According to a report from Sports Illustrated, ESPN is parting ways with college football reporter Joe Schad.
Schad has worked for Bristol for over a decade, mostly serving as a news reporter and insider but also doing sideline reporting for ESPN Radio.
SI has learned that national college football reporter Joe Schad will not be part of the network’s coverage this fall. Schad joined ESPN in 2005 and worked on a number of ESPN platforms including College GameDay, College Football Live, SportsCenter and ESPN.com. He also did sideline reporting for ESPN, ABC and ESPN Radio, including national championship games.
The SI report also mentions Robert Smith not being a part of ESPN’s college football coverage this fall, but Smith already announced that on his Twitter page earlier this year.
Schad was a major television presence for ESPN as a college football insider. Schad’s most notable episode at ESPN came when his name was mentioned in the Craig James-Mike Leach saga.
While insiderdom isn’t nearly as big of an industry in the college game as it is the professional one, it still leaves a bit of a hole on ESPN’s television coverage. It’ll be interesting to see who steps up to fill that spot, whether it be someone like Brett McMurphy getting more TV time or another one of the ESPN.com writers and reporters taking on a new role.
As for Schad, we all know that Fox Sports is the first and most logical destination for any ex-ESPN television talent. However, Fox already has Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel as recent additions on the writing/reporting side covering the sport. Do they have room for Schad or does their shift away from news and towards provocative opinion means there’s no interest in hiring any more newsbreakers?
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