In July, TNT Sports announced they had landed a package of 14 Mountain West football games in a multi-year deal that begins this fall. Those games will air linearly on truTV and stream on Max. And now they’ve announced their broadcast talent for those games, including a studio show (30 minutes pre- and post-game, plus halftime, featuring news and highlights from conference and college football) hosted by Adam Lefkoe and featuring analysts Champ Bailey (making his senior broadcaster debut), Takeo Spikes and Victor Cruz. Here’s more on that in a press release:
TNT Sports has announced its commentators ahead of the opening week of its Mountain West football coverage. Week 1 on truTV and Max begins with the San Jose State Spartans – led by new head coach Ken Niumatalolo – taking on the Sacramento State Hornets on Thursday, August 29 at 10 p.m. ET. Ari Wolfe (live commentator), Darius Walker (analyst) and Jared Greenberg (reporter) will provide commentary from San Jose.
…Studio coverage for TNT Sports throughout the season will be hosted by Adam Lefkoe with a roster of talented and experienced analysts:
Champ Bailey – Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019 following an NFL career as a multi-year Pro Bowl cornerback for Washington and Denver. Dual threat at Georgia on offense, defense and special teams, earned All-America, All-SEC and Bronko Nagurski honors in three seasons in Athens.
Takeo Spikes – Two-time NFL Pro Bowl linebacker, 15-year NFL veteran and SEC legend at Auburn. Previously, he served as an analyst for the SEC Network, as well as NBC Sports, SiriusXM and Sky Sports.
Victor Cruz – Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants after joining the roster as an undrafted free agent in 2010. After retiring from the NFL in 2018, he joined ESPN as an NFL analyst. He was named an All-Conference wide receiver in his final two seasons at the University of Massachusetts.
Following next Thursday’s game between San Jose State and Sacramento State, the next game in this package is Texas A&M Commerce and San Diego State on Saturday, August 31. Wolfe, Walker and Greenberg will be commentating on this game from San Diego, which is notable given the talks that have been taking place about broadcasting remotely.
Starting with Week 2, TNT Sports will have four doubleheaders throughout the season. That means they need another commentary team, and JB Long will provide live commentary for those games while Mike Golic Jr. will serve as analyst. In addition to Greenberg, other reporters for TNT Sports’ Mountain West coverage will be Lauren Jbara, Nabil Karim and Bridget Howard.
This will be the first time TNT Sports (formerly WBD Sports, formerly Turner Sports) has televised college football since 2006. But they’re returning to the sport in a notable way; in addition to that Mountain West package, they’ll also broadcast two first-round College Football Playoff games this year and next, and add two quarterfinal games each year starting in 2026. So it makes sense that they’d assemble a CFB broadcast team, and it’ll be interesting to see how Bailey and Cruz in particular fare as college football analysts. You can find the full TNT Sports Mountain West schedule here.
