Brian Shawn to become new TV play-by-play voice of UND football

Aug. 4—GRAND FORKS — UND will have a new play-by-play voice on television for football games this season.

Brian Shawn will take over for Alex Heinert due to increasing conflicts between Midco Sports broadcasts of UND football and men's hockey.

For the first time, Midco Sports will be covering select UND road conference football games — something the Big Sky Conference did not allow, but the Missouri Valley Football Conference does.

There are two conference road games this season on dates when UND is home for hockey. Instead of splitting the football duties between Shawn and Heinert, Midco decided to put Shawn on football games full-time and keep Heinert as the primary play-by-play voice of UND men's hockey.

"It's a really exciting opportunity for me," said Shawn, who got his start in TV at UND's Studio One. "I went to games at Memorial Stadium as a student. I went to games at the Alerus Center as a student. I was at the national championship game in 2001 when they beat Grand Valley State. So, this is really fun. It's exciting to get that opportunity to do that after so many years."

Midco signed a four-year, $2 million deal this week to remain as UND athletics' TV partner. The contract has a pair of two-year options that could take it up to eight years.

Shawn, who was named North Dakota's sportscaster of the year in 2021, is a veteran FCS play-by-play commentator.

He served as the play-by-play voice for NDSU football broadcasts on Valley News Live from 2012-21.

Shawn, a former Grand Forks Herald part-time sports journalist, called UND basketball games last season and will continue to do that this season.

Heinert's hockey schedule may expand this season, too, as Midco is working to add select road games to the schedule.