NBC College Football Game of the Week


The NBC College Football Game of the Week refers to nationally televised broadcasts of Saturday afternoon college football games that were produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States. Bowl games were always exempt from the NCAA's television regulations, and the games' organizers were free to sign rights deals with any network. In NBC's case, the 1952 Rose Bowl at the end of that particular season was the first national telecast of a college bowl game.

Background

NBC first televised college football on September 30, 1939. NBC broadcast the game between Waynesburg and Fordham on station W2XBS with one camera and Bill Stern was the sole announcer. Estimates are that the broadcast reached approximately 1,000 television sets. Twelve years later, the first live regular season college football game to be broadcast coast-to-coast aired on NBC. The game in question, was Duke at the University of Pittsburgh on September 29, 1951.
Pretty soon on June 6, 1952, NBC Head of Sport Tom Gallery led negotiations towards a one-year football contract with the NCAA. The contract incidentally came about after the 1951 NCAA convention voted 161-7 to outlaw televised games except for those licensed by the NCAA staff. The deal allowed NBC to select one game a week to broadcast on Saturday afternoons, with the assurance that no other NCAA college football broadcast would appear on a competitive network. In the first college football game to be broadcast under this new NCAA television contract, on September 20, Kansas defeated TCU 13–0.
By 1953, the NCAA allowed NBC to add what it called "panorama" coverage of multiple regional broadcasts for certain weeks – shifting national viewers to the most interesting game during its telecast. After NBC lost its college football contract following the 1953 season, they carried Canadian football in 1954. NBC regained college football rights in 1955 and aired games through the 1959 season. NBC regained the NCAA contract for the 1964 and 1965 seasons
Even after losing the rights to regular season college football in both 1959 and 1965, NBC continued to carry postseason football. NBC carried the Blue–Gray Football Classic, an all-star game, on Christmas Day, until dropping the game in 1963 as a protest of the game's policy of segregation. It consistently served as the Rose Bowl's television home until 1988 and added the Sugar Bowl from 1958 to 1969.

Commentators

Play-by-play

1952">1952 college football season">1952

Mel Allen and Bill Henry served as the primary broadcast crew.
DateTeamsTime
September 20Texas Christian @ Kansas3:45pm
September 27Princeton @ Columbia1:25pm
October 4Michigan @ Stanford4:40pm
October 11Texas A&M @ Michigan State1:45pm
October 18Cornell @ Yale1:45pm
October 25Purdue @ Illinois2:15pm
November 1Ohio State @ Northwestern2:15pm
November 8Oklahoma @ Notre Dame2:15pm
November 15Alabama @ Georgia Tech2:15pm
November 22UCLA @ Southern California4:45pm
November 29ARMY-NAVY Game1pm

1953">1953 college football season">1953

Mel Allen and Lindsey Nelson served as the primary broadcast crew.

DateTeamsTime
September 19Oregon @ Nebraska3:45pm
September 26Dartmouth @ Holy Cross 1:45pm
October 3Ohio State @ California4:45pm
October 10Oklahoma @ Texas 2:30pm
October 17Tennessee @ Alabama2:45pm
October 24Mississippi @ Arkansas
Princeton @ Cornell
Syracuse @ Illinois
Indiana @ Iowa		2:45pm
October 31Pittsburgh @ Minnesota2:45pm
November 7Wisconsin @ Northwestern2:45pm
November 14Michigan @ Michigan State1:15pm
November 21Southern California @ UCLA4:15pm
November 26Brigham Young @ Utah2:45pm
November 28Army-Navy Game 1:15pm
December 5SMU @ Notre Dame2:00pm

Lindsey Nelson and Bill Munday called the Georgia-Florida on November 28.

1955">1955 college football season">1955

Lindsey Nelson and Red Grange served as the primary broadcast crew.
DateTeamsTime
September 17Miami @ Georgia Tech3:15pm
September 24Pittsburgh @ Syracuse1:15pm
October 1Ohio State @ Stanford4:45pm
October 8Villanova @ Boston College1:45pm
October 15Notre Dame @ Michigan State2:45pm
October 22Princeton @ Cornell1:45pm
October 29Iowa @ Michigan2:15pm
November 5Notre Dame @ Pennsylvania1:15pm
November 12Navy @ Columbia1:15pm
November 19UCLA @ Southern California4:15pm
November 24Texas @ Texas A&M2pm
November 26ARMY-NAVY Game1:15pm
December 3Duke @ North Carolina1:45pm

[1956 [NCAA University Division football season|1956]]

Lindsey Nelson and Red Grange served as the primary broadcast crew.
DateTeamsTime
September 22Georgia Tech @ Kentucky3pm
September 29Cornell @ Colgate1:45pm
October 6Arkansas @ Texas Christian4pm
October 13Holy Cross @ Penn State1:45pm
October 20Army @ Syracuse1:45pm
October 27Oklahoma @ Notre Dame2:45pm
November 3Notre Dame @ Navy 1:45pm
November 10Iowa @ Minnesota2:15pm
November 17Princeton @ Yale1:45pm
November 22Cornell @ Pennsylvania1:45pm
November 24Southern California @ UCLA4:15pm
December 1ARMY-NAVY Game 1:15pm
December 8Pittsburgh @ Miami2:15pm

1957">1957 NCAA University Division football season">1957

Lindsey Nelson and Red Grange served as the primary broadcast crew. On October 12 and 26 and November 9, 23 and 28, NBC showed regional games with Mel Allen/Bill Flemming, Jim Simpson/Charley Harville, and Chick Hearn/Lee Giroux.
DateTeamsTime
September 21Maryland @ Texas A&M 4:45pm
September 28Northwestern @ Stanford4:45pm
October 5Michigan State @ California5:15pm
October 12Notre Dame @ Army 1:45pm
October 19Minnesota @ Illinois2:15pm
October 26Penn State @ Syracuse1:15pm
November 2Iowa @ Michigan1:15pm
November 9Duke @ Navy 1:45pm
November 16Notre Dame @ Oklahoma2:45pm
November 23Harvard @ Yale1:15pm
November 28Colgate @ Brown1:15pm
November 30ARMY-NAVY Game 1:15pm
December 7Pittsburgh @ Miami3:45pm

1958">1958 NCAA University Division football season">1958

1959">1959 NCAA University Division football season">1959