College football fans are in for a special treat for ESPN’s coverage of this year’s College Football Playoff national championship game – the return of the much heralded Film Room.
Altcasts have been all the rage over the past several years, especially for major sporting events. And ESPN has traditionally pulled out all the stops for college football postseason games with their MegaCast production, highlighting several different ways to watch the game.
But arguably the best of those products was the Film Room, where current college football coaches sat in a studio together and broke down the game in real time. It was a fascinating look into their world and an incredible way to watch and understand the game in a new light.
Finally, after years on the sidelines, ESPN is bringing it back for this year’s national title game.
ESPN VP of Sports Production Bryan Jaroch made the reveal on the Sports Business Journal’s sports media podcast with Austin Karp. And this year’s program will feature several former coaches who recently patrolled the sidelines who now work for ESPN and have been part of the Film Room in past incarnations.
“In part because The Pat McAfee Show took over ESPN2. And for years we’ve wanted to bring back the film room and the idea came up to bring it back this year and use some coaches that we’ve used in the past that are actually now on our staff,” Jaroch said. “We’re going to use Jimbo Fisher, Steve Addazio, Gene Chizik, and Dave Clawson, who all participated in the film room when they were coaches. And now that they’re on our staff, we’re bringing them all back in. And they’re all super excited to do it. It’s going to be so much fun. Zubin Mehenti’s going to host it. We’re bringing in Jerry McGinn our rules analyst to be in studio as well.”
“So again, it’s another way for fans to take in the national championship game. I personally love that show. I love listening to coaches break down film, see what they see, transit their projecting forward. As producer back in the day, I used to love sitting down with my analyst and watching game film and breaking down what we think is going to happen and then see it unfold on air. That’s exactly what that show is,” Jaroch added.
It remains to be seen where the Film Room will live in ESPN’s CFP national championship game presentation. It could potentially be on ESPN2 if Pat McAfee and company want the night off. Or it could go on any number of streaming or linear options in the ESPN family of networks.
Altcasts are never going to be the standard for watching a game. We all know 95% of the audience will be on the main telecast. But for hardcore fans, each option can provide something a little bit different and more engaging. If there’s one thing you can say about the streaming era, it’s that fans have more options than ever before to consume their sports and entertainment the exact way they want to.
And when it comes to the annals of altcasts, there are none that are as informative and interesting than watching a bunch of coaches sit down and shoot the breeze while watching a game and opening up all kinds of new information and perspective. If you haven’t checked it out before, it’s definitely worth the watch as a second screen or even first screen experience. And hopefully it’s back for good.
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