ESPN’s pulling out all the bells and whistles — even adding a couple of new ones — for your New Year’s Day viewing pleasure.
- The standard broadcast of the two games, on ESPN’s main channel. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Maria Taylor, and Tom Rinaldi have the Rose (5 p.m.) Joe Tessitore, Todd Blackledge, Holly Rowe, and Laura Rutledge have the Sugar (8:45 p.m.)
- The popular Coaches’ Film Room, which the network’s been putting on during championships for years. That’s going to have Syracuse’s Dino Babers, UNC’s Larry Fedora, West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen, Ole Miss’ Matt Luke, TCU’s Gary Patterson, and former Arkansas and Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema. That’s on ESPNEWS.
- Finebaum Film Room, with SEC radio host Paul Finebaum and a bunch of analysts watching the game and taking calls during it. This is on the SEC Network.
- A SkyCam broadcast and an all-22 broadcast, with a wide enough camera angle that you can see just about every player on the field.
- Various hometown audio options, with local radio calls.
- The Command Center telecast, which is on ESPN and features “a split-screen with multiple camera views displayed simultaneously, which could include the main ESPN camera angle, the SkyCam view and isolated camera feeds of both head coaches at any given time. Enhanced statistics and real-time drive charts supplement the game action.” That sounds like a lot but could be your thing.
- And College GameDay is airing, of course. That’ll be at the Rose Bowl, where panelist Herbstreit calls the game later in the day. It starts at 9 a.m. ET, which is 6 a.m. local time. More details on that are here.
There’s also this: “ESPN will debut a camera inside the first-down-marker at the Sugar Bowl, the first time a camera has been positioned inside the equipment. The unique vantage point will provide viewers a look at the line to gain.”
Good Lord.
Get The Picture 
I’d take Fowler and Herbie over Tess and Blackledge all day, every day. Tess had that amazing call in the Miss St game… “…and guess which dog is barking first?! Uga!! Touchdown.” I like the cut of his jib.
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Wait a minute. Do I understand this correctly, Herbstreit will be doing the play by play?
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Yes. Turrible news.
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So happy for Maria Taylor that she drew the Rose Bowl assignment. Damn good dawg, that one.
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I love all the inside baseball stuff. This is getting pretty exciting.
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I wonder if the replay official will have access to the camera in the first down marker. That could give an interesting vantage point on a lot of calls that are replayed in the scrum around the LOS.
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One more thing, does the sky cam broadcast show up as a replay on espn now?
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I think it was two years ago I watched Bama/Clemson online somehow that wasn’t kosher since I didn’t have cable. There was some backdoor link I found posted somewhere online to some ESPN live feed. It had a triple split screen. The top was the game and at the bottom was two screens showing the two head coaches. FOR THE ENTIRE GAME. I found myself watching Saban every time I wasn’t watching the actual game. Talk about entertaining.
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The hometown audio would be great if we had a decent play by play guy.
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At least you’ll be able to see what’s happening while listening to Howard’s non-descriptive screaming. No more wondering what’s going on down on the field.
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+1
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Right. Calls like this are commonplace: “Stidham takes it…back to pass…hits a man and we tackle him way down on our 32 after a 27 yard gain.” You’re sitting there like, what the heck just happened here?
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Except the gain and yard line part come about ten seconds after he calls the play and rambles on a while. I don’t dislike Scott, but this is my biggest complaint with him.
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Howard screams wayyyyyy too much. It’s not worth listening to.
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Agree, the radio audience doesn’t what he sees, or the TV viewer see. Give them the most important info during the play. You can gush, scream, and fill in details later. It is by far his biggest flaw, and yeah, I can do with out the screaming too. I get that he is a huge fan, and enthusiastic, but man, help us “get the picture” when we don’t have one.
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I disagree, I always have them on outside, delay is too much to have then on where the game is..I will be checking out the hometown feed for sure…
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A little digging says that’s streaming only for the hometown feeds…won’t work with my setup…too many TVs on the main level, they will never synch up….might try one outside..
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I saw that hometown option and got excited, until I remembered we have Howard and Zeier calling the game. Seriously, who thought that was a good combination? And don’t even get me started on the retardedness of the phrase “Chubby time.”
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Same. I can’t listen to them. Pregame is good – vital info sharing. UGA should make a change. Need an iconic voice(s). I love Gus Johnson – he can take a big play and turn it into a BIGGER play. The Georgia Way will likely keep a change from occurring – unless Kirby gets involved…..
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Glad my new DirecTV has the ability to record 8 channels at one time, thought that was a feature I would never need. If the local broadcast sound is synced up with the primary video, I would forgo listening to Fowler and Herbie, but Blackledge would have been my first choice, if available. Those unique offerings for different camera angles and other analysis will provide good filler during the off season…you know, the one that lasts until the Spring game in April!
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What DVR model do you have?
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It is the Genie II. Got it this summer when lightening took out my other system, was one of five in N Georgia to have it, it was a Beta test at the time.
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You may be able to view the replays of the different broadcast on the watchespn app afterwords. I will probably watch all of them if the Dawgs win.
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SMDH at anyone who would voluntarily listen to Finebaum and his callers while watching our biggest bowl game in 30+ years…
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Fans of other teams might enjoy it…
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Uh, no. I don’t know anyone who would do that either, nor do I think someone above said they would watch FBomb, that is inconceivable to me. Don’t know how they watch a regular show during the week when nothing else is on, much less with a real game in progress.
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What!? I want an on-screen feature live-streaming viewer comments on the officiating at the bottom of the tv screen.
(I typed that as a joke but the more I think about it, it’s a great idea.. It could even be sponsored. Of course it would have to be edited , but can you imagine if they’d had that during the Pats/ Steeler game? You saw this idea here first!)
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So we finally got Gameday, huh? Lucky for us the Buckeyes aren’t playing that day.
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Forget Gameday. What time’s the parade?
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Awwww…don’t get to see Herbie pick OU while Corso is shooting the popgun and Desmond is sneering about the Dawgs D not able to stop the GPOOEII.
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I pretty much hate ESPN and most of this shit is over the top. But, when the Dawgs are in its pretty fucking awesome.
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I am looking forward to the day I can pick which camera angle I watch. I hate the way ESPN does their cameras. I want to see as many players as possible while the play is developing.
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All those bells and whistles and I’m sure my sports viewing options in Hong Kong will be Premier League, Championship Darts and a rugby match.
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Put the Rose Bowl on one big screen. I can’t see a thing with four screens.
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