Asmussen | Big Ten TV deal brings familiar faces to new places

INDIANAPOLIS — Illinois football fans, you need to learn some new TV channels.
In: CBS, NBC and Peacock.
Status quo: BTN, Fox and FS1.
Forget about them: ABC and ESPN.
The Big Ten’s monster TV deal starts during the 2023 season and kicks into full gear in 2024. For anyone older than 50 (my hand shoots into the air), it provides an unreal amount of coverage. Hate to write this, but when I was a kid, a game or two a week was all we got. And we liked it.
Of course, this is better. College football fans can watch their favorite team every week without buying a ticket. The assumption for old-timey athletic directors was that free, live football on TV would cut into the home gate.
Wrong. Good fans want to be there. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is real in sports. When their favorite team pulls a stunner, fans want to say they were in the stands.
Welcome aboard
The Big Ten has an envy-inducing TV setup, with national network games at 11 a.m. (Fox), afternoon (CBS) and prime time (NBC).
Illinois will get a quick intro to those, with the Penn State game on Sept. 16 in Champaign set to kick off at 11 a.m. on Fox and the Sept. 30 game at Purdue reportedly set for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff on NBC.
The SEC has a loaded conference in terms of TV draws, but there are more homes in the Big Ten footprint. Even when Texas joins the SEC in 2024, it will be outdistanced in a ratings way by two West Cost schools, Southern California and UCLA.
A former Bruins quarterback, Rick Neuheisel, is part of the CBS team.
Illini fans might remember Neuheisel as the MVP-winning quarterback in the 1984 Rose Bowl. Too soon?
He remembers the Illinois team 40 years later.
“Don Thorp, Mark Butkus, Jack Trudeau, David Williams,” Neuheisel rattled off to me. “There were a number of great players. It just turned out to be our day.”
It didn’t start that way. Neuheisel had food poisoning before the game.
“The adrenaline of the Rose Bowl was the best drug you could take,” he said. “I got through it.”
Neuheisel, now working as a studio analyst, hopes to make a trip to Champaign-Urbana.
“I’ve never been there,” he said.
Anywhere else in the conference he wants to go?
“I haven’t been to the ‘Shoe (Ohio Stadium),” Neuheisel said. “Maybe someday, I’ll get to go see somebody dot the I.”
He worked against Big Ten schools while coaching at Colorado, Washington and UCLA.
He could have been the coach against Illinois in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at San Francisco, but UCLA fired him in late November. Mike Johnson served as interim coach against Illinois interim boss Vic Koenning.
Neuheisel has Big Ten roots. His parents, Dick and Jane, are both Wisconsin alums.
“It’s exciting,” Neuheisel said. “The first song I could ever sing was, ‘On Wisconsin!’ I won’t do it now.”
Next year, when UCLA becomes an official league member, Neuheisel can claim the Big Ten, too.
“Now my Dad and I went to the same conference,” he said.
Long time, no seeCBS analyst Gary Danielson knows the Big Ten as a player (he was a starting quarterback at Purdue) and as an announcer, calling league games for ESPN and ABC.
“I did 100 Big Ten games,” Danielson said.
Including Illinois broadcasts.
“The Simeon Rice, Kevin Hardy years, the Jason Verduzco years,” Danielson said. “We were always there.”
Starting in 2006, Danielson called SEC games for CBS. Full circle, the network is back with the Big Ten.
“It’s an honor,” said Danielson, who turns 72 on Sept. 10. “I’ve been doing this 34 years. CBS doesn’t just hand the mic to anybody. They’ve got an important product. That they’ve allowed me to do their kickoff season, the first Big Ten championship game, means a lot to me.”
CBS has a limited Big Ten schedule in 2023, then goes full time in 2024.
Danielson can’t wait to call a game at his alma mater.
“It will be great,” Danielson said. “My family’s from there. My father-in-law (George King) was athletic director there. My wife graduated from there. My daughter graduated from there. It will be a big thrill.”
He has called more than 500 games during his broadcasting career.
Two of his favorites were at Ross-Ade Stadium. The first was Drew Brees leading the Boilermakers to a late win against Ohio State. The second was Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel helping the Buckeyes to a win against Purdue on the way to the national title.
NBC analyst Todd Blackledge has been in Big Ten TV booths during his time at ESPN, ABC and CBS.
“This will be different because it’s new for NBC,” Blackledge said. “We’ll be doing prime-time games only and Big Ten games only. It will kind of be like my days at CBS, where I was doing SEC only.”
His first game will be West Virginia at Penn State on Sept. 2.
“When I get to go back, it is always special,” Blackledge said. “I see a lot of old friends and old teammates.”
Technically, he is now a Big Ten alum. Blackledge starred as Penn State’s quarterback in the early 1980s before the Nittany Lions joined the conference in 1993.
“It’s been a great move for Penn State,” Blackledge said. “Not just football but all sports. That was the biggest attraction to moving to the Big Ten.”
Bob Asmussen can be reached at 217-393-8248 or by email at asmussen@new