CBS to Replace Billy Packer as Lead College Basketball Analyst

Longtime college basketball analyst Billy Packer will no longer be the main analyst on CBS telecasts, according to a report in today's Miami Herald. The network will replace Billy Packer with Clark Kellogg on its main announcing team. Billy Packer has been a mainstay on CBS and has called every Final Four since 1975. Billy Packer will not retire from announcing but instead will look to pursue other basketball projects.

I will miss Billy Packer on college basketball telecasts. His knowledge of the sport was unsurpassed among analysts and his willingness to state his mind regardless of how unpopular his views might be was refreshing.

There is no better example of Billy Packer's willingness to state an unpopular opinion than during this year's Final Four. In the semifinal game between Kansas and North Carolina, Billy Packer told viewers that the game was over when the Jayhawks jumped out to a 38-12 lead in the first half. While most analysts would think that, few would have the necessary courage to voice the words. Critics will point out that the Tar Heels later closed the gap to four points but in the end, Billy Packer was right. Kansas won the game.

In 2008, college basketball analysts are either into self promotion, like Dick Vitale, or they are bland and mostly forgettable. Billy Packer did not care what you thought of him. His only concern was to analyze the game in front of him to the best of his ability.

Now, this does not mean that Billy Packer was perfect. If anything, he was often wrong on things. Billy Packer himself would make fun of this, saying about himself: "frequently wrong, seldom in doubt." But if someone were to keep a scorecard on Billy Packer observations, he would be right many, many more times than not.

The job of an analyst is to describe what happened and predict what might happen next. In the former, Billy Packer was excellent, the description of what happened when Tyler Hansbrough got mugged in the Duke game being one major exception. In the latter, Billy Packer might not have been nearly as impressive, but that's the hardest part of the job. And he was right there many more times than his competitors in the field.

In our Politically Correct world, too many people can't handle the truth. Billy Packer was not shy about offering his opinion and frequently that opinion would ruffle some feathers. And just as often, Packer would be proven right about said opinion, with "Game Over" from this year's Final Four just the latest memorable Billy Packer assertion.

Perhaps the opinionated Billy Packer with the professionally boring Jim Nantz had surpassed its expiration date with college basketball fans. I just wish that CBS had kept Billy Packer and banished Nantz to do second-rate golf tournaments and voice over for The Masters.

Clark Kellogg will provide CBS with a fresh voice but he is nearly as opinionated as Billy Packer. Kellogg's work on the studio shows for CBS' coverage of the NCAA Tournament has been top notch and it will be interesting to hear him call marquee games.

But it will be hard to replace Billy Packer's intimate knowledge of Final Four games. The man has called every single game since before the epic Magic Johnson-Larry Bird game in 1979. Imagining the NCAA Final Four without Billy Packer is like imagining the Dodgers without Vin Scully.

It just won't be March Madness without him.