While College GameDay continues to reach new heights, its main competitor had an eventful summer.
Over on Fox, Big Noon Kickoff is bringing in Barstool founder Dave Portnoy for regular appearances to compete with ESPN’s historic college football pregame show. Many, including GameDay host Desmond Howard, see it as Fox’s attempt to find their own Pat McAfee and level the playing field between the two shows.
Howard isn’t worried, though. In fact, he still doesn’t even look at Big Noon Kickoff as GameDay‘s primary competition, with or without Portnoy.
The show’s main rival, Howard recently told Barrett Media, is Inside the NBA. And only because Inside is often the other primary candidate in the Sports Emmy race for best weekly studio show.
“They want to compete. I like those guys. To me, our competitor has been the NBA on TNT because we’re always battling against them for the Sports Emmy,” Howard said. “No disrespect to [Big Noon Kickoff], I’m sure they do a fantastic job.”
The quote is a pretty scalding shot at BNK, even if Howard didn’t intend it that way. Even funnier, Howard also claimed he had not even heard of the Portnoy addition until the interviewer revealed it to him.
Perhaps it is true that Desmond Howard does not keep up with Fox’s pregame show. After all, it airs at the same time as GameDay. It’s not as if Howard is on his couch to watch. And to be fair, the competition wasn’t exactly close last season.
Still, if you had an impression of the GameDay panel constantly checking numbers and looking over their shoulder at the Fox Sports show, think again. Howard clearly feels GameDay is the king of Saturdays, and has his eyes on the prize to keep winning Sports Emmys over Inside for many years to come.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.