ESPN College Football set at the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship media day

''ESPN College Football'' is the branding used for broadcasts of

NCAA Division I FBS The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

across ESPN properties, including

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an internet, online streaming media, streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) an ...

ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

ESPN Classic ESPN Classic was an American multinational pay television television network, network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which controlled an 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which had 20%). The channel was ...

ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...

ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...

and

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

. ''ESPN College Football'' debuted in 1982. ''ESPN College Football'' consists of four to five games a week, with '' ESPN College Football Primetime'', which airs at 7:30 on Thursdays. Saturday includes ''ESPN College Football Noon'' at 12:00 Saturday, a 3:30 or 4:30 game that is not shown on a weekly basis, and '' ESPN College Football Primetime'' on Saturday. A Sunday game, ''Sunday Showdown'', was added for the first half of 2006 to make up for the loss of '' Sunday Night Football'' to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. ESPN also produces ''

ESPN College Football on ABC ABC first began broadcasting regular season college football games in 1950, and has aired games of the now-National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) annually since 1966. After the ABC Sports div ...

'' and ''

ESPN Saturday Night Football on ABC ''Saturday Night Football'' (currently branded as ''ESPN'' ''Saturday Night Football presented by Capital One'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American weekly presentation of prime time broadcasts of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCA ...

'' in separate broadcast packages. The American, ACC,

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

MAC Mac or MAC may refer to: Common meanings * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages * McIntosh (apple), a Canadi ...

, SEC and

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered stretching across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the Parallel 36°30′ north. Several climates can be found in the re ...

are all covered by ESPN. Through its online arm

and the

streaming service, ESPN carries a wide variety of other athletic conferences and games at lower divisions, spanning the full breadth of college football.

History

ESPN began airing taped college football games during the 1979 regular season, starting with a game between

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. The network was limited to airing tape-delayed games because the NCAA controlled television rights through exclusive contracts. However, because bowl games operate outside the control of the NCAA, ESPN was able to air the 1982 Independence Bowl between

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public inst ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

live (through a simulcast with the

Mizlou Television Network Mizlou Television Network was a sports broadcast television network active from 1968-1991. In 1968, its predecessor, the Unisphere Broadcasting System (UBS) was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, which is now based in Tampa, Florida. Mi ...

) – the first live football game televised on ESPN. After the 1984 Supreme Court decision in '' NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma'' allowed individual schools to negotiate television rights, ESPN began broadcasting live regular-season games during the 1984 season, beginning with a game between BYU and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

on September 1, 1984. The first live broadcast of a regular-season night game followed that night, between the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

, who were ranked number 17, and the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes, known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes, are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Coll ...

, who were ranked number 10. In recent years, ESPN and ESPN2 air games at noon, which usually includes a

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

game. Both networks also air primetime games, typically featuring teams from the ACC or SEC. With the expansion of ESPN, including multiple networks and outlets, their coverage has likewise increased. In 2005, with the creation of

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

, over 300 games were aired on its networks. In 2007, the ESPN family of networks aired over 450 games. Also, they aired a weekly game on

for the first time ever. ESPN started that season with 25 hours of college football programming. Also, ESPNU has rapidly increased the coverage of spring intramural team scrimmages with entire programs dedicated to this phenomenon. In 2008, ESPN aired ''College GameDay'' from

Florida Field Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (in full Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium),Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

, with the Big 12 Conference (later extended until 2009) and with the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

. However, the games cannot air during the “reverse mirror” slot. During the 2008 season, ESPN aired over 400 games. Beginning in the 2010 season, ESPN acquired exclusive broadcast rights to the

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of America ...

in a four-year contract, where all games in the BCS would be aired on ESPN. Also in 2010, the company launched

ESPN Goal Line ESPN Goal Line & ESPN Bases Loaded was a gametime-only cable channel operated by ESPN which operated from the start of the 2010 college football season until the end of the 2019 college football season. The channel was active during two college ...

, a gametime-only channel that switches between games to show the most interesting plays, similar to

NFL RedZone ''NFL RedZone'' (stylized as ''NFL RedZone from NFL Network'') is an American sports television channel owned and operated by NFL Network since 2009. It is named after the term " red zone", the part of the football field between the 20-yard line ...

