Behind The Scenes

ESPN’s cross-platform coverage plans for Penn State sanctions presser; Tweetback: Statue & The Open

Sunday’s removal of the Joe Paterno statue at Penn State and the coinciding announcement of Monday’s NCAA press conference regarding possible sanctions has pushed the Penn State story to the forefront of sports news.

As such, ESPN will begin coverage of Monday’s NCAA press conference from Indianapolis with a special, live 8 a.m. ET SportsCenter, leading into Mark Emmert’s planned session with the media. ESPNU will present a “SportsCenterU Special” beginning at 8:30 a.m. Content will also be streamed on the WatchESPN app and ESPN3.com.

Reporters John Barr and Kelly Naqi are in State College, PA and Rece Davis and Joe Schad cover Emmert’s press conference from Indianapolis.

In addition, ESPN Radio programming will feature reporting and analysis during Mike and Mike in the Morning from Barr (7:00 a.m. ET), Schad (7:15), the Altoona Mirror’s Cory Giger (7:30), ESPN’s Matt Millen (8:00) and coverage of the NCAA News Conference at 9.

Colin Cowherd is scheduled to welcome former Penn State lineman, Brandon Noble (10:45 a.m.); ESPN’s Jay Bilas (11:15) and Giger (11:45) into The Herd.

Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo are slated to have Ben Jones from statecollege.com (1:15 p.m.); LSU’s Les Miles (1:45, in studio*), Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples (2:15) and Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer (2:45).

*On Monday, SEC Coaches begin Day 1 of a two-day “car wash” that will see each of the 14 SEC head football coaches visit the Bristol Campus. Scheduled groups are as follows: Monday: Auburn – Gene Chizik; LSU – Les Miles; Mississippi State – Dan Mullen; Missouri – Gary Pinkel; Tennessee – Derek Dooley; Texas A&M – Kevin Sumlin; Vanderbilt – James Franklin.
Tuesday: Alabama – Nick Saban; Arkansas – John L. Smith; Florida – Will Muschamp; Georgia – Mark Richt; Kentucky – Joker Phillips; Ole Miss – Hugh Freeze; South Carolina – Steve Spurrier.
Coaches will appear throughout the two days on TV, radio and across ESPN’s digital outlets.

• Jeremy Schaap is scheduled for a 4 p.m. phone interview with Michael Kay on ESPN 98.7 FM in New York.

• This weekend’s Tweetback can be found after the jump.

Front Row knows you have better things to do all weekend than check your social media feeds, so we do it for you.

Here, from the ESPN PR universe, are some of the Tweets, posts and other commentary you may have missed.

You can thank us later!

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