The Television Broadcast Crew Should Be Much Improved This Week

There were multiple complaints about last week’s game at Florida International. Not just because Louisville had what was likely their worst performance of the season, but the entire broadcast was tough to watch. Nobody truly walks away as a winner when the game is played on ESPN3. The only thing worse than having to the game in internet streaming quality is the broadcast team (not you Anastasia).

When I first heard about this week’s game being broadcast by the CBS Sports Network, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. I had previously heard terrible things about the announcers on this network, but I watched a couple of games on replay this week and the announcers are actually pretty solid.

Here is a little info on this week’s CBS broadcast crew, courtesy of the CBS Sports website.

Game Analyst: Aaron Taylor

Taylor serves as a game analyst for Mountain West Conference and Conference USA games, in addition to being a studio analyst on the popular weekly college football studio show, INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Taylor was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the first round of the 1994 NFL Draft and was a member of the Packers’ Super Bowl XXXI championship team. Taylor was drafted out of the University of Notre Dame where he was an offensive lineman. He won the Lombardi Award and was a unanimous first-team All-America selection in 1993 as an offensive tackle. He also earned consensus All-America honors his junior season as an offensive guard.

Play-by-Play: James Bates

Prior to joining the Network, Bates spent five seasons in the lead play by play role for The Mountain West Sports Network (The Mtn.), calling football, basketball and baseball games and serving as host for original features and specials.

Bates received a degree in telecommunications from the University of Florida, where he was an All-SEC linebacker and served as captain of the Gators’ 1996 National Championship team. Bates hails from a football family – his father, Jim, spent over 10 years as a defensive coordinator in the NFL and his brother, Jeremy, was most recently the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks in 2010. Bates is married and has three children.

Sideline Reporter: Evan Washburn

Washburn is a television sports reporter and anchor, performing and producing content for a variety of media platforms. His primary duty for CBS Sports is covering professional Lacrosse. He was an all American Lacrosse player at Delaware University.