ESPN is going big with its first major college football broadcast of the season, bringing back the ‘MegaCast’ and adding a blimp to the proceedings.
The Labor Day night game between Virginia Tech and Florida State will get the full treatment on ESPN and its other networks. There are a whopping seven ways to watch the game, starting with the standard ESPN broadcast featuring Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Maria Taylor.
Six additional viewing options come from ESPNU, ESPNEWS and ESPN3 on the new ESPN App. But the most intriguing angle is one high above the the field itself. A thousand feet above the field, to be exact.
According to the ESPN release, broadcasters will watch the game from the blimp and provide the first available game telecast “available exclusively from the blimp angle.”
The first-ever Labor Day MegaCast is elevated by the premiere of Goodyear BlimpCast, as Marty Smith and Ryan McGee will be stationed inside the Goodyear Blimp for the entire game, providing live commentary from more than 1,000 feet above Doak Campbell Stadium. Fans watching on ESPN3 via the ESPN App will experience a three-box presentation with the majority of the screen showing the typical TV vantage point, and a smaller portion of the screen fixated on Smith and McGee. The third box will show the aerial view from the blimp that fans have grown accustomed to over the years. This is the first time a game telecast will be available exclusively from the blimp angle.
Even after reading that I’m not exactly sure how that will work, but it seems exciting if you like trying new things on college football broadcasts. And if not, the old coaches’ room is back for this one and features an, uh, interesting group of coaches.
ESPN will have a 'coaches film room' for FSU-Va Tech opener. Coaches are Mack Brown, Gene Chizik, Todd Graham, Jim Mora and — ahem — Hugh Freeze.
— Mike Huguenin (@MikeHuguenin) August 27, 2018
College football is going to be a lot of fun this year. All of this news certainly doesn’t hurt.
