Fox Adds Charles Davis, Barry Alvarez To BCS Title Booth

Fox Taps Alvarez To Serve As Analyst For Fiesta Bowl, BCS Title Game

Fox Sports has selected former Univ. of Wisconsin coach and current AD Barry Alvarez and TBS college football analyst Charles Davis to serve as analysts for the January 1 Fiesta Bowl and January 8 BCS title game, according to Michael Hiestand of USA TODAY. Thom Brennaman will handle play-by-play. Fox Sports President Ed Goren said that it “might have been impossible for Fox to have signed analysts from ABC/ESPN and CBS, who regularly carry top college football, to pinch-hit for Fox on the BCS.” But Goren added, “You always want to establish your own identity. And we were in an equation that made it extremely difficult, in the case of our lead group, to have a job that’s just two games. The good news with Alvarez is that he has a day job.” Goren said of going with a three-man booth, “It’s difficult to put a rookie [Alvarez] into a two-man booth for two of the biggest games of the year.” Hiestand notes Alvarez will appear during Fox’ NFL coverage to “offer his take” on the BCS rankings when they begin coming out in mid-October (USA TODAY, 8/28).

BOWLING GREEN: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir noted Fox’ outlay of $83M annually for BCS rights through 2010 marks just a 7% increase over the previous deal. The “lack of a big rise in fees is because of increasing access to the bowl games to 11 conferences, up from six, which may diminish the attractiveness of the Fiesta, Orange or Sugar Bowls.” Fox, “for its money, thinks it bought a profitable package of games that can be promoted during the NFL season, baseball postseason and throughout its prime-time programming.” Fox Network Group President & CEO Tony Vinciquerra said that the network “has sold 50[%] of its advertising for all four years.” But Sandomir wrote Fox is “hamstrung, to a degree, by a lack of regular-season college games on which it could promote its bowl games.” Goren: “It’s not my choice, but it’s the landscape” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/27).