College Football Week #15: ABC, ESPN, CBS, Fox run league title games, All talent and networks!
For the real football junkies, ESPN 3 carries all the FCS games- Information below; ESPN's Anish Shroff featured
By David J. Halberstam and Jake Baskin 12/04/2019
- Kirk Herbstreit will run around to share his wisdom this weekend. How nutty is this? He calls Friday night’s PAC 12 championship in Santa Clara, California. He then red-eyes it to Atlanta. But don’t worry, Kirk ain’t sitting in the back of the plane. He partakes in ESPN’s Game Day programming and then flies (likely in a Gulfstream) to Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game where he will do reports for post game programming hosted in ESPN’s studio with the talented Scott Van Pelt. Kirk is the Charles Schumer of sports. He’s never seen a camera that he doesn’t like.
- Al Groh, 75, former coach of the Jets and Virginia schleps out to Montana this weekend to do color on an FCS playoff game on ESPN 3, (Albany at Montana State).
- Earbuds/plugs will be needed for the Fox telecast featuring the yelping Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt, who’s both a fine football analyst and gold commentator. I’m hoping that Gus’ octave will drop a notch by osmosis. I would imagine that Klatt’s time on the links has taught him to modulate his voice.
- Too bad that Fox has no other game this weekend. As such, we won’t have the Tim Brando-Spencer Tillman team. They’re real good.
- Talking of good, Sean McDonough and Todd Blackledge have the Big 12 championship game. I’d bet that if ESPN appointed this duo as the number one college football team, viewers would embrace it happily.
- Don’t see Adam Amin’s name on the list this weekend, yet Anish Shroff and John Congemi who had a good season together are assigned the MAC championship.
- Michael Reghi, 66, is doing the Kennesaw State-Weber State FCS playoff game. He’s done Orioles baseball in the past and for a chunk of years called Cavaliers games on cable. It’s called hanging on. God bless him.
Jake Bakin has a nice thumbnail on Anish Shroff below the schedule
Friday, Dec. 6
Utah vs. Oregon (Pac-12 Championship Game in Santa Clara, CA) | 8 p.m. | ABC
Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Molly McGrath
Saturday, Dec. 7
Oklahoma vs. Baylor (Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington, TX) | 12 p.m. | ABC
Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge, Holly Rowe
Appalachian State vs. Louisiana (Sun Belt Championship Game) | 12 p.m. | ESPN
Clay Matvick, Ryan Leaf, Quint Kessenich
Miami (Ohio) vs. Central Michigan (MAC Championship Game in Detroit) | 12 p.m. | ESPN2
Anish Shroff, John Congemi, Kris Budden
Monmouth at James Madison (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 1 p.m. ESPN 3
Jonathan Yardley, Hutson Mason
Florida Atlantic vs. UAB (Conference USA Championship Game) | 1:30 p.m. | CBSSN
Carter Blackburn, Aaron Taylor, John Schriffen
Northern Iowa at South Dakota State (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 2 p.m. ESPN 3
Chris Vosters, Marcus Ray
Illinois State at Central Arkansas (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 3 p.m. ESPN 3
Shawn Kenney, Forrest Connoly
Kennesaw State at Weber State (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 3 p.m. ESPN 3
Michael Reghi, Dustin Fox
SE Louisiana at Montana (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 3 p.m. ESPN 3
Trey Bender, Tyoka Jackson
Albany at Montana State (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 3 p.m. ESPN 3
Matt Stewart, Al Groh
Memphis vs. Cincinnati (America Athletic Conference Championship Game) | 3:30 p.m. | ABC
Dave Pasch, Greg McElroy, Tom Luginbill
Nicholls at North Dakota State (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 3:30 p.m. ESPN 3
Dan Gutowsky, Marcus Ray
LSU vs. Georgia (SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, GA) | 4 p.m. | CBS
Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson, Jamie Erdhal
Boise State vs. Hawaii (Mountain West Championship Game) | 4 p.m. | ESPN
Roy Philpott, Kelly Stouffer, Lauren Sisler
Clemson vs. Virginia (ACC Championship Game in Charlotte, NC) | 7:30 p.m. | ABC
Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Todd McShay, Maria Taylor
Ohio State vs. Wisconsin (Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis, IN) | 8 p.m. | FOX
Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt, Jenny Taft
Austin Peay at Sacramento State (FCS Championship — Second Round) | 9 p.m. ESPN 3
Robert Lee, Stan Lewter
Anish Shroff is on the call for the Mid-American Conference championship game between Miami University and Central Michigan. He will be joined by former Pittsburgh and Canadian Football League quarterback John Congemi, who stepped in for Shroff’s longtime partner, Ahmad Brooks, about halfway through this season.
Shroff, 37, is from Bloomfield, New Jersey, the same hometown as Bob Ley and Kevin Burkhardt. He graduated from Syracuse in 2004 and had his first audition for ESPN soon after, participating in the reality series Dream Job in hopes of becoming a SportsCenter anchor. He finished third, but after a few years in various sports media roles in Yakima, Washington, Syracuse, and his New York City, Anish was hired by ESPN in 2008 as a host for ESPNews.
Shroff hosted ESPN Goal Line and ESPNU’s College Football Live early on in his tenure with the Worldwide Leader but has taken on more play-by-play roles in the 2010s. He started calling college football games on Thursdays during the 2011 season and has steadily risen up the ladder in the years since, joining the main Saturday rotation in 2017.
Shroff also calls college baseball and basketball, but his most recognizable work may be in lacrosse. Shroff was tabbed to be the lead announcer for the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships starting with the 2017 season, and he’s built a niche in that role with his partners, college lacrosse All-Americans and college football sideline reporters, Quint Kessenich and Paul Carcaterra.
