College Football Kickoff 2024: CBS Sports Enters Sophomore Season of Big Ten Football With Sights Set on First Conference Championship in Indy

College Football Kickoff 2024: CBS Sports Enters Sophomore Season of Big Ten Football With Sights Set on First Conference Championship in Indy Calendar also includes first Army-Navy Game in DMV since 2011 By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Thursday, August 29, 2024 - 1:21 pm

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The industry might have bid farewell to the SEC on CBS, but CBS Sports is riding high with its second season of Big Ten college football. With the inclusion of new teams from the Pac-12, a new analyst in the studio, and two marquee matchups to end the regular season in early December, the network has a lot to be excited about in the tail end of 2024.

It was great to kick off the Big Ten last year and get more familiar with the stadiums, traditions, and teams, says Steve Karasik, SVP, remote production, CBS Sports. With premier games on our plate like USC vs. Michigan at The Big House, we're excited to do even more with our coverage this year.

CBS Sports kicks off their 2024 Big Ten season with Akron-Ohio State in Columbus, OH on Saturday.

Different Conference, Same Quality: Crew Transitions to Big Ten's Mid-Afternoon Start Time The college football community has become accustomed with SEC Saturdays on CBS, and the 3:30 p.m. ET slot has become synonymous with high-profile matchups on a weekly basis. Now with this coveted window during the weekend in the fall covering the Big Ten, fans will have the chance to learn about the handful of new teams - USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon - joining the conference. Not only will the teams be in the spotlight, but the athletes on these rosters will be introduced to a new audience.

Whether it's a Top 5 team in the country in Oregon or one coming off an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship in Washington, these new teams add a lot of depth and great matchups every single week, says Karasik. These programs will only help make the overall product better.

Despite the loss of the Southeastern Conference, the same crew that's produced notable games in the past - including Chris Davis' Kick Six in the 2013 Iron Bowl, countless SEC Championship games with notable players like Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa, LSU's Joe Burrow, and many others - will still be on the front bench this season. This includes longtime director Steve Milton and coordinating producer Craig Silver. Mixed with the operations team that fills every broadcast with top-tier technology, and first-class talent in play-by-play announcer Brad Nessler, analyst Gary Danielson, and reporter Jenny Dell narrating the action, fans shouldn't see a dip in production quality.

We'll have a lot of the technical enhancements that were prominent on the SEC, continues Karasik. We have the best production and technical teams that cover college football in the business, so we look at it as taking this coverage and moving it to another conference.

New On-Air Look: Game Broadcasts Include New Scorebug As the Big Ten and CBS Sports continue their relatively new partnership, the network will debut a new scorebug that NFL fans noticed during the airing of Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11. This change will take affect for broadcasts on CBS this weekend as well as the 70 games on CBS Sports Network. Outside of on-air graphics, productions on CBS in the 3:30 p.m. ET window will see an uptick of workflows, which resulted in adding a third mobile unit to the compound. For instance, the A and B units of F&F Productions' GTX 20 and the C unit of GTX 21 will be used this season to account for added replay machines and personnel.

Back in the stadium, each game will feature a handful of new cameras that will increase storytelling and present other angles for viewers watching at home. This includes two hard cameras - a super slo-mo and a second sideline cart to provide coverage on both the near and far sideline - and a 4K zoomable camera in the high end zone position. Seen during the NFL postseason, this 4K-capable camera allows a closer look at impactful plays without loss in resolution. The network's signature line-to-gain and pylon cameras from Cosm will receive the upgrade of super slo-mo AI technology. This additive will pay off on replays of plays at the goal line. In the super slo-mo department, games will leverage a total of 12 cameras, and in the cinematic category, two cameras will be shooting in shallow depth of field. One of the two will be CBS's Atlas camera, which has made a difference on the network's golf coverage.

Up in the sky, the crew will utilize Skycam's calibrated gimbal - which debuted last year during the NFL postseason and Super Bowl LVIII - to support steady camera tracking for AR graphics provided by Silverspoon. Drones from Kaze Aerials will take flight on a case-by-case basis depending on approval from the host school.

On CBS Sports Network, these games will be produced in conjunction with NEP Group and Game Creek Video. In the booth, broadcasts will feature a combination of the following names: play-by-play announcers Rich Waltz, Jordan Kent, Dave Ryan, Carter Blackburn, Chris Lewis, Alex Del Barrio, John Sadak, and Jason Knapp; analysts Ross Tucker, Robert Turbin, Randy Cross, Taylor McHargue, Adam Breneman, Donte Whitner, and Brock Vereen; and reporters Tiffany Blackmon, Amanda Guerra, Tina Cervasio, Keiana Martin, Sheehan Stanwick Burch, Emily Proud, and Brandon Baylor.

An In-Studio Addition: Aaron Taylor Joins College Football Today Back in the New York City-based studio, College Football Today will gain a new star this season: Super Bowl Champion XXXI with the Green Bay Packers and two-time All-American at Notre Dame, Aaron Taylor. A familiar face to CBS since 2008 as a lead analyst on CBS Sports Network and contributor on the weekly Inside College Football, Taylor will be

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