Sports Media Spotlight: Excited for the craziness of March Madness? Broadcasters are, too
Many college basketball fans appreciate some chaos and craziness during the NCAA Tournament.
Folks broadcasting the games like it, too.
“When it runs smoothly it’s not nearly as fun. When a 16 beats a 1, that’s a story. That transcends basketball fans,” said Deb Gelman, of CBS Sports. A Penn State graduate who grew up in State College, she’s the producer in charge of evening studio shows during the tournament.
During the first full days of the tournament on March 19 and 20, Gelman will work the night shift, from 7 p.m. until coverage ends each night. It’s her job to put on-air talent in a position to succeed and keep viewers informed and entertained.
With more casual viewers watching the tournament than during the regular season, that means a little less in terms of Xs and Os and a slightly bigger focus on storylines.
Fellow producer Tim Weinkauf handles things from noon to 6 p.m., and Gelman follows. That puts her in a more reactive position. By the time she takes over, half of the day’s games are concluded. It’s never predictable, and she likes that.
“We always have a plan but it never fails that the results change things and you have to react,” she said.
Broadcasters build a grid based on game start times to plan for “bridge” shows between games and studio shows. Fouls, injuries, timeouts and whatever else invariably make those initial plans useless.
That — combined with the emotion and elimination game status of every game — makes the tournament exciting for broadcasters, too.
“I think the NCAA Tournament is the only thing that’s like that,” said Gelman, who has covered almost every major sport during her award-winning career. “Even conference tournaments, where there might be four games the first day, are different because those aren’t necessarily elimination games.
“Plus, it’s so fast. The NFL season is 20 weeks — that’s a grind. This is literally three weeks. It’s so condensed that you can’t help but feel the difference.”
There’s no time to linger after a game or if something goes wrong, either.
“We literally just move on to the next one,” she said.
Bracket business
The biggest cultural impact of the NCAA Tournament during the past couple decades has been “the brackets” and the tournament terminology.
Almost every playoff format in any sport anymore makes reference to its tournament. Plus, because millions of people fill out brackets for contests, fun or whatever at this time of the year, every competition or tournament seems more legitimate if it has a bracket.
It has been an impressive and overwhelming move into our cultural consciousness. Just listen for it during other sports in coming months.
Football fix
In a move that can hopefully speed games, the NCAA football rules committee has proposed a two-minute time limit for officials to review replays during games beginning next season.
That’s an overdue and wise move — depending on when the two-minute countdown actually begins. Plus, it gets back to the roots of football replay a bit. When the technology was first used in the NFL, there was a 90-second limit for rulings to be confirmed or overruled. Unfortunately, that’s long gone.
If a review cannot make something clear in two minutes, that’s plenty of time to move along.
The rule will become official if approved April 16 during a meeting of the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel.
Just Jay
ESPN’s outspoken and smart college basketball analyst Jay Bilas took college administrators, the NCAA and schools to task in regard to coming name, image and likeness (NIL) legislation. That’s the approach that would allow student-athletes to make money for, well, being themselves.
Yes, it’s a muddy mess with all kinds of potential problems. Bilas was correct when excoriating those in charge, though. He made his point during a recent episode of “College GameDay.”
“They don’t want to provide anything more to the athletes,” he said. “So when they say they want to allow NIL as long as it fits within the collegiate model, that’s like saying they want to allow unlimited showers as long as no one gets wet. … They’re running to Congress to say, ‘Help us control this.’ But they’ve never gone to Congress about coaches’ salaries, what’s being spent in facilities, help us control travel, help us control media rights.”
Regarding Romo
CBS Sports made the most of its exclusive negotiating window and signed NFL analyst Tony Romo to a three-year deal that will pay him $17 million a year, according to several national reports. Those same reports said Romo’s deal will likely extend to 10 years once the NFL and its broadcast partners finalize their next round of agreements.
By signing him, CBS kept Romo from ESPN, which was set to make its own lucrative offer.
Romo apparently only wants to do games, though. ESPN probably would’ve wanted to put him on games and other assignments and platforms. He would’ve worked “Monday Night Football,” which has been panned by critics in recent seasons — in some cases with good reason.
Still, it’s hard to believe the investment in Romo makes sense. Nobody watches games because of the broadcasters. Top broadcast teams get assigned to better games — that’s the only correlation.
People watch for their teams or for compelling matchups. Sure, Romo has worked many big games and earned a lot of attention early in his career. He’s good.
He’s also working one of the top games each week. Without him, no fewer folks would watch. With him, ESPN would not draw any more viewers.
Congratulations to Romo and his agent because they’re the real winners, not fans or viewers.
Sideline shakeup
Quarterback Matt McGloin, who markedly improved Penn State football radio broadcasts last season as sideline reporter, ironically might have ended his playing career in part because of a sideline interview.
He started the XFL season behind center for the New York Guardians and had a good opening game, leading the team to victory by not making too many mistakes. Struggles in subsequent games, though, combined with the all-access approach of the XFL and McGloin’s generally emotional outlook, led to him criticizing the game plan and coaching staff during a sideline interview.
Maybe McGloin was proving his worth as someone with an opinion, but while he might’ve been honest it was not exactly a keep-our-business-to-ourselves, team-first approach.
Last week he was on the bench and did not play when the team balanced its season record at 2-2.
‘Survive’ strong
For those with Netflix, “Drive to Survive” returned Feb. 28 and the behind-the-scenes show that focuses on Formula 1 racing offers a cinematic and entertaining view of the racing series.
It’s a good-looking show, and its almost all-access approach enables the personalities and storylines of the sport to come to life.
So many strong sports documentaries exist and this show proves it deserves a spot in that pantheon for a second year in a row.
State success
Kudos to all involved with the success of the Penn State men’s basketball team this season.
One thankful benefit of the team winning has been an end to excuses for previous struggles, like the number of different days of the week when they played games during the season, the officiating (OK, that one persists) or the days of the week when games are scheduled impacting attendance.
There’s some truth to each of those, but winning solves a lot of problems and limits a lot of friendly media complaints.
Tuner tidbits
That all-access coverage of Penn State men’s basketball a few weeks ago against Illinois was good stuff. Some viewers were uncomfortable because it was different, but it was a fun way to watch and not have to hear the inane banter of the TV types. The all-access in huddles and at halftime did not necessarily show Penn State in the best light at times (with the coach often sounding more like a therapist than a teacher), but it was good TV overall. If the crowd noise could be dampened a bit next time, that would be even better.
Midnight editions of “SportsCenter,” hosted by Scott Van Pelt, will originate from Washington, D.C., beginning in August. The show will use the same studio as “Pardon the Interruption.” It’s a good move, no doubt making host Van Pelt happy and giving ESPN a bigger presence in the nation’s capital while making that studio more efficient because it’s used more often.
Former Penn State standout football player KJ Hamler will be featured on ESPN’s “Hey Rookie” series that follows aspiring NFL players during their preparation for a pro career.
This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 4:31 PM.