ESPN to feature National Championship coverage on all platforms

ESPN will broadcast the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship Monday night, but it won’t just be the traditional “game on a single channel.”

The ESPN family of networks will have one mission Monday night—covering the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes in the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship.

According to a release from the worldwide leader, there will be more than a dozen alternate presentations of the title game across its platforms.

Dubbed the CFP Megacast, the traditional telecast on ESPN will be called by Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit along with sideline reporters Heather Cox and Tom Rinaldi.

But that’s just the beginning.

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A popular option from last year’s BCS national title game, the Film Room will be back on ESPN2 with network analysts Chris Spielman and Tom Luginbill featured along with three current coaches—Dan Mullen of Mississippi State, Pat Narduzzi of Pitt and Mike Riley of Nebraska.

Narduzzi’s input could be particularly noteworthy since he faced both Ohio State and Oregon this season as defensive coordinator at Michigan State.

ESPNU will feature a viewing theater of ESPN on-air talent from outside the college football universe, including Jay Bilas, Aaron Boone, Julie Foudy, Barry Melrose, Mark Schlereth and Michael Wilbon.

On ESPNEWS, Off the Ball will show how the game is broken down by analysts Kevin Carter, Matt Millen, Jason Sehorn and Matt Stinchcomb, along with Amani Toomer.

ESPN Classic will have ESPN video and the natural sounds of the game to be captured by 100 microphones positioned throughout AT&T Stadium. This will include pregame and halftime performances by each school’s marching band.

ESPN Radio will use Monday Night Football play-by-play man Mike Tirico with analyst Todd Blackledge, sideline reporters Holly Rowe and Joe Schad and rules expert Bill Lemonnier.

ESPN3 will feature Home Team Radio, with team specific coverage featuring the radio broadcast teams of the respective schools.

ESPN Goal Line, not to be left out, will have commercial-free coverage of a full-time split screen showing live action along with immediate replays of every play and isolated camera feeds of both head coaches, along with advances statistics and the ESPN Radio broadcast call.

That, by the way, will probably be my choice.

Spanish language coverage will be available on ESPN Deportes and ESPN3 will also feature SpiderCam (watch the entire game from the above-field camera), the Student Section, with cameras in each student section, sponsored by Taco Bell and featuring 500 students from each school.

There will also be a Data Center on ESPN3 that will be updated in real time with graphics ranging from analytics and social media as well as conventional stats and coverage.

The game coverage will also be made available to members of the Armed Forces around the world on the American Forces Network, with 146 countries able to tune in on ESPN International and ESPN Deportes.

It will be quite the festival, to be sure.

ESPN just has to be hoping at this point that neither Johnny Manziel nor LeBron James do something Monday, like send a tweet or go to a club. If that happens, they might have to tear the whole thing down.

ESPN will broadcast the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship Monday night, but it won’t just be the traditional “game on a single channel.”

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