ESPN debuts 2025-26 college football anthem you’ll be sick of by Week 4

Every year, ESPN picks a new song to be its musical anthem for the upcoming college football season, and viewers are sick to death of that song within a few weeks of the season getting underway. It’s a tradition unlike any other.

Uppercase letters are out this year as mgk (formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly) is ESPN’s music anthem artist for the 2025-26 college football season and his new song ‘dont wait run fast’ off the album, ‘lost americana,’ will play way too many times during just about every college football game you watch on ESPN.

Let’s take a listen for the first, but certainly not the last, time.

It’s the kind of bland, inoffensive rock music that’s honestly perfect for this kind of collaboration. You can defintely imagine Kirk Herbstreit tapping his toes to this.

“Music and college football have been intertwined for years, and our ESPN College Football anthem ushers in that first spark of the season,” said Curtis Friends, ESPN Vice President of Marketing. “This 12th iteration, mgk brings a passionate, high-voltage sound that mirrors the raw emotion and untamed spirit of college football.”

Last year, it was Jelly Roll’s “Get By” that burrowed into college football fans’ eardrums and refused to free itself until December. Previous inescapable anthems came courtesy of artists such as Post Malone, Imagine Dragons, DJ Snake, and Yungblud.

The Artist Formerly Known as Machine Gun Kelly appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday to promote the collab. While “music and college football have been intertwined for years,” it didn’t sound like mgk was too up to speed on the world of college football, or sports in general.

Let’s not do that @machinegunkelly 😂😂

That was CRAZY #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/YQWK7WDzgh

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 31, 2025

“I don’t really associate myself much with sports,” a cross-armed and subdued Kelly told McAfee. “I was a tight end. I scored one football.”

Feel the synergy.