CBS and TNT Announce NCAA Tournament Pairings

CBS and TNT, who already announced they would partner up to call the NCAA tournament, have announced today their NCAA tournament announcing pairings. Here's what it will look like.

- Final Four and Championship game will be called with Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, and Steve Kerr with Tracy Wolfson taking care of the sideline duties.

- Kerr and Marv Albert will call regional games. This will be the first time Albert has called NCAA tournament games since the late 70's and early 80's when NBC held the coverage rights.

- The studio will originate from both the CBS studios in New York and the TNT studios in Atlanta. The main anchor chair will be shared by Greg Gumbel and Ernie Johnson.

- Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will provide studio analysis alongside Greg Anthony in New York.

- Remember the tournament added four more teams. "The First Four" games will be broadcast on a Tuesday and Wednesday before the 1st and 2nd round weekend begins with Nantz, Kellogg, and Kerr calling the first two games on truTV. Gus Johnson and Len Elmore will call the last two games of the "First Four" with Gumbel, Johnson, Barkley, Anthony and Smith in the studio.

- Sports Illustrated writer Seth Davis and TNT analyst Reggie Miller will join the New York studio rotation for the second week of the tournament. Davis will be in Turner's Atlanta studio the first week with host Matt Winer and Steve Smith.

- Here are the other announcing pairings: Johnson and Elmore, Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery, Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller and Dan Bonner, Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel, Tim Brando and Mike Gminski and Spero Dedes and Bob Wenzel

- Sideline Reporters: David Aldridge, Sam Ryan, Craig Sager, Marty Snider, Lesley Visser and Tracy Wolfson

- Games will be aired on: CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV

I have to admit this sounds like one big clusterf*ck. Maybe once the schedule is announced it will be easier to figure out how this will work, but right now it looks like a mess.

I along with a lot of other people will be interested to see how well the TNT guys (Johnson, Barkley, Smith, Kerr, and Albert) adjust to calling college basketball games. Also how controversial will Barkley be? He's gone on record before stating he believes college athletes should be paid? He can get away with saying controversial remarks about the NBA, but the NCAA cringes at things like that. What happens if he says college athletes should be paid while he's on air? Will he be pulled from the broadcast? This whole agreement is very intriguing and I'm interested to see how it will end up. Bring on the NCAA tournament!

(Via Sports Illustrated)