The Heisman Trophy is returning to network television.
In a release on Thursday, ESPN announced that ABC will air this year’s presentation of college football’s top individual honor on Saturday, Dec. 13. The ceremony will serve as the centerpiece of a day full of sports programming on both Disney-owned channels, with the schedule including the following events:
- Cricket Celebration Bowl (12 p.m. ET, ABC)
- NCAA FCS Quarterfinal (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC)
- Men’s college basketball: Memphis at Louisville (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
- Men’s college basketball: North Carolina State at Kansas (5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
- Heisman Trophy Ceremony (7 p.m. ET, ABC)
- Men’s college basketball: Indiana at Kentucky (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
- Bucked Up LA Bowl (8 p.m. ET, ABC)
- Men’s college basketball: Arizona vs. Alabama (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
As for the Heisman Trophy Ceremony, Chris Fowler will emcee the event for the 23rd straight year. Joining the ESPN play-by-play announcer will be reporters Holly Rowe and Marty Smith, as well as a trio of Heisman Trophy winners-turned-analysts in Andre Ward (1989), Desmond Howard (1991) and Tim Tebow (2007).
Having aired on ESPN since 1994, the Heisman Trophy Ceremony’s move to ABC will mark the first time that the event has aired on network television since NBC last hosted it in 1993. CBS first began televising the ceremony nationally in 1977 — albeit often in a delayed or recorded format — before it subsequently aired on ABC and NBC before making the move to ESPN in 1994.
As for the ABC/ESPN, it certainly makes sense for the Disney channels to load up the Saturday in between college football’s conference championship games and the start of the College Football Playoff with a plethora of sports offerings. And in addition to a strong slate of men’s college basketball games and bowl games, that will also include the most famous individual award in all of sports, which will now have access to an even larger audience than it previously possessed.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.