While college basketball fans across the country are officially in mourning, college football fans nationwide are -- or should be -- thanking the broadcasting gods for Tuesday’s rise-and-hire*.
A week after announcing they had landed Pac-12 football games as part of a “landmark media deal”, FOX Sports announced this afternoon that Gus Johnson has been hired by the network to be the lead play-by-play announcer on its college football telecasts.
Johnson will team with Charles Davis in 2011, the press release states, to call Big 12, Conference USA and Pac-12 regular-season games on FX, as well as a pair of games for the Big Ten Network -- part-owned by FOX -- one of FOX’s two conference football championship games (the Pac-12 or Conference USA) and the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic. In 2012, the release further states, they’ll call FOX’s regular-season over-the-air broadcast schedule, culled primarily from the network’s recently completed rights agreement with the Pac-12, as well as the aforementioned postseason assignments.
As only he could do, the ever-excitable Johnson brought his on-air, buzzer-beater voice to what’s normally the most vanilla of quotes released for public consumption.
“Ahhhhhh! I am beyond excited to join the FOX Sports family today,” said Johnson in his statement. Seriously. “Being able to call play-by-play for the nation’s premier collegiate football conferences like the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12 is a tremendous honor and I can’t wait to get started! Is it August yet?”
With zero apologies to Jim Nantz, Johnson had become THE voice of March Madness over the past several years. FOX was able to pry Johnson away from The Eye after his contract expired recently and a new agreement could not be reached.
And, for that, college football fans the world over can be very thankful.