. In 2012, ESPN reached long-term, 12-year agreements to retain rights to the Rose Bowl,

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

, and

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed only ...

following the dissolution of the Bowl Championship Series. In November, ESPN reached a 12-year deal to broadcast the remainder of the new

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...

system, valued at around $470 million per-year, giving it continued rights to the

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played annually in Atlanta, Georgia, since December 30, 1968. The first three Peach Bowls were played at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Grant Field on the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech c ...

and

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area since 1971. From its beginning until 2006, the game was hosted at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has be ...

, as well as the

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its Cotton Bowl (stadium), namesake ...

and the

College Football Playoff National Championship The College Football Playoff National Championship is a post-season college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which began play in the 2014 college football season. ...

. For the 2014-15 postseason, ESPN implemented a major overhaul of its on-air presentation with

flat design Flat design is a minimalist design language or design style commonly used in graphical user interfaces (GUI) (such as web applications and mobile apps), and also in graphical materials such as posters, arts, guide documents and publishing prod ...

and a score box in the bottom-right of the screen, which soft launched during the New Orleans Bowl, and formally debuted alongside new graphics and theme music during the inaugural College Football Playoff games. ESPN revamped its on-air presentation for college football again for the 2020 season, with a "test facility" theme, and a scoreboard along the bottom of the screen reminiscent of ''

Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...

''. In 2017, ESPN renewed its rights to the Big Ten, but lost its tier 1 rights to Big Ten football to

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

, meaning that it no longer has the first choices of games each week. In 2019, ESPN began a 12-year deal with the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

, with at least 40 football games on ESPN linear networks and ABC per-season, and all other content on

. ESPN+ also acquired the third-tier media rights to most Big 12 teams, besides the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

(who had a partnership with ESPN and

Learfield Learfield (often stylized as LEARFIELD) is a collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and many of th ...

Longhorn Network Longhorn Network (LHN) was an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and was operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by The Walt Disney Compa ...

) and

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the college athletics in the United States , athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, Oklahoma, Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to ...

(which had a partnership with Fox Sports Oklahoma). ESPN+ eventually acquired the Sooners' rights in 2022, in an agreement that would last through its exit to the SEC in 2024. In December 2020, ESPN announced a 10-year, $3 billion contract to hold the top media rights for the SEC beginning in 2024, ending its long-standing agreement with CBS, and seeing its flagship package of games move to ABC. In August 2022, it was reported that ESPN had backed out of negotiations to renew its rights to Big Ten athletics after the 2022 season, ending a relationship dating back to 1982. The Big Ten ultimately signed with Fox, CBS (where its Big Ten package effectively replaced its SEC package in 2024), and NBC, with all three networks holding shares of its college football and basketball rights.

Programs

*''College Football Live'' - Daily program during the season and weekly show in the offseason *'' College GameDay'' - Weekly show (in-season) from the site of the biggest game of the day or significance *''College Football Final'' - Saturday show reviewing the highlights of the days and the biggest stories *''College Football Scoreboard'' - show providing scores, highlights, pre-game and post-game interviews, and check-ins of games of interest ;ESPNU programs *''ESPNU Inside The Polls'' *'' ESPNU Coaches Spotlight'' *'' ESPNU Recruiting Insider''

Former programs

*''Thursday GameNight'' (formerly the ''Weekend Kickoff Show'')

Coverage

ESPN airs ''Spring Football'' games and coverage. Coverage includes ''College Football Final'' which wraps the annual Spring Games. During the regular season, ESPN airs pre-selected Thursday night marquee matchups. ESPN2 airs pre-selected Friday night contests from lesser known Division I schools. In late October and November, games almost exclusively from the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

air on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, usually on ESPN2. The weekend games with the exception of the regular season are typically selected a week or two weeks out. ABC gets the first pick of games for all the major conferences, with the exception of the SEC, in which case CBS get their first selection. ESPN/ESPN2 formerly aired coverage of

games in a "reverse mirror" format. Both networks will also air other selected midweek games and Sunday games, typically teams from more “minor” conferences (Sunday games are exceptionally rare because of conflicts with

