NBC Sports’ new Big Ten prime-time broadcast team is going to have an old-school and new-school look, The Post has learned.
NBC has swiped Todd Blackledge from ESPN for its forthcoming Saturday college football package and will team him with 26-year-old play-by-player Noah Eagle, according to sources.
NBC declined to comment.
For Blackledge, 61, this will be his third network after runs at CBS and ESPN. He is expected to call the national championship on ESPN Radio Monday, which will be his final assignment with the network. He is considered ESPN’s No. 2 college football game analyst behind Kirk Herbstreit.
Eagle, the son of famed play-by-player, Ian, continues a meteoric rise. Besides being the radio voice of the Clippers, he gained national attention by calling the Nickelodeon NFL games with Nate Burleson. He also was a play-by-player on regular season NFL games for Fox Sports and NFL Network this season. With Fox Sports, he was a weekly play-by-player on its college football coverage.
NBC has shown a preference for hiring the sons of successful sportscasters, as it has Jac Collinsworth, son of Cris, on Notre Dame play-by-play and as part of “Football Night in America,” where Cris is the lead “Sunday Night Football” game analyst. Chris Simms, son of Phil, is also on FNIA, as well as Pro Football Talk with Mike Florio.
The Post previously reported that Maria Taylor, the host of FNIA, will also take on lead studio duties for NBC’s new Big Ten coverage.
In the forthcoming seasons, the Big Ten will have a new football presentation, which won’t include ESPN for the first time in nearly four decades. Fox will have its Big Noon Kickoff, while CBS will handle the 3:30 window, and then Eagle and Blackledge will be in prime time.
For next year, CBS will still have SEC football – which muddled its Big Ten schedule a bit – but the following year all the SEC games will be on ESPN and its family of channels, while the Big Ten will be locked in at 3:30 on CBS sandwiched around Fox and NBC.