A key feature of the United Football League has been the additional access granted to viewers, largely thanks to field analysts such as Sam Acho and Tom Luginbill. Both will be on the sidelines for the UFL Conference Championship Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN+/Disney+) and the UFL Championship Game on June 14.
Speaking to Awful Announcing, Luginbill said the UFL stands out by allowing broadcasters far more access than college football or the NFL.
“The one thing, if we’re going to be brutally honest about it, is we are showing you, providing you and allowing you audio access to what college football and the NFL doesn’t want you to hear, if we’re going to put it in the simplest terms,” Luginbill said.
Luginbill described the role as quite different from the others he has held.
“For me, I’ve bounced back and forth over the last 15 years between the booths and the field, ten years on ABC and ESPN as a college football field analyst,” he said. “In that role, you’re much more in an analyst role. With an open mic, it’s like a three-man booth, and one of us is on the field, and you’re just giving analysis. But with this, you’re coupling the analysis with the interview process, and then there’s really a lot of hustle of chasing things down.”
He said that talking to players and coaches immediately after big plays, rather than during pre-set breaks, makes a significant difference.
“When something happens, we want the immediacy of it. we want the emotion, we want the reaction,” Luginbill said. “Whether that’s an interception, a touchdown, a coach decides to go for it on 4th and three on their own 46, and they don’t make it, you walk right up to them, you say, ‘Hey, why did you make that choice right now?’ People at home will love for that question to be asked of Nick Saban or would love for that question be asked of Ryan Day, and you’re just not going to get that. So I think that uniquely sets this apart for the viewer and the fan to really get immersed in the game.”
Acho highlighted the value of access and interaction on the field, including hearing conversations between referees and coaches that fans rarely get to hear. And he told AA that while he’d love to see similar access in college football broadcasts, the NCAA isn’t currently open to it.
For now, Acho is enjoying the “blast” of working UFL broadcasts with this extra access. He said these broadcasts stand out because analysts like himself and Luginbill not only provide raw mic’d-up audio but also interact with players and coaches.
“One of the benefits or cool things about being a field analyst, specifically with the UFL, is the amount of access and audio and interaction that we get,” he said. “It’s definitely one thing to be at the game versus watching it from home, another thing to be at the stadium versus watching it from anywhere else, another thing to be on the field versus from the booth, and another thing to be able to interact with the players, the coaches. I was listening to a referee and a coach conversation from last week, it’s something you never get a chance to hear.
He added that while he’d love to see this access added to college football broadcasts, that seems unlikely.
“I had a conversation with one of the higher-ups at ESPN saying, ‘Hey, can we get this in college football?’ And it seems like the NCAA is not for it.”
For now, Acho is enjoying the “blast” of working UFL broadcasts with this extra access. He noted that another way these broadcasts stand out is that analysts like him and Luginbill don’t just provide raw, mic’d-up audio, but also interact with players and coaches.
“One of the biggest benefits about the UFL specifically is not just the access and the audio, but also that we’re intertwined in it, we’re involved in it. We get a chance to not just listen, but also to interpret what we’re hearing while we’re down on the field. …We get a chance to provide this unfiltered or unfettered access while also explaining it to the viewer in a way that they have not seen before.”
Luginbill said interpretation is key.
“They might be hearing a lot of different verbiage and terminology and play calls and all the audio that we let you in on. But then some of that responsibility falls on Sam and I to explain that to you, like ‘What are you hearing? What does this mean?’ …It’s really a nice blend of gaining access, gaining a reaction, and allowing the viewer of the fan to feel like they’re part of it, coupled with the analysis side that we can give from a different perspective that the booth doesn’t have.”
He said the sideline role allows for quicker interpretation, sometimes even leading to play predictions.
“Without trying to sound overly simplistic here, in this particular role, the way I’ve always approached this is ‘Follow the bouncing ball.’ What happens within the game is going to take you to what you do next,” he says. “It’s not even so much going in with ‘Oh, well, Birmingham does this and DC does this, and then you’ve got to be aware for this coming.’ The game will unfold and present you with your opportunity as things happen, and then that becomes your portion of bringing that to the fan.
“I think that’s unlike college football, when you’re broadcasting that type of game, where everything’s pretty well structured, you’re calling the game, and that’s it. You can’t just follow the bouncing ball; you’ve got to be so dialed into the two teams and this and that. That’s not to say that we’re not, but the [UFL] game will take you to the access, and then you’ve got to hustle to be there to get it.”
Acho said the hustle creates fun moments.
“If there’s an interception, the player who’s intercepted it, they run to the end zone and they do their little dance, I’m sprinting with them so I can interview them. There was a game where I interviewed a guy right after he scored a touchdown, literally the second after he’s doing his touchdown dance, I’m asking about the dance.
“I’m listening to the coach, when the referees were missing some penalties, the coach is having this conversation with the referees, and I’m in the middle of that. While they’re going out, before they go to snap the ball on a third and one from earlier in the season, we’re in commercial, and I’m in the huddle saying, ‘Hey, QB, what’s the play call here?’ And that’s getting broadcast over air. And he says what the play call is.”
For Acho, the role is a fun extension of his broadcasting career, even if proximity to players and coaches can be challenging.
“I always loved getting a chance to go and call games because it got me close to the action,” he said. “When you’re on the field reporting, there will be times where I’ll say something and they’ll be like ‘Are you for real?’ I was talking about a team, I was like ‘This Memphis team, they were one and eight last year,’ and the guy’s like ‘Really, we were that bad?’ He’s right there next to me. But it has been a blast, not just because of the access, not because of the audio, but because of the relationships.”
He said the access also lets broadcasters incorporate players and coaches more organically.
“It’s good because we have a good team. Jordan Rodgers, Joe Tessitore, we have a really good team where it’s not about us. We understand it’s about the players. The third person in the booth is the referees, the coach, the players. It’s almost like it’s not just the broadcast guy and the analyst. It’s like, ‘No, dude, it’s the coach, it’s the referee, it’s the player who has the microphone, it’s the iPad, we’re actually seeing the iPad as they’re running the plays, it’s all those pieces coming together.”