North Canton Hoover grad Todd Blackledge to lead NBC's coverage of Big Ten football this fall
A familiar face and voice will lead NBC Sports’ coverage of Big Ten football when it debuts Sept. 2. North Canton Hoover High School graduate Todd Blackledge (analyst) will join Noah Eagle (play-by-play) and Kathryn Tappen (sideline reporter) in prime time.
NBC Sports was one of several entities, including CBS and Fox, who received a share of the Big Ten’s sports rights with the three of them combining to pay $8 billion for seven years, the largest sports rights deal in history. It marks the first time in decades that the conference’s sporting events will not appear on ESPN and ABC.
NBC scored what they view to be the crown jewel of the deal with a Saturday prime-time game that will air under the banner of “Big Ten Saturday Night” this fall. The network will now have one of the premier college football conferences on Saturday night and the NFL on Sundays with "NFL Sunday Night Football."
Blackledge, who quarterbacked Penn State to a national championship in 1982 and played in the NFL, will enter his 30th year in the broadcast booth.
He spent the past 17 seasons as an analyst for ESPN’s primetime college football broadcast after seven season at CBS and five at ABC. He also had a run as the boys basketball head coach at Hoover High School.
Blackledge, who played in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers, gives football fans a familiar face and voice given his experience at ESPN.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: NBC taps former Penn State QB Todd Blackledge for Big Ten coverage
