College Football Bowls Over
ESPN, ESPN2, ABC Will Televise 23 Games Through New Year
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 12/21/2007 8:30:00 AM
T’is the season to go bowling. No we’re not talking about keggling. Rather this is a reference to the action on the college gridiron.
ESPN kicked its coverage of the college bowl season last night with its presentation of Utah’s 35-32 victory over Navy in the Poinsetta Bowl in San Diego last night.
Through Jan. 1, sister services ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will televise 23 college football bowl games, highlighted by the “granddaddy of them all,” the Rose Bowl on the alphabet network on New Year’s Day.
All 23 of the match-ups will be offered in the enhanced format on ABC HD, ESPN HD and ESPN HD.
Factoring in ESPN Radio, broadband portal ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV, The Walt Disney Co.’s sports properties will cover 27 bowl games.
The schedule includes five ESPN Regional Television owned-and-operated bowl games: the Papajohns.com Bowl from Birmingham (Dec. 22 on ESPN2); New Mexico Bowl from Albuquerque (Dec. 22 on ESPN); Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 22 on ESPN); Sheraton Hawaii Bowl (Dec. 23 on ESPN); and Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Dec. 31 on ESPN).
Historically, the combination of the bowl games and the end of the pro football season make the last two weeks of the year ESPN’s highest-rated period.
