Todd Blackledge, Noah Eagle, Kathryn Tappen to lead Big Ten football coverage for NBC Sports
Todd Blackledge, Noah Eagle and Kathryn Tappen will form the broadcast team this fall for NBC Sports’ Big Ten football coverage, the company announced Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:
Blackledge, a Penn State legend for quarterbacking the Nittany Lions national championship team in 1982, joins NBC after previous stints with ABC, CBS and ESPN. He’s called the playoff semifinals in each of the past nine years. Eagle has covered college football with Fox and CBS for the past few seasons and currently handles play-by-play assignments for Los Angeles Clippers radio. He also covered the NFL, college basketball and tennis. Blackledge and Eagle will be joined by Tappen as a secondary reporter. Tappen served as a sideline reporter for Notre Dame football from 2014 through 2021. The team will call a Big Ten game each weekend from September 2 through November 25.
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
A significant investment in the conference
NBC Sports has made a significant investment to add Big Ten college football inventory — joining CBS and Fox as part of a trio that will pay the conference billions — and its upcoming Big Ten Saturday Night college football package gives them a prime-time window to showcase his new property. Between NBC and Peacock, NBC will air 33 college football games in fall 2023. — Deitsch
Blackledge at the Star
The announcement team of Eagle (play-by-play), Blackledge (analyst) and Tappen (sideline) will likely focus on Blackledge given his four decades (1994 to 2022) as a CFB ABC analyst , CBS and ESPN. Eagle, the 25-year-old son of Ian Eagle, already has a long resume including CBS, Fox and as the radio voice of the Clippers. His family connections have clearly produced opportunities faster, but he has so far proven to be an excellent caller on play-by-play at a very young age professionally. Tappen served eight seasons as a sideline reporter for Notre Dame football on NBC before moving to hosting studio coverage last fall. —Deitsch
Required reading
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