Fox Sports has upped its (college) game

[BrentVU]

ESPN (with ABC) has pretty much ruled the roost as far as Saturday college football programming is concerned. Its College Gameday program with Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, etc. has been the gold standard for years, and usually it leads into one of the country's top games. Fox's "Big Noon Kickoff" pre-game show was an also-ran.

But Fox Sports is finally providing ESPN some worthy competition. The Big Ten is doing its part by (for the first time ever) scheduling some marquee games in early September. (Nebraska at Illinois? Ohio State at Minnesota? Penn State at Wisconsin? Pretty solid.) "Big Noon Kickoff" with talking heads Bob Stoops (who replaced Urban Meyer), Reggie Bush, Brady Quinn, and Matt Leinart, is decent enough. Of course, they are promoting the Big Ten, Big XII, and Pac-12 games, but they give the SEC and ACC plenty of airtime too.

Coming up on Big Noon Kickoff games in future weeks in September: Oregon at Ohio State, Nebraska at Oklahoma, and Notre Dame at Wisconsin.

[2kidsthere]

IMO Gus Johnson and Joe Klatt are the best!

[cc11316]

Gus Johnson is either the most passionate or most overly dramatic announcer I have ever heard. I kind of like him ... but he's annoying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3K77s4lqvs