History
The network put college football on the network knowing the NFL contract was set to expire following the 2005 NFL season. They were hoping to get some games, but were shut out. The NFL decided to grant the remaining games to its own NFL Network. Versus instead added games from the Mountain West Conference (MWC) as part of a deal between Comcast (the owner of Versus), CBS Sports Network and the MWC which also lead to the creation of the MountainWest Sports Network.
In 2006, Versus used Gary Bender or Bob Papa as the play-by-play announcer, Glenn Parker as the analyst and Argy Stathapulos as the sideline reporter for their coverage of Mountain West football.
On June 6, 2007, it was announced that Versus has agreed to a multi-year year deal with Fox Sports Net to sublicense up to 10 college games annually from the Pac-10 and Big 12 conferences. Previously, these games had aired on TBS.
In 2008, Versus announced a contract with the Ivy League to broadcast at least 3-games a year, culminating in the annual Harvard-Yale football rivalry. The contract was for 2-years and was renewed in 2010.
In 2010 Fox Sports discontinued the Big 12 games on Versus and upped the number of Pac-10 games to 7 a season.
After the 2010 season the Pac-10 announced they were expanding and changing their name to the Pac-12. With 1 to 2 additional games to broadcast each week Fox Sports chose to expand the Pac-12 games by adding college football to FX. Versus would continue with the 7 games they previously received. They would lose those rights to Pac-12 networks beginning in 2012.
For 2012, NBC Sports Network replaced the loss of Pac-12 football by signing a contract to air at least 5 games a year from the CAA. They would also renew the Ivy League contract for another 2 seasons, upping the number of broadcasts from 3 to 5 games a season to 6 to 10 games a season. The Harvard-Yale game remained one of the guaranteed NBCSN broadcasts. They also increased the number of MWC football broadcasts by 2.
Read more about this topic: College Football On NBC
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