CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz to call last Final Four to close 2023 NCAA Tournament

Legendary sports broadcaster Jim Nantz will call his last Final Four at the end of the 2022-23 college basketball season, CBS Sports confirmed. Though he is stepping away from NCAA Tournament coverage, Nantz is staying with CBS Sports for coverage of the NFL and golf.

Nantz’s first NCAA Tournament as a broadcaster came in 1986, the year after the field expanded to 64 teams. He worked as a studio host before transitioning to play-by-play for the 1991 Final Four. Ever since, he’s been on the microphone calling some of the sport’s most memorable games on its grandest stage.

At 63, Nantz cited a desire to spend more time with his family in remarks to the New York Post about his decision to leave the NCAA Tournament broadcast team. Fittingly, his last Final Four will be in Houston, which is where he attended college and got his start in the broadcasting industry.

“It is time with two young children and an older daughter that I spend more time at home,” Nantz told the New York Post. “Daddy needs to be home.”

Nantz will be replaced as the lead play-by-play voice of the Final Four by Ian Eagle. An iconic college basketball voice in his own right, Eagle is the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn Nets and owns significant NCAA Tournament and NFL broadcasting experience for CBS.

“It’s his time,” Nantz told the New York Post. “I will support him 1,000%. He doesn’t need my support. But I’m absolutely thrilled for him. He’s a great teammate. He’s been right in the middle of this NCAA Tournament for a long, long time. So he’s not dropping in from outside, I mean he’s going to be working an extra weekend. It happens to be the big one. And he is definitely capable and ready and will excel and he’ll take it to all new heights.”