TNT Sports Announces Commentator Teams for Inaugural Big 12 Football Season

Season-Long TNT Studio Coverage to Feature Champ Bailey, Takeo Spikes, Victor Cruz & Adam Lefkoe

Play-By-Play Voice J.B. Long & Analyst Mike Golic, Jr. to Call All Big 12 Game Action

Lefkoe & TNT Sports Reach Multi-Year Extension with Expanded Host Role Including College Football, Men's Basketball, MLB & More

TNT Sports will kick off its inaugural year of Big 12 football - part of an exclusive slate of Big 12 games throughout the entire season - with the Arizona Wildcats hosting the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors on Saturday, Aug. 30, at 10:30 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV and HBO Max. Pregame coverage will begin at 10 p.m.

Studio coverage throughout the season will feature a trio of analysts who starred across the college football and NFL landscape:

Champ Bailey

Pro Football Hall of Famer in 2019, following an NFL career as a perennial Pro Bowl cornerback for Washington and Denver

Dual threat at Georgia on offense, defense and special teams, earning All-America, All-SEC and Bronko Nagurski honors over three seasons in Athens

Takeo Spikes

A two-time NFL Pro Bowl linebacker, 15-year NFL veteran and SEC legend at Auburn

Victor Cruz

Super Bowl Champion with the New York Giants after making the roster as an undrafted free agent in 2010

Named all-conference wide receiver his final two seasons at the University of Massachusetts (to be inducted into UMass Hall of Fame next month)

Serving as studio host will be Adam Lefkoe, who recently reached a multi-year extension with TNT Sports. Along with college football, the versatile and engaging studio host added Roland-Garros and MLB responsibilities earlier this year and he will also host BIG EAST and Big 12 men's basketball starting this Fall. Lefkoe has hosted a wide range of studio productions for TNT Sports including the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship and NBA on TNT, along with the NFL Draft for Bleacher Report. Last year, Lefkoe hosted studio coverage for TNT Sports' return to college football - most notably the network's first-ever College Football Playoff Kickoff show in December - alongside Bailey, Cruz and Spikes. Lefkoe originally joined the company in 2013 as a multiplatform host with Bleacher Report.

Beginning Week 1, J.B. Long and Mike Golic, Jr. will serve as play-by-play voice and game analysts, respectively, for TNT Sports. Long has served as the voice of the Los Angeles Rams since 2016 and also called football and other sports for the Pac-12 Network from 2012-24. Golic was an Academic All-American at Notre Dame before joining ESPN as a host and football analyst. Golic is now a co-host of the daily Golic and Golic show on the FanDuel Sports Network. Both Long and Golic called Mountain West games on truTV last season.

Sideline reporters Allie LaForce and Coy Wire will also be contributing to TNT Sports' college football coverage. Before joining TNT Sports, LaForce served as the SEC on CBS's lead on-field reporter, while Wire earned All-Pac-10 honors at Stanford before entering the NFL.

For Weeks 2 and 3, TNT Sports will present the No. 23 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders hosting Kent State Golden Flashes on Saturday, Sept. 6, at Noon, followed by the No. 11 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils hosting the Texas State Bobcats on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 10:30 p.m. All three of the first games will air across TNT, truTV and HBO Max.

In addition to its Big 12 coverage, TNT Sports will once again be the home to two First Round College Football Playoff games later this year. Last December, Penn State/SMU and Texas/Clemson delivered cable's two most-watched college football games at the time, and the most-watched college football games ever for TNT Sports.

Big 12 College Football on TNT Sports

Date Time (ET) Game/Program

Saturday, Aug. 30

10 p.m. TNT Sports College Football Kickoff Show Presented by AT&T Adam Lefkoe, Champ Bailey, Takeo Spikes & Victor Cruz

10:30 p.m. Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at Arizona Wildcats, Game Coverage Presented by Modelo J.B. Long, Mike Golic, Jr. & Allie LaForce

Halftime Big 12 College Football Halftime Show Presented by Vanda Pharmaceuticals Lefkoe, Bailey, Spikes & Cruz

Postgame Big 12 College Football Postgame Show Presented by GEICO Lefkoe, Bailey, Spikes & Cruz