CBS Sports will move Greg Anthony to the broadcast booth, making him the net's lead college basketball analyst and pairing him with Jim Nantz. Anthony had been CBS' top studio analyst for college basketball. In turn, the network is moving Clark Kellogg from the lead game analyst position to the lead studio analyst. CBS says he still will be used as an analyst for some games. The Nantz-Anthony pairing will start Dec. 7 with the UCLA-Missouri game (John Ourand, Staff Writer). SI.com's Richard Deitsch reported Kellogg will still "serve as a game analyst on 10-12 regular-season games this season." The change is being made because CBS "thought Kellogg was better suited for the studio and Anthony for the arena." While the on-air staffing for the NCAA Tournament "usually gets named in March with a joint CBS-Turner announcement," it is "near-certain Anthony will now call the Final Four and championship game with Nantz and Steve Kerr of Turner Sports" (SI.com, 9/15). Media blogger Ed Sherman writes, "I don’t get it. Nothing against Greg Anthony, but why are Clark Kellogg’s strengths better suited for the studio? I thought he did a fine job as the long-time lead analyst. ... CBS can say what it wants, but it certainly seems to be a demotion in my eyes" (SHERMANREPORT.com, 9/16).
BEHIND THE CURTAIN: ESPN Dir of Programming & Acquisitions Nick Dawson in a Q&A with SI.com's Andy Glockner discussed ESPN's "leading role" in men's college basketball and "what his life is like each season" developing college hoops programming schedules. Dawson said, "The biggest challenge which people on the outside probably can recognize is the volume -- the volume of games across the networks. ... The first mega-challenge we face every year is the tonnage, managing through that process of getting all the games scheduled, finding windows for every game, and trying to ensure that we don’t err somewhere along the way, whether it be double-booking a window or something like that." He added execs "try to become as educated [as] we can in terms of perception of what teams are going to be good the following year," though it is "always a gamble." Dawson: "There’s obviously historically some teams that rate better than others, in terms of national brands, passion of the fan base, things like that, so our historical data can show things like that. Rivalries matter. From a nonconference perspective, if it’s a standalone game or we’re just coming in to televise a game, we’re thinking about ‘Is this game going to draw eyeballs from a TV viewership standpoint?’ That’s our number one goal there." Dawson noted conference realignment has impacted the schedule, saying, "This past offseason we really had to sort of look at our overall schedule and revamp it a little bit." With the Big East "splitting up and how the rights situation worked out, we had to go back in and make some changes and reschedule our games to try to put the best games in the best windows" (SI.com, 9/13).
ACCORDING TO JIM: In Hartford, Dom Amore wrote while former UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun "remains tied" to the school in his role as advisor to AD Warde Manuel, Calhoun "is not sure what more, or what else, he might consider doing." He is "talking with satellite radio about doing a sports talk show." Calhoun said, "I love talking about what makes guys good, in all sports." Amore noted Calhoun also has "talked about doing some analyzing of the college game for one of the TV networks" (HARTFORD COURANT, 9/15).
