Pac-12 to provide enhanced access to college football broadcasts - ESPN

The Pac-12 will provide enhanced in-game and pregame access during broadcasts of college football games this fall, including in-game head coach interviews and having select coaches and players wear mics during pregame activities, ESPN learned Thursday.

With the support of the conference's head coaches, the Pac-12 board of directors developed the initiatives alongside ESPN and Fox Sports and approved them during the league's recent Spring Council meetings. An announcement is expected later Thursday.

The conference will also allow for cameras in the coaches' booth without sound, extended handheld camera permission, and pregame and halftime locker room camera access. The additional content will be implemented throughout Pac-12 games on ESPN, Fox Sports and Pac-12 Networks.

«I'm sure they'll have some key games that they really want to press on,» said Merton Hanks, the Pac-12's executive associate commissioner of football operations, «but when you've got personalities like Deion Sanders in your league, you probably want to put a mic on him, right? I'm sure they'll choose certain games to really highlight certain aspects and see how it resonates with the fan base.»

While the additional access will provide more entertainment, it won't be as live as what XFL fans have seen, but it's a step designed to bring college football closer to what other sports like Major League Baseball have long been doing. The Big 12 is also exploring the concept.

Hanks told ESPN there are additional opportunities for access the Pac-12 would like to pursue, but they aren't currently approved under NCAA legislation. The conference didn't elaborate on what more it is seeking to do.

«We'll continue to work with the NCAA in that respect,» he said.

Hanks