Packer: I'm done broadcasting

Having parted company with CBS, college basketball analyst Billy Packer said today he is finished working as a broadcaster on televised games.

That means he also won't do any more ACC games on Raycom telecasts, or consider a deal with another network.

"In the history of nationally televised basketball, I've done probably 90 percent of the great games, so I don't want to be going to do games of a different status, so I have no interest in that," Packer said today in a telephone interview.

CBS announced earlier today that it would not bring back Packer for a 28th season as its lead college basketball analyst. Clark Kellogg, who has been a game and in-studio analyst for 16 years with CBS, will replace Packer as the television network's lead analyst. A studio replacement for Kellogg has not been named, but former ESPN commentator Greg Anthony may get that spot.

"It's a good time for me and a good time for CBS," Packer said of his departure.

Asked to elaborate, he said: "Well, I'm 68 years old. I've done 34 Final Fours, and CBS has five or six more years on the contract [with the NCAA]. I was not going to be doing college basketball games as a broadcaster when I'm 75 years old."

Packer, a successful businessman who lives in Charlotte, said he has been working under a series of one-year contracts with CBS "on my own accord." He disputed a USA Today report that referred to the "firing of Billy Packer."

"No, that's not true," Packer said. "I worked through and completed my contract. I mean, you'd have to ask CBS that, but I completed my obligations to CBS, which was to work through this year's championship."

On whether he had taken issue with his compensation or how CBS was covering college basketball, Packer said: "No, that's neither here nor there. I don't have any comment on that."

CBS Sports President Sean McManus could not be immediately reached for comment. In a prepared statement released today by CBS, McManus said only that Kellogg had earned the role, offering no further explanation for why Packer had been replaced.

“With his unquestioned popularity and performance over the years, Clark Kellogg earned all rights to this top spot,” McManus said in the prepared 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. ...

"Billy Packer has set the standard of excellence for over 30 years," added McManus. "I can’t express how important he has been, not only to CBS Sports and its coverage of college basketball, but also to the growth of this great sport. It is almost impossible to overestimate his passion, knowledge and commitment to the game."

CBS has suffered ratings declines on both its regular-season and NCAA Tournament game telecasts in recent years, though McManus has insisted that factors such as lopsided games were to blame.

Packer, a former star guard at Wake Forest, has worked 34 consecutive NCAA Final Fours -- a championship record in any sport that longtime partner Jim Nantz said would never be broken. The outspoken Packer has generated both intense admiration and dislike from viewers, though he considered his TV role as something of a secondary job to his business interests, which include a golf course and residential development in Roaring Gap.

"He protects the heart and soul of the sport," Nantz said in a prepared statement. "He is the ultimate curator protecting the integrity of the sport. Fans don’t realize they owe Billy a thank you.”

Packer said he would turn his attention to a "fun project" involving basketball that would have conflicted with his role as a broadcaster.

"It's something I've been working on for about a year," he said, declining to offer details.

Read a deep profile of Packer from The N&O, with audio clips, here.

Read more on Packer in tomorrow's print edition.

 — Roger van der Horst