CBS, Packer part ways; Kellogg now analyst

The college basketball expert has covered the past 34 NCAA Final Fours.

NEW YORK (AP) — Billy Packer didn’t sound like a man who found out his 34-year run as part of the Final Four broadcast had ended.

On Monday, CBS announced that Clark Kellogg would replace Packer after 27 years as the network’s lead college basketball analyst.

Including his earlier years at NBC, Packer had done every Final Four since 1975, an unparalleled run for a national sports championship.

“These are really good circumstances,” Packer told The Associated Press by phone. “This decision was made with myself and CBS over a year ago.

“Their timing to announce it is their business. I have nothing to do with that. I was working on a series of 1-year contracts for several years. ... I did say there would be no mention during the season so as not to detract from the games and the guys involved.”

Kellogg, a game and studio analyst for CBS for 16 years, will be the man next to Jim Nantz on the 2009 Final Four broadcasts.

“With his unquestioned popularity and performance over the years, Clark Kellogg earned all rights to this top spot,” Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, said in a statement.

“Like Billy Packer, Al McGuire or any of the most highly regarded broadcasters, Clark is an original voice with his own style and perspective.”

The 68-year-old Packer said he was “happy” for Kellogg, who played at Ohio State and then in the NBA.

Packer also will end his long run as an analyst for Raycom, a regional network that covers the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Packer was able to stay one of sports’ top analysts without changing much over more than three decades.

He spoke his mind about coaches, players, the NCAA tournament and the influx of foreign athletes into American college sports.

His criticism of the tournament committee became standard fare on Selection Sunday and it often turned into a public battle with the likes of Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli when his team received a No. 1 seed in 2004.