Lisa Byington Becomes First Woman to Call Play-by-Play for NCAA Tournament

Lisa Byington will become the first woman to call play-by-play in the history of the NCAA tournament.

Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

Announcer and reporter Lisa Byington will become the first woman to call play-by-play in the history of the NCAA tournament.  

Byington and Tom McCarthy were added as play-by-play announcers for this year's tournament, which features two broadcast teams for CBS and Turner Sports. Byington began working as a March Madness reporter with CBS and Turner in 2017. 

She began her broadcasting career with WBKB-TV in Alpena, Mich., before moving to WLNS-TV in Lansing. In her next job, Byington made her first appearance with the Big Ten Network in 2007 during the network's opening football weekend. 

NEWS: Lisa Byington, doing play by play, will become first woman in Men's NCAA Tournament TV history to do so.

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) March 11, 2021

Byington has also done play-by-play for a local Chicago Bulls broadcast, as well as for the WNBA'S Chicago Sky. Beyond basketball, Byington has worked as an announcer for Fox Sports and BTN where she has called FIFA World Cup matches and MLS Games. 

In August 2018, Byington called an MLS game between the New England Revolution and D.C. United with Danielle Slaton and Katie Witham in what was considered the first all-female broadcast of any of the five major men's professional leagues.

All 67 games for the 2021 NCAA tournament will be televised on CBS, TBS, TNT or TruTV. The tournament begins on March 18 with the First Four.