ESPN has rolled out its official plans for extensive studio coverage of the College Football Playoff, and there’s a lot to parse through.
The expanded 12-team playoff also means expanded coverage plans for the Worldwide Leader, who will deploy several studio teams across its various networks.
ESPN’s flagship college football studio show College GameDay will begin the CFP doing double duty in the first round. Starting on Friday for Indiana-Notre Dame from South Bend, Indiana, GameDay will host nearly five hours of coverage starting at 3:30 p.m. ET and leading up to the opening game. The crew will then make a very quick turnaround and head to Columbus, Ohio for Tennessee’s date with Ohio State. GameDay will be live from Columbus during its traditional time on Saturday morning, 9:00 a.m. ET to noon ET.
Moving on to the quarterfinal round, the GameDay crew will travel west to the Rose Bowl where the No. 1 seed Oregon Ducks will take on the winner of Tennessee-Ohio State. GameDay will air an hour later than usual, at 10:00 a.m. ET to 1:00 p.m. ET that day.
Then, Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, and Nick Saban will pull another double shift for the semifinal games. That will see them first in Miami for the Orange Bowl on January 9th, then in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl on January 10th. Both will be abbreviated shows from 6:00 p.m. ET to 7:30 p.m. ET.
Finally, GameDay will travel to Atlanta for the CFP National Championship on January 20th. The crew will do a two-and-a-half-hour show from 5:00 p.m. ET to 7:30 p.m. ET leading up to the title game.
Of course, given the amount of games in the new format, ESPN couldn’t send its flagship show to every location. Luckily, the SEC Network and ACC Network are filling in where necessary.
SEC Network will get contributions from three of its marquee shows: SEC Nation, The Paul Finebaum Show, and Marty & McGee. On-site coverage will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET on Friday with Paul Finebaum hosting his eponymous show live from Texas Memorial Stadium ahead of Clemson-Texas on Saturday.
Saturday morning will start with a 10:00 a.m. ET edition of SEC Nation, which will also be live from Austin, Texas. Laura Rutledge will host alongside analysts Roman Harper, Jordan Rodgers, Tim Tebow, and Finebaum.
Later on Saturday, SEC Network will head north to Columbus, Ohio for an episode of Marty & McGee (Marty Smith and Ryan McGee) at 6:00 p.m. ET before the Volunteers take on the Buckeyes. SEC Now hosted by Dari Nowkhah will take the network from 7:00 p.m. ET to kickoff.
ACC Network will also chip in plenty of CFP coverage, with the conference getting two teams into the 12-team field. The network will be on-site in both Austin, Texas for Clemson-Texas and State College, Pennsylvania for SMU-Penn State.
Saturday will begin with ACC Huddle at 10:00 a.m. ET and lead up to the SMU-Penn State game at noon ET on TNT. The show will be back on the ACC Network airwaves for a one-hour postgame following the conclusion of Clemson-Texas. (That game kicks off at 4:00 p.m. ET, also on TNT.)
Wes Durham and Tom Luginbill will serve as the network’s presence in State College alongside Eddie Royal. ACC Huddle host Taylor Tannebaum will be stationed in Austin with analysts EJ Manuel and Eric Mac Lain.
Outside of the studio, ESPN is offering a host of alternate broadcast options for the altcast-inclined. The network plans on announcing more studio coverage plans for the later rounds as the playoff progresses.
ESPN is putting a lot of manpower into this inaugural 12-team playoff. Between College GameDay doing two weekends of back-to-back shows (a huge logistical lift), and sending both of its conference-specific networks on-site for games that aren’t even airing on an ESPN network, there’s a clear commitment to doing things right.
All of these efforts help contribute to the new CFP having a big-time feel. In today’s era of live sports where extensive on-site coverage is anything but guaranteed, it’s nice to see a network pour resources into airing a top-quality product.
[ESPN PR]
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.