Jul 22, 2021; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; The College Football Playoff national championship trophy is displayed during Big 10 media days at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

The amount of ways to watch the College Football Playoff Semifinals and the four other New Year’s Six games on ESPN’s networks are simply dizzying. On Tuesday, ESPN announced their coverage plans for the games, airing on December 30th, December 31st, and January 1st. Six other bowl games not under the New Year’s Six umbrella air on ESPN’s networks over those three days, along with the one CBS bowl broadcast and Barstool’s inaugural bowl broadcast.

We’ll start with the Semifinals. The main broadcasts of both Alabama-Cincinnati and Michigan-Georgia will be on ESPN. The Command Center broadcast, which typically has multiple camera angles on the screen at the same time, will be on ESPN2. ESPNU has the Skycast, called by Anish Shroff and Roddy Jones (I assume for both games? The release wasn’t clear on that point). Over on ESPNEWS, the All-22 feed will air, with audio from the ESPN Radio call. Hometown radio feeds for all four teams are available on the ESPN app, though the Alabama and Georgia radio calls will also air on SEC Network. The ESPN app will also air halftime marching band performances, along with the ESPN Deportes broadcast of the games.

Here’s a bullet point rundown for the Semifinals, in case that wall of text was too much.

  • ESPN: main broadcast
  • ESPN2: Command Center
  • ESPNU: Skycast
  • ESPNEWS: All-22
  • SEC Network: Alabama and Georgia radio feeds
  • ESPN Deportes: Spanish language
  • ESPN app: everything already mentioned, along with Cincinnati and Michigan radio feeds, halftime marching band performances

Needless to say, you have options!

The four other New Year’s Six games also have MegaCast options, though not as many as the two semifinals.

The extra feeds for the Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Sugar Bowl will be the Command Center and Skycast, each available on the ESPN app for all four games. However, for the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, the Command Center broadcast will also air on ESPN2. The Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl get the raw end of the deal there because of other games – ESPN2 is airing a college basketball doubleheader at the same time as the Peach Bowl, and the Outback Bowl starts on ESPN2 an hour before the Fiesta Bowl starts on ESPN.

Anyone who watches to watch any of these games should have a broadcast that appeals to them, whether its the original flavor or one of the alternate feeds. I think this also gives us a preview as to ESPN’s plans for the National Championship in a couple of weeks, and I’m morbidly curious to see which radio feed gets the SEC Network coverage in the event of an Alabama-Georgia matchup.

[ESPN]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.