People are used to seeing ESPN pour a lot of money into college football. They own the rights to a ton of games, they run College GameDay every week of the season, and they generally put on quality coverage and production for their games.
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That is why it was surprising to hear during Friday's Hawaii-California game that ESPN didn't even send their announce crew to Australia, which is where the game was being played.
ESPN used a local Australian reporter to do sideline work, which was actually a neat experience that added to the unique atmosphere of the game.
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That said, it is still weird that ESPN decided not to send their regular broadcasters to the game, and instead opted to keep them in Bristol and call the game from the production room. It didn't really take away from the game at all, and was probably only noticeable on the slightly awkward delay when the "broadcast booth" called down to the sideline reporter.
But considering the losses in talent and cable subscribers recently, it is interesting to see ESPN cutting back in an area where they would often send the full team.
Cal won college football's 2016 opener, 51-31.
