College sports announcer leaves FOX to become new Sunday Night Baseball lead at NBC
By David Wasson
Published:
One of the best voices in the college sports broadcasting game is switching teams, as Jason Benetti has been announced as the play-by-play voice of Sunday Night Baseball for NBC.
Benetti has been calling college football and basketball for FOX since 2022 in addition to broadcasting Detroit Tigers games for Bally Sports Detroit since 2024 – a gig he is expected to retain in 2026. Benetti got his first taste of NBC in 2021-22 when he served as a play-by-play voice for the pandemic-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as well as the 18-game MLB Sunday Leadoff package for Peacock.
Benetti joins a cast at NBC that includes host Bob Costas and studio analysts Joey Votto, Clayton Kershaw and Anthony Rizzo. Benetti’s flexibility as a play-by-play voice could also lend itself in the future to NBC’s Notre Dame and Big Ten broadcasts.
Benetti, 42, is one of the most interesting stories in sports television. Born 10 weeks premature and with cerebral palsy, he had to overcome a limp and drifting eye. Benetti overcame those physical hurdles to graduate from Syracuse and get his law degree at Wake Forest before choosing broadcasting as his profession.
Benetti’s voice might be missing from FOX college football broadcasts in 2026, but Kalshi has updated predictions on which teams might make this season’s College Football Playoff:
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
