Purdue Legend Robbie Hummel Leaving ESPN for NBC, Fox
Robbie Hummel, a former standout player for head coach Matt Painter and the Purdue Boilermakers, is now a valued commentator for Big Ten college basketball broadcasts. According to reports on Monday, Hummel is switching from ESPN to NBC and Fox to call Big Ten games. Additionally, he will continue to call games for Big Ten Network.
Bloomington, Indiana: During the 2023–24 season, Robbie Hummel will continue to announce Big Ten basketball games. He will no longer be performing it for ESPN, though.
The legendary Purdue basketball player is leaving the global leader to join NBC and Fox, where he will be delivering color commentary for college basketball games, according to a report published by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post on Monday morning. Additionally, Hummel will carry on narrating games for Big Ten Network.
As Fox, NBC, and CBS have inked new TV rights agreements with the Big Ten, ESPN’s coverage of the historic conference is upcoming. It is hardly unexpected that Hummel, one of the most well-known public spokespersons for Big Ten basketball, wanted to continue calling the games involving those schools. Hummel has an easier time calling games for both Fox Sports and Big Ten Network because they are owned by the same company.
Hummel had a legendary career as a Boilermaker while playing for Purdue from 2008 to 2012 under head coach Matt Painter. Upon leaving West Lafayette, he had amassed 1,772 career points and made 216 three-pointers. With those stats, Hummel becomes the tenth-highest scoring player in Purdue men’s basketball history and ranks eighth overall in three-point field goals made.
In addition, he played two seasons in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2013 to 2015. But Hummel’s post-career days as a broadcaster—he spent six seasons with ESPN before to 2023—have garnered far more attention than his Minnesota tenure did.
According to Marchand’s report, Hummel is expected to be on quite a few Big Ten Tuesday matchups throughout the year, which could include some of the games that NBC plans to broadcast on Peacock for the 2023-24 season.
