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Erin Andrews Gets To Cover The Pac-12 More At FOX Sports

By Avinash Kunnath
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Lots of exciting news with the Pac-12 network coverage. And it looks like another prominent face will be covering the conference on a regular basis. Chip Kelly jumps with delight!

Erin Andrews is moving to Fox Sports. SI.com has learned the network hired the former ESPN personality to host a new 30-minute prime-time college football studio show, which premieres Sept. 1 before Fox Sports' coverage of Hawaii at USC. Andrews will also have other assignments at Fox Sports, including a role in its NFL and MLB coverage.

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Fox invested heavily in college football over the last 24 months, including entering a 12-year agreement with the Pac-12 this year covering broadcast, national and local cable, and digital assets, and will air a minimum of eight regular-season football games on Fox Sports, at least four in prime time. Last year, Fox Sports and the Big 12 reached a 13-year agreement for exclusive cable rights to 40 football games per season. Fox will air the Pac-12 championship game on Nov. 30

Generally Andrews was sent to the primetime ESPN matchup, which meant she'd occasionally be on site for a big Pac-12 matchup like USC-Stanford, Stanford-Oregon, Oregon-USC and the Rose Bowl.

I'm not sure how much Andrews will exclusively be covering Pac-12 sports, and how much of an impact she'll have on Pac-12 sports coverage. I guess there are people who show up to watch a sport based on who's covering it--the popularity of Andrews on the college football beat has been off the charts--but generally fans will gravitate to the biggest matchups regardless, so it's likely not to have a huge impact on TV ratings for the conference.

Still, having more recognizable faces cover the conference can only be a good thing. With Andrews likely hosting the FOX Studio show and Gus Johnson calling all the games, suddenly FOX has taken perhaps the two most marketable names in college sports and placed them at the forefront of broadcasting the Conference of Champions. It might be a bit coincidental that they've ended up on Pac-12 coverage, but hey, they were the ones who leapt out and snared FOX into the major college sporting race. Fortune favors the bold.

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