The announcers calling Friday night's Miami-FAU football game for FS1 "will be 2,700 miles away, sitting in a studio" in L.A.'s Century City neighborhood, according to Barry Jackson of the MIAMI HERALD. This type of arrangement "isn’t unusual for international soccer broadcasts or NBA games held overseas," but is "highly unusual for college football." Fox insisted that the remote broadcast "isn't an attempt to save money." Jackson wrote the net wants to give Dave Wannstedt and Matt Leinart "an opportunity to be game analysts, but it would be difficult if not impossible for them to work Friday’s game in Boca Raton and then be back" in L.A. to "handle their main job as Fox college studio analysts" on FS1's 4:00pm ET pregame show. Sideline reporter Petros Papadakis will be Fox' "only on-air presence at Friday's game." Fox VP/Remote Operations Brad Zager said that handling game production from the studio allows Fox to "use additional technical toys." Zager: "We can use virtual graphics, stuff that isn’t available on a Conference USA broadcast" (MIAMIHERALD.com, 9/11).
WISH YOU WERE HERE: In Louisville, Jonathan Lintner notes Thursday night's FS1 broadcast of Louisiana Tech-Western Kentucky, the lone FBS game of the evening, featured Papadakis and Wannstedt along with Rob Stone and Kirk Morrison, but only Papadakis "actually traveled" to the game. The rest of the crew called the game "from their Los Angeles studio." SI's Andy Staples tweeted, "If you call a game in Bowling Green, Ky., from Los Angeles, it sounds like you're calling a game in Bowling Green, Ky., from Los Angeles. ... Maybe the Fox execs just said 'Whatever, everyone's watching Pats-Steelers'" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 9/11).
