American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti has joined the chorus of voices calling for a college football RedZone channel, arguing that the format would better serve a generation of fans with different viewing habits than their predecessors.
Speaking on Sports Business Journal’s Sports Media Podcast, Pernetti made his case for why college football needs to embrace the bite-sized consumption model that’s made NFL RedZone a Sunday staple for millions of viewers.
“I think RedZone would be terrific, because it just incites more engagement,” Pernetti said. “Because, you know, the reality is — and I have two 20-something sons that’ve both started working in sports, and they grew up on sports. They were around my career. They love sports, played sports, but the attention span is a little bit different for this generation. So, having the ability to sort of consume in bite size opportunities like NFL RedZone does.”
@sportsbusinessjournal “I think RedZone would be terrific because it just incites more engagement.” Tim Pernetti, Commissioner of the American Conference, says bringing a RedZone-style experience to college football could pull in even more fans 🏈 #redzone #collegefootball #cfb #football ♬ original sound – SBJ
If that’s how a generation raised around sports is choosing to consume the NFL — and it is — then college football has a problem. Or maybe an opportunity, depending on how you look at it.
“In college, the challenge with this — it’s much like commissioners coming together to agree on anything — is you need to bring all the media networks together to agree that there’s a product that they can create to service fandom,” Pernetti explained. “And I would also argue that there’s money to be made for everyone by doing something like this. But that will be a pretty difficult hill to climb.”
Fox Sports has already made clear it’s “unlikely” to license its Big Ten and Big 12 games to ESPN for such a venture, reportedly concerned about cannibalizing its own broadcasts. CBS and NBC, which also hold pieces of the Big Ten rights, would face similar considerations.
The fragmented rights landscape in college football stands in stark contrast to the NFL, where the league controls its product and can grant access to RedZone footage across all broadcasts. In college football, ESPN exclusively owns SEC and ACC rights, but would need cooperation from competitors to create a truly comprehensive RedZone experience.
“Could the ESPNs of the world, because they have so much content under their umbrella, or Fox, or anyone else, do their own version of it?” Pernetti asked. “I think that you could, but I also don’t want to speak to what they’re trying to achieve as a business, like maybe that waters down what they’re actually trying to do from the perspective of promotion and viewership and tune in and making the game stickier.”
ESPN did experiment with exactly this approach in 2023, when Pat McAfee and Rece Davis hosted a RedZone-style whip-around show on ESPN2 that combined live game footage with highlights from the afternoon slate. The network also operated ESPN Goal Line from 2010-20, which offered similar live look-ins and highlights.
The concept could realistically start with an SEC RedZone, since ESPN has exclusive rights to that conference. From there, it could expand to include the ACC, Big 12, and Group of Five conferences, where ESPN already has existing relationships.
“I think it would be a tremendous product,” Pernetti said. “I think it would modernize how college football is consumed. And I also think it would bring more casual fans to the table, which we really need.”
College football has always faced a challenge that the NFL doesn’t — the sheer number of teams and the regional nature of fandom make it harder for casual fans to engage beyond their own team’s games. An Alabama fan might not know much about Oregon State’s quarterback or care about a Big 12 matchup between Iowa State and Kansas State.
NFL RedZone solved this problem by making every game feel relevant through the lens of scoring plays and dramatic moments. A college football version could potentially do the same, introducing fans to players and storylines they’d otherwise never encounter.
ESPN’s acquisition of the RedZone branding rights as part of its groundbreaking deal with the NFL opened the door for expansion into other sports. The network has the infrastructure, the experience, and now the brand name. What it doesn’t have is universal buy-in from the other networks that control college football rights.
Pernetti’s right that there’s likely money to be made for everyone involved. But convincing Fox, CBS, and NBC to send viewers away from their live game broadcasts — even for brief moments — requires a level of cooperation that’s historically been difficult to achieve in college sports.
For now, younger fans will continue doing what Pernetti’s sons do. They’ll find their own way to consume the sport in bite-sized chunks, whether through social media highlights, streaming multiple games at once, or simply tuning in and out as things heat up.
The question is whether college football will make it easier for them to do it.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.