Fox Sports yesterday announced former NFLer Chris Spielman will return to the net as an NFL and college football analyst. He will serve as a game analyst for the upcoming NFL season and will contribute to the net's college football coverage. Spielman began his broadcasting career with Fox in '99 before joining ESPN in '01. There he primarily worked on ESPN College Football Saturday alongside play-by-play partner Sean McDonough (Fox). In Cleveland, Doug Lesmerises noted with Fox close to a deal for part of the Big Ten TV rights, the net "may have landed its lead Big Ten analyst" in Spielman. He is as "interesting, entertaining and informative as any football analyst out there" (CLEVELAND.com, 5/17).
TESS REHERSAL: ESPN this morning announced college football announcer Joe Tessitore will move "from Thursday night to Saturday night games" this season. He will replace Brad Nessler, who is headed to CBS, and will "work Saturday night ESPN games with Todd Blackledge." Tessitore had been "doing play-by-play on Thursday night games along with hosting 'SEC Nation'" on SEC Network. Sam Ponder also is leaving the Thursday night game and will replace Heather Cox "as the sideline reporter for ABC Saturday night games." ESPN additionally announced long-time "SportsCenter" anchor Steve Levy "will do play-by-play for weekly Saturday college football games and be paired with analyst Brian Griese" (AP, 5/18).
