Joel Bulkley
We’re still waiting on the details, but the Carolina Hurricanes will have their own TV network for the 26-27 season in conjunction with the NHL. They said it will be similar to what they had last season with cable, satellite, streaming options. The NHL is helping three other teams as well—Columbus, St. Louis, Minnesota, with a centralized production operation for all non-national TV games.
The Canes are replacing Main Street Sports which operated FanDuel Sports regional networks until they folded in the spring and will help on pregame, intermission and postgame features and programming. We don’t have a name, distribution partner, channel location or pricing information for the new operation but it was promised to arrive before the season opener Sep. 29 in Raleigh. Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy will continue to do Canes games and be simulcast on TV.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Hornets of the NBA have an agreement with Cox Media Group to broadcast all games over the air on free TV in the Charlotte area (WSOC and TV64). No info yet on streaming plans or how Triangle fans can watch Charlotte games. The station has done some Hornet games in the past. Eric Collins and Dell Curry are expected to call the games.
Networks regularly change game broadcast lineups. And unfortunately layoffs are often part of the landscape. Ryan Clark, Cam Newton, Carl Ravich were among recent cuts at ESPN.
Wes Durham will team with former USC and Pitt QB Max Browne, sideline reporter Madison Fitzpatrick for ACC Network primetime games. This is Durham’s fourth partner in four years. He worked with former BC coach Steve Addizio last season. Browne teamed with Chris Cotter on the ACC secondary team last year.
We’re not likely to see UNC games in the early evening timeslot. The first three Tar Heel contests are 12 noon. UNC’s schedule was ranked 29th most difficult, compared to 80 last year by ESPN.
Mark Jones and Doug Flemming are gone, replaced by Tom Hart and Roy Philoff on ESPN football games.
A week 0 edition of College Football Countdown (GameDay starts week 1) will air Saturday, Aug. 29, 10 to noon, on ESPN. Kevin Negandhi will host alongside Greg McElroy, Jesse Palmer, Booger McFarland and Pete Thamel, leading directly into the 2026 Aer Lingus Football Classic between TCU and UNC. The NC State/Virginia game follows.
At CBS, Tony Romo was shelved, replaced by JJ Watt, for NFL team 1 with Jim Nantz. Ross Tucker joined Ian Eagle on Team 2. Romo is on leave “until further notice.”
Athlon Sports ranked college football teams from 1 (Ohio St.) to138 (UMass), and didn’t show much love for N.C. schools: State 46, Wake Forest 52, Duke 54, UNC 56, Stanford 80. Their pre-season ACC rankings were Miami 1, SMU 2, Louisville 3…N.C. State 9, Wake Forest 12, Duke 13, UNC 14, Stanford 17. They had Miami 7, SMU 22, Louisville 23 in their Top 25 picks.
Strange stuff and newsbits. The Clash NASCAR exhibition race returns to Daytona Feb. 13 next year after two years at Bowman Gray Stadium, Winston-Salem. The race is a warmup for the Daytona 500. This year it was postponed twice by snow.
Two 60 Minutes alumni, Sharon Alfonsi and Scott Pelley, will teach at Columbia Journalism School this fall.
California (Berkeley) charged ESPN $4,500 to host College GameDay on campus in 2024. Most schools beg for a shot to host the popular Saturday morning program.
Cade Tyson, a former UNC player, was one of the successful plaintiffs in the Colorado court case for a fifth year of eligibility. He also played for Belmont (2 years), Minnesota.
Have you seen Sports Jeopardy with Joe Buck? It’s streaming on ESPN+.
The FIBA women’s basketball world cup in Berlin starts Sep. 4 for Team USA. The head coach and assistant coach are from Duke. Games will be broadcast on TNT.
Tried unsuccessfully to find the results for Trump’s Patriot Games in Ohio.
Lee Pace, sideline reporter for UNC football radio broadcasts for 22 years, retired. He’s written about NC golf and UNC football for decades.
If you get Phil Steele’s 26 College Football publication, be sure it’s the real thing (376 pages). Reports surfaced on X of AI ripoffs being sold on Amazon.
Most interesting TV this summer excluding WC soccer were the This Was Sportscenter podcasts hosted by Rich Eisen.
The “Madden” film with Nicolas Cage as the coach/ broadcaster debuts Nov. 18 on Prime Video.
ACC villains. FSU Coach Bobby Bowden was 9-0 against UNC and certainly an “archenemy” in an ESPN football story. Christian Watkins, defensive tackle at Clemson, 4-0 against NC State, was another.
The Carolina Panthers TV network (WRAL locally) broadcasts preseason games with Anish Shroff on play-by-play and Steve Smith Sr. and Jake Delhomme analysts, Carla Metts sideline reporter. Most do Panther radio broadcasts during the regular season. Smith may be a rising star on NFL coverage at ESPN.
For the Buffalo game, they went on the air at kickoff so there was no pre-game intro or postgame show. The HOF game was on NBC.
Panthers will have joint practices with Jacksonville and Houston before preseason games. Games also are on radio locally (WRAL-FM, 101.5).
UNC alum, former actor and two-term Ga. Rep. Ben Jones passed away in Washington, Va. He was best known as mechanic Cooter Davenport on the Dukes of Hazard TV show. Jones was 84 and a major Atlanta Braves fan.