During USA's first three seasons (
1980-
1982), they broadcast several games (they in essence, cherry picked games from regional and national syndicators like
Raycom,
Mizlou, and Katz) a week. These broadcasts were shown on a
tape delayed basis as much as two days later. For USA's final four seasons (
1983-
1986), they narrowed their coverage to only one game a week. Initially, the games were selected from virtually every conference. However, in the later years, USA would frequently (but not exclusively) air games involving
Pittsburgh,
Penn State,
Notre Dame,
Boston College and
Maryland. More to the point, by
1984, USA primarily aired games from the
Big Eight Conference.
"
The Play" - The Play refers to a last-second
kickoff return during a
college football game between the
University of California Golden Bears and the
Stanford University Cardinal on Saturday, November 20,
1982. After Stanford had taken a 20-19 lead on a field goal with four seconds left in the game, the Golden Bears used five
lateral passes on the ensuing kickoff return to score the winning
touchdown and earn a 25-20 victory. Members of the
Stanford Band had come onto the field midway through the return, believing that the game was over, which added to the ensuing confusion and folklore. There remains disagreement over the legality of two of the laterals,[2][3][4] adding to the passion surrounding the traditional rivalry of the annual "
Big Game."
The biggest highlight of
University of Maryland quarterback
Frank Reich's college career was the comeback he led against the
University of MiamiHurricanes on November 10, 1984 at the
Orange Bowl Stadium. Reich came off the bench to play for
Stan Gelbaugh, who had previously replaced him as the starter after Reich separated his shoulder in the fourth week of the season against
Wake Forest. Miami quarterback
Bernie Kosar had led the 'Canes to a 31-0 lead at halftime. At the start of the third quarter, Reich led the
Maryland Terrapins multiple scoring drives. Three touchdowns in the third quarter and a fourth at the start of the final quarter turned what was a blowout into a close game. With the score 34-28 Miami, Reich hit Greg Hill with a 68-yard touchdown pass which deflected off the hands of Miami safety
Darrell Fullington to take the lead. Maryland scored once more to cap a 42-9 second half, and won the game 42-40, completing what was then the biggest comeback in NCAA history.
1985
Cherry Bowl - The end of NCAA control over television rights resulted in a major increase in televised games, and TV rights fees dropped sharply amid the resulting glut, something not anticipated by the Cherry Bowl organizers.
Since 2011, at least two games per-season are played in
primetime often played at neutral venues for the purposes of recruiting and financial benefits for playing at those sites, a high-profile matchup involving a major opponent, or to schedule around conflicts with other NBC Sports or NBC News programming. On occasion, selected games may be shifted to an
NBCUniversal-owned cable channel, such as
NBCSN or
USA Network.
Notre Dame's September 19, 2020, game against
South Florida was shifted to
USA Network due to conflicts with the
2020 U.S. Open on NBC, and co-produced with the school's in-house production arm
Fighting Irish Media due to NBC's main production unit already being used for the tournament.[5]
Notre Dame's double-overtime win against
Clemson on November 7, 2020, was NBC's most-watched Notre Dame game since 2005, despite game coverage moving temporarily to
USA Network (due to coverage of
Joe Biden's acceptance speech after being declared consensus winner of the
2020 presidential election).[6]