning with the2021 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, selectwomen's college basketball games have also aired on ABC. In December 2021, the first regular season women's college basketball game aired on ABC.[29] Beginning with the2022 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, ABC also airs the final of the tournament, along with select weekend tournament games.[30]
Beginning in 2022, the number of college basketball games on ABC was reduced due to ABC's coverage of theXFL and later theUnited Football League,[31][32] as well as the return of theNational Hockey League.
On December 10, 2020, ESPN announced that it had acquired the top-tier rights to the SEC under a 10-year, $3 billion contract beginning in the2024–25 season; similar to the conference's football rights, ABC will hold exclusiveover-the-air rights to the SEC, replacingCBS. However, theSEC men's basketball tournament championship will remain on ESPN.[33][34] The first SEC game to air on ABC under this new agreement will be Sunday, February 16, 2025 which will feature a women's college basketball doubleheader. The first men's game will air on Saturday, March 1, 2025. ABC will also air anAtlantic Coast Conference men's basketball game during the 2024–25 season betweenStanford andDuke, along with theJimmy V Women's Classic betweenNC State andLouisville.[35][36]
On March 1, 2025, ESPN suffered a malfunction with its broadcast truck during theAuburn Tigers/Kentucky WildcatsNCAA Division I men's basketball game televised onABC with 12:26 left in the 2nd half. According to a statement by ESPN, a generator that was connected to the truck atRupp Arena caught on fire, causing them to lose power and knock the game off the air. The game was then moved toESPNews due to thePittsburgh Penguins/Boston BruinsNational Hockey League game that was also scheduled forbroadcast on ABC (Had the technical issues not occurred, the first few minutes of the Penguins/Bruins game would've likely aired on ESPNews and would be moved to ABC once the Auburn/Kentucky game concluded). Many fans and viewers alike were angry and took to social media to express their displeasure with ESPN over the way they handled the technical problem.[37][38]
For the 2025–26 season, ABC announced an expanded schedule of college basketball games. ABC will air 11 games, all but one of which will air in February 2026. For the first time, a women's college basketball game between South Carolina and LSU will air inprimetime on February 14, 2026.[39]
Currently,Dan Shulman,Jay Bilas, andJess Sims are the primary announcing team for men's college basketball, whileRyan Ruocco,Rebecca Lobo, andHolly Rowe are the primary announcing team for women's college basketball.
In the early years of ABC's regular college basketball coverage,Keith Jackson[40][41][42] andDick Vitale[43][44] were the primary announcing crew, whileGary Bender[45][46] was the secondary play-by-play announcer behind Jackson. Meanwhile,Al Michaels[47] did regional games during this period.
WhenBrent Musburger[48] came over fromCBS in late 1990, he started working with Dick Vitale on the main team.Jim Valvano[49][50] did color commentary on games for ABC for a few years until his death in 1993; Vitale and Valvano were paired as co-analysts on ABC's college basketball broadcasts a few times during the 1991–92 season. In the 1992–93 season,Terry Gannon filled in on a few games for Valvano, who at the time was battling cancer, which would ultimately claim his life in April 1993.
Steve Lavin replaced Dick Vitale as the lead analyst beginning in 2005, as Vitale moved toESPN's weekly primetime showcase game. From 2010 until 2014, when ABC only aired theSEC men's basketball tournament,Brad Nessler andJimmy Dykes served as the broadcast team. When college basketball returned to ABC during the 2019-2020 season, a variety ofESPN College Basketball analysts were used, includingDick Vitale.
Meanwhile the cupboards of the other two networks are comparatively bare. Once the colossus of TV sports, ABC has a good college-football package, Monday Night Football (a so-so performer these days); a middling college-basketball contract; and a number of individual events, including the Triple Crown races, the Indianapolis 500, the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and golf's U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. ABC's biggest shortcoming, at least in terms of prestige, is that for the first time since 1960 it doesn't have either a Winter or Summer Games in its lineup. Indeed, after losing the Barcelona Olympics, the network decided not to adorn a new truck, which it had recently ordered, with its traditional ABC Sports Olympic slogan.
Not only that, but ABC, the once reigning champion of TV sports, is widely expected to deal itself out of baseball's new television contract, which will be announced later this month. This would leave the network with week-to-week sports programming consisting of the NFL's less-than-splendid Monday Night Football, some college football, lots of golf and a college basketball package that doesn't include the NCAA Final Four.
The Big Four Classic has two more years left in its TV contract with ABC; if NCAA sanctions, that Kentucky seems sure to get, include no regular-season TV appearances, what would the Big Four do? Postpone the classic until the Cats get out of the doghouse? Play as scheduled with ABC televising only the game not involving Kentucky? Replace the Wildcats with, say, Western Kentucky?
The biggest time-buy arrangement is between Raycom and ABC. For the 1991–92 season, it paid ABC $1.8 million for six weeks of air time—13 telecasts—covering 26 college basketball games regionally. Raycom used ABC on-air talent including Brent Musburger, Dick Vitale, Jim Valvano, Gary Bender, Cheryl Miller, and Mark Jones.
Also revealing is ABC's whirlwind use of network crews on last season's college basketball games. The cameramen and technicians typically arrived at an arena to set up at around 2:00 a.m. on the day of the game so the network could save on expenses. They then caught a few hours' sleep, returned to the arena to televise the game, broke down the equipment and flew home so as not to run up costs the following day.
During ABC's series of Sunday afternoon games KJ will team with DV, Dick Vitale, who has made his name as a wild and crazy commentator on ESPN.
He has been a college basketball analyst for ABC Sports since 1988, and has also covered the NBA Finals and the 1992 Summer Olympics for ABC Radio.
And for just a moment Dick Vitale actually lowered his voice. Later, Vitale, who did color commentary on ABC's telecast of Sunday's game, interviewed Gomelsky.
1987–1991: Sportscaster for ABC covering college football, basketball and Monday Night Football
Michaels also has worked on ABC's "NCAA Football' and college basketball telecasts, in addition to covering a variety of "ABC's Wide World of Sports" events and "The Superstars."
A preeminent voice of college football and college basketball play-by-play, Musburger also hosted the 1991 Pan American Games from Cuba.
| Preceded by None | NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship television broadcaster 1962 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by ESPN | NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament television broadcaster 2022–present | Succeeded by Incumbent |