According to The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre, Bilas is replacing Dick Vitale on ESPN’s primetime college basketball broadcasts.
More from McIntyre: “According to multiple people close to the show, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the move has not yet been publicly announced, ESPN recently made the decision to promote Bilas to calling the Saturday night game in addition to extending his contract with the network through 2023. Vitale had been calling the Saturday primetime games with Dan Shulman since 2005, when they debuted.”
Vitale will still call ESPN games, according to the report.
The Big Lead received no comment from ESPN. Sporting News has also reached out to the network.
ESPN also recently announced Seth Greenberg and Jay Williams’ addition to the “College Gameday” broadcast.
LAWSUIT FILED
Former Baylor commit Kobe Eubanks is fighting back after a transcript issue cost him his scholarship.
The Centereach, N.Y., native and his father Clayton, are suing his former high school, Florida-based Plantation American Heritage School, for damages worth at least $75,000, alleging that the school manipulated his grades rendering him ineligible to play at Baylor this fall.
Eubanks spent his sophomore and junior seasons at Plantation American Heritage before transferring to play his senior season at Centereach (N.Y.) Our Savior New American School. He alleges that when he left Plantation American Heritage, the school certified a transcript sent to Our Savior that stated his GPA was 2.5. A second transcript, sent later to Eubanks’ new school said that the senior had a 2.37 GPA, a number which Eubanks alleges was altered by Plantation American Heritage.
When Baylor requested all of Eubanks’ transcripts to verify his enrollment, the fact that there were two transcripts on file with differing GPAs prompted an NCAA inquiry.
Plantation American Heritage told Eubanks and his father after the NCAA’s inquiry that they would only certify a transcript in which his GPA was 2.29, a threshold too low to be eligible to play at Baylor.
Eubanks will now spend a post-graduate year at Delray Beach’s ELEV8 Sports, trying boost his GPA to be eligible next season. Prior to commiting to Baylor, he had offers from Wichita State, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, USC and Cincinnati.
IS THIS REAL LIFE?
Few basketball fans have access inside Jim Boeheim’s home basketball court, but that will soon change as the Syracuse coach has embraced a new technology.
Boeheim has signed on with a virtual reality company called Next Galaxy Corp. that will leverage a virtual reality experience to bring fans and recruits inside Boeheim’s home.
The plan is to have Boeheim narrate and lead viewers who own Google Glass or have access to Oculus Rift devices through an exclusive tour of the Boeheim home, including his trophy case and the home gym.
“(Boeheim has) spoken to management and he’s looking for a tool for recruitment,” Next Galaxy Corp’s financial consultant, Barrett D. Ehrlich, told the Syracuse Post-Standard. “He’s looking for more fan engagement. He would be able to create content and fans will be able to view it.”
There are certain restrictions, however, on the type of access Boeheim and the virtual reality experience can provide to viewers. Both the NCAA and Syracuse’s regulations wouldn’t allow the coach to film practice sessions or game huddles at the school, so the experiences would mostly be limited to parts of Boeheim’s home.
The coach will narrate the entire session and the company says it’ll make viewers feel like they’re actually there alongside Boeheim.
While the concept of virtual reality is unique, the technology needed to be part of the experience is costly and not readily available to many. A pair of Google Glass will run fans about $1500 — and the chance to purchase them is by invitation only. The only other viewing device, Oculus Rift, isn’t yet available to consumers, but the company estimates the headset will cost buyers about $300.
Next Level Corp told the Syracuse Post-Standard that the target date to begin filming is late Oct. or early Nov., and the turn-around time for the production of the video experience is about three weeks.
Contributing: Chris Littmann, Kami Mattioli