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📺 March Madness debuts. Newcomers Nate Burleson and Renee Montgomery each made their debuts on CBS’s NCAA men’s tournament coverage this weekend. While Burleson was an expected fill-in for Ernie Johnson, Montgomery got thrust into a larger role to replace a sick Kenny Smith.

✍️ Trump ‘preserves’ Army-Navy game. President Donald Trump made good on his pledge to issue an executive order protecting the exclusive national window for the Army-Navy game during the second weekend of December. The move comes amid talk of CFP expansion that could encroach on the game’s traditional slot, and after the Trump-affiliated Ellison family has taken over CBS, which airs the game.

🏈 ESPN balks at NFL fee increase. As the NFL looks to wring higher rights fees from its broadcast partners, ESPN has offered its first response. CNBC’s Alex Sherman reports that Disney/ESPN would not want to follow CBS’s lead and pay 50% more for its Monday Night Football package, especially as Prime Video’s Thursday night package has improved in quality over the years.

🙄 Brady to ‘WrestleMania’? The viral “beef” between Tom Brady and Logan Paul was clearly a work from the start, so it is no surprise that WWE stars are getting involved. With less than a month to go until WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, it seems pretty clear how this one will end: in the ring.

🏀 Media against NBA expansion. The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and NBC’s Tracy McGrady both went viral in response to reports of looming NBA expansion, arguing the tanking problem is so bad that the NBA needs to ensure the bottom of the league is more competitive before it adds two more teams to that mix.

If you inhaled too sharply on any of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament courts around the country the past few years, you were liable to get a breath full of chalk.

Once again this spring, the very best teams have been mostly dominant on their way to the Sweet 16. With all due respect to Iowa taking down the reigning champs, there will be no Cinderella. The only double-digit seed to make the second weekend will be Texas.

Some blame this bankable March consistency on NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment, which together have consolidated talent at the top of the sport. Pundits will debate whether this makes for a healthier college basketball ecosystem or a better tournament product. But while the on-court outcomes may be predictable, the television experience has undergone its biggest shake-up in a while.

During the first two weekends of the tournament, at least one studio show is basically always on. And the joint CBS and TNT Sports coverage of the tourney has had the same flavor for years.

The star of the New York City desk is Charles Barkley, usually flanked by Clark Kellogg and Kenny Smith. Hosting duties long went to the legendary Greg Gumbel and Ernie Johnson. While the Atlanta studio fluctuates more, Seth Davis has been a mainstay for years, often flanked by a coach like Jay Wright.

The cast around those big stars has almost entirely turned over in 2026. Adam Zucker’s role has gradually grown since Gumbel’s passing in 2024. Johnson took a step back for the early rounds this year and was replaced by CBS's favorite, Nate Burleson. Former WNBA guard Renee Montgomery stepped in when Smith fell ill on Day One. Longtime ESPN analyst Jalen Rose got his feet wet calling early-round games last season and is now at the Atlanta desk.

And in case you missed him calling for his son’s team to make the tournament over everyone’s favorite mid-major, Bruce Pearl is in for Wright this year.

Chemistry is always going to be an issue with so many new faces, but the new commentators are not just new to each other. Pearl is completely new to broadcasting. Burleson has never covered basketball. Montgomery and Rose are still getting used to covering men’s college hoops. At halftime and between games, these shows sometimes miss the forest for the trees, locking in on small aspects of individual games rather than the broader beats of the tournament.

It’s easy to see Barkley or Smith and rage that two men who often don’t even seem to want to cover the NBA are also working the top games in college hoops. But these two are seasoned broadcasters and understand this tournament. When High Point and Miami (Ohio) forced a conversation about mid-major resumes in the new age of college basketball, Barkley, Smith, and Kellogg had no problem breaking it down.

But perhaps because this tournament did not offer enough of those moments, other segments from the New York studio crew were far less insightful. At least to our eyes here at Awful Announcing, more than in most years, the main studio show relied heavily on gimmicks and shtick.

Oz the Mentalist came through for some reason, as did the incredibly creepy “Old Ball,” straight from a popular Instagram account. There were carnival games and stacked bagels.

