FS1, ESPN neglect ongoing college football games during halftime

Televised halftime shows are often used to break down the first half of the game that viewers just watched. This is particularly true if the game is close at halftime. But two different networks went in another direction on Friday night.

The most glaring departure came from FS1. Despite being favored by 24.5 points, the Wisconsin Badgers held a small 10-7 halftime lead over the Western Michigan Broncos. But the halftime show went to the Big Noon Kickoff team of Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Mark Ingram II, Matt Leinart and Urban Meyer, who were in Morgantown for Saturday’s showdown between Penn State and West Virginia. No conversation about Western Michigan and Wisconsin was held. In fact, it couldn’t have been held.

While the Broncos and Badgers were playing a night game, Stone, Quinn, Ingram, Leinart and Meyers were sitting outside — in broad daylight.

On Sept. 13, WWE SmackDown! will leave Fox for USA. Once that happens, Fox will begin to air Friday night college football on its main channel. The first of those games will be on Sept. 13, when Kansas State hosts Arizona. We assume that once that starts, Fox will begin to run a real studio show given the larger audience and a conference game.

A similar halftime show, which Fox had nothing to do with came later in the day. ESPN aired a game between the TCU Horned Frogs and Stanford Cardinal late on Friday night. Again, it was a close game with the Cardinal (8.5-point underdogs) leading 17-10. But the halftime production made the NBA Finals halftime shows, which featured virtually no analysis, look downright insightful.

This was not as blatant of a pre-record, as it was inside the studio. But the halftime show was bereft of any highlights from or commentary about the first two quarters of a good game. Instead, it was devoted strictly to highlights from earlier on Friday and previews of Saturday’s games.

[Photo Credit: FS1]