With the 2026 college football season approaching, ESPN has revealed its studio lineup for the upcoming season.
For the seventh consecutive season, Kevin Negandhi and Booger McFarland will be in the lead studio for ESPN. For the first time in 2026, the duo will also be joined by Jordan Rodgers. Rodgers previously served as the lead analyst for SEC Network’s Saturday Primetime game, but is moving this year to ESPN’s Friday primetime booth alongside Mike Monaco.
Negandhi, McFarland, and Rodgers will provide studio coverage on all Saturday games on ABC and Saturday primetime games on ESPN.
ESPN has also made a change to its Friday college football coverage. As previously reported, Alyssa Lang will replace Matt Barrie as the host of ESPN’s Friday coverage after Barrie became the new host of SEC Nation. Lang will be joined by Sam Acho and EJ Manuel. Manuel has greatly expanded his college football studio coverage in recent years, moving from ACC Network to ESPN last year and adding weekday coverage this year.
Thursday coverage will feature a similar studio team, with Kevin Connors alongside Acho and Manuel.
On Saturdays, ESPN will also have a secondary studio team for its college football coverage. Kevin Connors or Alyssa Lang will host studio coverage on ESPN and ESPN2, alongside EJ Manuel and Joey Galloway.
ESPN also announced that it will air a special pregame show in lieu of College GameDay during Week 0 of the college football season on Saturday, August 29. From 10 a.m. to noon ET, ESPN will air College Football Countdown with Kevin Negandhi alongside Greg McElroy, Jesse Palmer, Booger McFarland and Pete Thamel. ESPN will air the 2026 Aer Lingus Football Classic between TCU and UNC at 12 p.m. ET.
The studio announcements come after ESPN also announced several changes to its commentator booths. Longtime play-by-play announcers Mark Jones and Dave Flemming have both left ESPN, with Tom Hart and Roy Philpot replacing them on the network’s college football coverage.
Compared to those changes, ESPN’s studio teams are remaining relatively stable.
About Manny Soloway
Manny Soloway is a Iowa based writer focusing on TV ratings. He is also the founder of the TV Media Blog substack.