ESPN Sunday Night Baseball ''Sunday Night Baseball'' is an exclusive weekly telecast of a Major League Baseball game that airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ESPN during the regular season. The games are preceded most weeks by the studio show '' Baseball Tonight: Sun ...

and the network's professional football coverage, both

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

and

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

). ESPN Radio airs a weekly game as well as selected

bowl games including all bowl and national championship games. ESPNU usually airs 5 games per week. Before its closure in December 2021, ESPN Classic aired selected games throughout the year.

Typical games

ESPN's Saturdays during the regular season begin at 9:00 AM ET with ''College GameDay'', a three-hour live show that previews the day's games. This counts down to the first set of games for the day, which begin at noon ET on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. Another set of games will begin across those three networks around 3:30 PM. At the conclusion of the second game, ''Saturday Night Football'' on ABC games are presented each Saturday evening starting at 7:30 p.m. during the college football regular season, which has been the case since 2017. ''College Football Saturday Primetime'' starts around 7:00, as does another game on ESPN2. Late-night games begin on ESPN and ESPN2 around 10:30 ET, in

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

on the west coast. ''Kickoff Week'' is the first weekend of the college football season. Games include the

Aflac Kickoff Game The Aflac Kickoff Game (known as the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game until 2023) is an annual series of college football games played on the opening weekend of the NCAA Division I FBS season in Atlanta, Georgia. Organized by the Peach Bowl, the event ...

, Duke's Mayo Classic, and other non-conference action. One game will air on ABC on Sunday night, and second game will air on ESPN on the following Monday night. After the first week of the college football season, the

season begins, and so these windows are filled with

's ''Sunday Night Football'' and ESPN's ''

,'' respectively. ''Championship Week'' always features the

MAC Championship Game The MAC Football Championship Game is an annual postseason college football game played to determine the champion of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). History The game has been played since 1997, when the conference was first divided into div ...

and

Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game The Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game is an annual college football game that determines the season champion of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). The game is played between the SBC regular-season divisional champions from the East and W ...

on ESPN, while the ACC Championship Game,

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. For its first 32 seasons, the championship game pitted the Eastern Division regular season champion again ...

Big 12 Championship Game The Big 12 Championship Game is a college football game held by the Big 12 Conference between the best and the second-best Big 12 team. The game was played each year since the conference's formation in 1996 until 2010 and returned during the 201 ...

, and

American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game The American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game is a college football game currently held by the American Athletic Conference (The American) each year to determine the conference's season champion. The inaugural game was held on Decem ...

are shown on ABC. Previously it has featured the WAC Championship Game, the C-USA Championship Game, and the Pac-12 Championship game every other year from 2013 to 2017. The ESPN family of networks air the Division I FCS conference playoffs as well as the Division II and III championship games. ESPN and ABC air the bulk of the bowl games, branded as ‘‘Capital One Bowl Mania’’ (formerly "Capital One Bowl Week", which contrary to its name extended to well over two calendar weeks because of the huge number of bowls, many created by ESPN's own event division, the networks air). Through the network's online arms and

, the ESPN networks cover the breadth of almost all levels of college football.

Nielsen ratings

Conference Championship Games since 2015

Non-game action

''College GameDay''

ESPN airs '' College GameDay''. Since 1993 and almost exclusively in recent years, it has aired from the top game of the week or one of significance. For the 2010 season, the show was expanded to three hours, with the first hour airing on ESPNU.

Home Depot College Football Awards

Since 1990, ESPN has aired the show live from the Boardwalk in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. The show airs several awards.

Heisman Trophy Presentation

Since 1994, ESPN has aired the Heisman Trophy from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It is typically an hour-long program featuring interviews with past winners and nominees (with their families or coaches).

Personalities

References

External links

* * {{College football on television ESPN original programming

College Football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

ABC Sports American Broadcasting Company original programming 1982 American television series debuts 1990s American sports television series 2000s American sports television series 2010s American sports television series 2020s American sports television series Sports telecast series