There is a handful of play-by-play announcers doing college football games right now who are very good: Brad Nessler, Verne Lundquist, Sean McDonough, and Mike Tirico. Ron Franklin would be on that list, too, but they won't let him work any more. 

As competent as these announcers are, though, none of them bring that special magic (which is hard to explain) that the elite guys in the past seemed to bring to a "game of the year" scenario. I'm kind of cheating here because most of the "special magic" guys I am listing rarely did college games (e.g., they would call New Year's Day bowl games): Keith Jackson was very much a full-time college football announcer, but I'm also thinking of Curt Gowdy, Charlie Jones, Lindsey Nelson, and Dick Enberg. When these announcers called big games, their powerful, distinctive voices and styles made the listener feel that he was watching an event that transcended the mere moment - we were watching history unfold. 

My first instinct was to blame this deficit on technology: back in the day, the t.v. resolution was awful compared to now, so maybe there was a greater premium on the announcers providing that sense of vividness, momentousness, color, and pageantry. Whereas, now, the pictures can do more of that work.

On the other hand, I have heard a few "special magic" guys calling games in the last few years of this high-def era: Al Michaels, Ian Eagle (underrated), Marv Albert. The British announcer that did the 2014 World Cup games in the U.S. market, Ian Darke. 

Does anyone else feel similarly about current college football play-by-play announcers?