The college basketball TV transfer portal is open, The Post has learned.
ESPN’s Robbie Hummel is moving to NBC and Fox Sports to continue calling the Big Ten, according to sources. Let’s go deeper.
1️⃣ Hummel, 34, leaves ESPN after six seasons with the network. ESPN previously had the Big Ten for four decades.
2️⃣ NBC’s deal with the Big Ten prominently featured its Saturday night college football package. It also will have college hoops games on Peacock during the week. Hummel is expected to get a lot of run on Tuesdays.
3️⃣ Hummel will also call hoops for Fox and FS1. ESPN is out of the Big Ten college hoops business beginning this season.
4️⃣ Hummel will continue on the Big Ten Network. This is easy because Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network have common ownership.
5️⃣ Hummel starred at Purdue. He had a cup of coffee in the NBA for a couple of seasons.
Quick clicks
With the WWE’s “Smackdown” off Friday nights, Fox will look at potentially airing some college football games on that night next season, but it is not definite. Between its Big Ten and Big 12 arrangements, it will have to see whether there are enough good games to go around — with noon Saturday being Fox Sports’ top priority and then considering CBS’ and NBC’s Big Ten deals. On the Big 12 side, ESPN has more of the inventory. So more Friday night college football is possible with expansion and the increased amount of matchups, but not certain. …
Big move by Bob Iger and Jimmy Pitaro to put 15 “Monday Night Football” games on ABC. It was pretty slick to announce it all after the Spectrum kerfuffle ended. For other NFL-carrying networks, this was not good news for the advertising marketplace. CBS, Fox and NBC are now joined by another broadcast network selling NFL. More supply in the market. … The Yankees had 24-year-old Emmanuel Berbari call games last weekend. They will continue their youth movement on Friday for the Royals game: Filling in for 85-year-old John Sterling is 71-year-old play-by-player Howard Kellman. This is the second year in a row Kellman has received a WFAN assignment. I wrote a story last year about how he got here.
Chris Russo replacing A-Rod?
With Alex Rodriguez headed out of ESPN after the playoffs to go exclusively with Fox Sports’ MLB coverage, ESPN still could offer alternative Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts next year, post-Kay-Rod.
Here’s what you need to know:
1️⃣ Michael Kay, who is the Kay in Kay-Rod, likely still would be involved. He has his deal with ESPN New York, and ESPN executives are fond of him.
2️⃣ One name that has surfaced as a possibility is that gambling, gummy-loving media sensation, Christopher (Mad Dog) Russo. Russo loves baseball and is as entertaining a personality as there is. It would not provide the same level of in-game analysis of Peyton Manning, but just talking about baseball and random stuff is what Russo is best at doing.
It is preliminary, and ESPN could keep it simple and go, “Michael and the Mad Dog.” But a more creative choice would be “Kay-9.” You could play off the Doggie’s moniker and the nine would have a dual meaning.
3️⃣ One other possibility could be Roger Clemens, who Clemens gave some good insight in frequent appearances with Kay-Rod. Like A-Rod, Clemens has had his reputation damaged by being connected to PEDs, which may make him more open to doing something like this. As an all-time great, he has shown some deep insider knowledge of the actual game.
4️⃣ If ESPN went with Kay, Russo and Clemens, it could also call the show just “K-9” and have it work. That strange brew could be amazing TV or a total trainwreck. I’d definitely consider it.
Radio row
My story this week about ESPN New York leaving 98.7 FM a year from now had a lot of tentacles. We went through some of them in our story, but let’s hit on some more.
1️⃣ The Jets could look to leave their deal with ESPN New York, according to sources. The Jets want their games on FM. Before next season, they could have a new home or at least another position on the FM dial. There could be many suitors, but one savvy radio prognosticator thought Q104 could be a match.
2️⃣ The New York sports radio ratings battle will have its final season this year, as Good Karma Brands will probably exit out of Nielsen Audio ratings when it ditches the FM signal. I believe Nielsen charges around a million dollars a year for the service, but Craig Karmazin’s advertising and promotion is focused on digital. Karmazin has exited Nielsen in other markets. That would make the radio ratings battle effectively over. Even on the off chance ESPN NY stayed with Nielsen, it still wouldn’t be a fair fight if ESPN had no FM signal.
3️⃣ Though it is probably unlikely at the moment, you can’t totally rule out the possibility that ESPN NY finds another FM station to lease. Between not paying the $12.5 million and the roughly $1 million from abandoning Nielsen, Karmazin probably sticks with the saving model — you can distribute digitally and through 1050 AM without the high entry fee. But you can’t fully count it out.Last week, Kay had a rant about how WFAN’s parent company, Audacy, may go bankrupt. He is not wrong, but the company would be expected to survive and then refinance its debt. In other words, FAN is not going anywhere, and its business is doing quite well.
4️⃣ Some FAN folks acted as if ESPN New York had lost the sports radio war because of the 98.7 news. Good Karma’s decision has nothing to do with ratings. That said, the mocking white flag that morning show producer Al Dukes put on Twitter is some classic New York sports radio war fodder.
Clicker Book Club
“The Tao of the Backup Catcher (Playing Baseball For The Love Of The Game)” by Tim Brown with Eric Kratz is more than a baseball story. It tells the stories of players who were not stars, but instead were backups. Papa Clicker notes that the authors highlight these players and the challenges they face in wondering annually about where they will be playing — the majors or minors — as well as going inside the game to explore roles they serve that fans don’t always see. The book receives 4.3 out of 5 clickers.
