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ESPN’s College Football Coverage Remains a Gold Standard

Also in Traina Thoughts: Thoughts on Amazon’s NFL debut; John Cena makes a fan’s day; Tom Brady has ghosted Julian Edelman and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. The college football season is finally here. As I discussed with The Athletic’s Andy Staples on this week’s SI Media Podcast, I hate that this week is called Week Zero. Sure, the games are pigs, but they are still games that will have point spreads and air on television, so they should be respected and referred to as something other than Week Zero.

During our conversation on the podcast, we discussed College GameDay and the institution it has become.

When sports fans talk about the greatest studio shows of all time, the first two that come up are Inside the NBA and College GameDay. GameDay has had to deal with many more cast changes than Inside the NBA, yet it still remains the standard. Rece Davis seamlessly took over for Chris Fowler in 2015, and the show remained as strong as ever.

But while GameDay often gets much-deserved praise, ESPN’s talent and depth when it comes to its college football broadcast crews also deserves plaudits.

ESPN’s play-by-play roster is especially impressive. These are just some of the names who call the top games across ESPN’s many networks each Saturday: Fowler, Sean McDonough, Joe Tessitore, Mark Jones, Dave Pasch and Bob Wischusen.

That is a tremendous lineup. Fowler is ESPN’s No. 1 play-by-play caller, but any of those other people could easily be in that role.

ESPN also has the best analyst in the sport with Kirk Herbstreit (who may end up being a better NFL announcer, but more on that later) and an analyst in Todd Blackledge, who is a No. 1 guy in the No. 2 role simply because Herbstreit is there.

A lot has been made about ESPN losing the Big Ten (which doesn’t happen until next season). But no matter which conferences the network has in its portfolio, when it comes to the top games each week, college football viewers will always be treated to an outstanding broadcast.

We look forward to consuming those broadcasts, even in Week Zero.

2. Amazon Prime aired its first NFL game of the season Thursday. Just a reminder because I’m still seeing confusion about what’s going to happen on Thursday nights this season. Prime has the exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football. That means you can’t watch the game anywhere except Amazon Prime. There is one exception. If the game features a team in your home market, then that game in that particular week only, will air on free TV on one of your local channels.

As for the Amazon presentation, the game looked like any Sunday Night Football game you’ve watched over the past 20 years or so. The production and look were top-notch all around.

In addition, the broadcast team of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit sounded as if they have been calling games together for years. While both men are are the top of their field, it wouldn’t be surprising if they needed a little time to develop chemistry and figure out how to work together, but that was not the case at all. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if, when all is said and done, Herbstreit ends up being a better NFL analyst than college football analyst.

3. This clip is noteworthy because Julian Edelman let us know that he can’t get a text back from Tom Brady these days. As a podcast host, though, I had more appreciation for Edelman, who is now a podcaster, complaining about what it’s like to have to book guests.

4. We love how John Cena took care of these kids and gave them a thrill, but we have questions about what doughnut store this took place in. The only doughnut place to frequent is Dunkin’.

5. Golfer Scottie Scheffler revealed yesterday that he’s been playing hurt. The injury? We’ll let him explain.

“Probably TMI. An infection at the top of your butt crack.”

When asked whether he knew he got the infection, Scheffler said, “Yeah, I’m not going to say it here. I’ll tell you after because that would really be TMI.” 

6. This week’s SI Media Podcast features two interviews.

First up is WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Reigns opens up about Vince McMahon’s controversial retirement from the company, what McMahon’s departure means for him personally, his new part-time schedule and a possible WrestleMania match against The Rock. Reigns also explains the differences between getting a pop from a promo and a move, discusses the challenges of fatherhood and shares his reaction to seeing his "Acknowledge Me" boxer briefs, sold on WWE.com, for the first time

Following Reigns, Andy Staples, who covers college football for "The Athletic" joins the podcast to talk about the Big Ten's recent media deals with CBS and NBC, what it means for college football viewers and how it impacts the SEC. Staples also talks about whether USC and UCLA have impact across the country, the future of the Pac-12 Network, Urban Meyer's return to Fox's pregame show, the Netflix Manti Te’o documentary and more

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: It’s hard to describe how huge Beverly Hills 90210 was when I was in high school. It was the show to watch every week. So we must pay tribute today to Joe E. Tata, who passed away Thursday. Everybody who watched 90210 loved Nat.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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