Michigan’s Lisa Byington will be first woman to call BTN football
Michigan’s Lisa Byington will become the first woman to call football on Big Ten Network during the Bowling Green-Northwestern game on Sept. 16.
Longtime sideline reporter, studio host and play-by-play commentator Lisa Byington will get her first chance to call college football from the booth this fall for the Big Ten Network. Byington, whose career in broadcast started in Alpena and Lansing, Mich., will be on the mic for the network’s Sept. 16 broadcast of Bowling Green and Northwestern, her alma mater.
The news was announced by Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman at the Big Ten football Media Days in Chicago on July 24.
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Byington told the Detroit News that this was “something I’ve always wanted to do.” She said wasn’t expecting the opportunity this year but “was more than happy to accept it. It’s kind of fitting that it’s the 10-year anniversary of the Big Ten Network, because I’ve been a part of them and with them since Day 1 and Weekend 1.”
Byington will become the third woman to call a nationally-televised college football game, along with Pam Ward and Beth Mowins. Mowins will become the first woman to broadcast a national NFL game in 30 years when she calls an ESPN Monday Night Football game this fall, and Byington has reportedly “consulted with” Mowins about both broadcasting and being a woman in the booth.
Byington worked in local news in Alpena and Lansing, Mich. for 12 years before beginning her career in cable television. She said that she got her first chance as a sideline reporter on that first weekend with the network in 2007, and later also got her first chance at hosting a studio show. “That was a new experience,” she told the News. “This was the next sort of chance, it was the next opportunity. It just made sense, and they felt I was ready for it, so they offered it.”
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“I understand why we have this conversation because you can count on one hand how many women have had this opportunity,” Byington told the News. “It’s my hope that someday we can count on two hands and then eventually stop counting… I embrace the platform, but in terms of the preparation and in terms of the job, it can’t be my focus.”