Even in an age when television is being outflanked by YouTube, podcasts, and social media, it’s a tough situation when a television show, in real time, seems to be airing just because something has to. The tourney studio crew may know that, outside of certain big postgames, they are only on the muted big screens of sportsbooks and living-room sets accidentally left on. It shouldn’t feel that way while watching.

However, while the studio coverage often felt like it was trying too hard to get attention, there is plenty of promise in the new crop of contributors.

Burleson was an eager and attentive host, working hard to set his analysts up for success. He was also goofy and humble in a way that worked. Zucker knows the sport well and doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Rose is a natural. You could see him covering this tournament for years to come, potentially eventually replacing Smith on the main desk. Montgomery’s relentless positivity was a nice balance for Barkley’s occasional grumpiness.

And, as we argued on a recent episode of our podcast, The Play-By-Play, Pearl is a tremendous hire for the general audiences of March Madness. On the selection show and the Atlanta desk, Pearl is perfect in the successful yet jaded coach role (think Jimmy Johnson or Jeff Van Gundy). As a regular of both the Final Four and Fox News, Pearl also has a higher Q-score than just about anyone CBS or TNT could have hired.

March Madness is a television tradition like few others. Nobody likes change, and it was rocky indeed through the first four days of this year’s tournament. But at the very least, some of the bigger talent swings appear to be working in CBS and TNT's favor.

Last week saw a sudden, inexplicable relaunch of the decades-old debate over whether sports radio has become obsolete.

From WFAN to WIP, old-time sports-talk legends teed off on their successors and the supposed decline in quality of the medium.

On Friday’s episode of The Play-By-Play LIVE, we discussed how sports radio has changed for better and worse, as well as the strengths it still has over YouTube or podcasts.

Watch the episode on YouTube, or listen on Spotify or Apple.

“Ohio State basketball fans are the worst fans in the world. They’re the worst, literally the worst. Because they watch football all year, they don’t even pay attention to the basketball program.” - Former Buckeye turned Barstool Sports host Mark Titus.

"If you’re trying to get enough votes to pass a new CBA, the idea of a limitation of 17 games per player, that has some basic appeal and maybe [could] get the players to vote yes.” - Mike Florio, suggesting the NFL could impose a 17-game limit on most players in the event that it expands the season to 18 games.

“We’re looking to find things that are going to augment what we’re already doing, which also means that some of the straight-down-the-middle sports shows that have massive podcast followings, we’re probably not going to be in direct competition with those.” - ESPN SVP Mike Foss, explaining why the Worldwide Leader doesn’t try to compete with the likes of Barstool or The Ringer when it comes to general sports podcasts.

“It really felt like adding me and my colleagues… was something the whole company was pretty invested in. That goes all the way to the top with Jimmy Pitaro.” - Former WaPo media reporter Ben Strauss, explaining that investigative journalism is indeed a big focus for his new bosses at ESPN.

“That just doesn’t leave a lot of money out for everyone else.” - PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, stating the obvious as the NFL moves aggressively to increase its broadcast rights fees.

The 2026 NCAA women’s basketball tournament tipped off Friday morning, opening an event that ESPN SVP of production Meg Aronowitz said would be the “biggest” tournament the network has ever produced.

Among the changes are a new studio host, a new full-time rules analyst, better broadcast windows, and even a new alt-cast at the Final Four. During a launch event in Phoenix last month, Aronowitz likened the production capacity ESPN will bring to Phoenix for the final weekend of the tournament to that of a College Football Playoff title game or a Super Bowl.

Just a decade ago, some NCAA women’s tournaments still did not air live nationally. Until 2023, the championship game aired on ESPN’s cable network rather than ABC’s broadcast network. But this will be the third tournament aired under a new broadcast rights agreement between the NCAA and ESPN, which tripled the association's revenue. The result is an even greater investment by ESPN in covering the tournament.

Aronowitz called the tourney the “crown jewel” of the package, which includes 42 total NCAA championship events.

Read the rest of our table-setter for NCAA women’s basketball tournament coverage on ESPN right here.