FOOTBALL HQ: GPB announces presence as football headquarters in Georgia

Today, Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) held a press conference to announce their fall agenda. GPB will be football headquarters in the state of Georgia. On Friday nights, GPB will have a football game on television and one on the web. This all begins at the 20th Annual Corky Kell Classic at the Georgia Dome on Aug. 20. GPB will televise the four games slated in the classic.

“Friday nights are going to be our night,” stated I.J. Rosenberg, DIrector of Sports at GPB. “It’s football night in Georgia.”

On the Friday night, broadcast Dave Hunter will join Gil Tyree in the booth to commentate on the games. Hunter is the former head football coach and athletic director at Brookwood. He also helped originate the idea of the Corky Kell Classic. Hunter will announce all 10 regular season games, five postseason games and the championship games. He and Tyree will air on the televised broadcasts. Last season, Tyree hosted the football and basketball championships on GPB and will now put forth his efforts on play-by-play action.

Tyree has been around high school football in Georgia for a while and knows how important it is.

“There is no greater foundation, no greater fabric of communion than high school football in this great state,” said Tyree.

GPB also announced a partnership with the Southern Conference (SoCon) to televise the conference’s football games every Saturday at three beginning on Oct. 1.

“Our presidents and chancellors love the idea of working with public television…Hopefully we will be able to impress some eyeballs on GPB that perhaps hadn’t been there as often,” remarked SoCon Commissioner John Iamarino.

What’s exciting about the SoCon partnering up with GPB is the football-crazed state can have another opportunity to watch the sport they love. Georgia Southern is currently scheduled to appear in three of the games on GPB. Last season, the Eagles made it all the way to the national semifinals under the direction of first-year head coach Jeff Monken and some critics predict them to go all the way this season.

GPB will also televise the Georgia High School Association cheerleading, basketball and wrestling championships in addition to football.