Rece Davis is one of the sports industry’s preeminent hosts and a mainstay on ESPN for more than 25 years. Most notably, he serves as host of ESPN’s Emmy Award-winning College GameDay Built by The Home Depot, a role he has held since 2015, becoming just the third host in the show’s 40-year history. 

 In addition to GameDay, Davis hosts premier college football events including the College Football Playoff National Championship and the NFL Draft on ABC. He also contributes to SportsCenter and other ESPN platforms, serves as host of the College Football Playoff Top 25 Rankings Show, and handles select play-by-play assignments across college football and basketball. 

 During the basketball season, Davis is the host of College GameDay Covered by State Farm, a role he has occupied since the show debuted in 2005. He anchors coverage from the annual State Farm Champions Classic and NCAA Men’s Final Four, and he has also served as host of the NBA Draft on ESPN for more than a decade. 

 With Davis as host, college football’s longest-running and most-celebrated pregame show, College GameDay, has earned six Sports Emmys for best weekly studio show (2026, 2025, 2024, 2018, 2017 & 2016 . He was nominated for Outstanding Sports Personality – Studio Host in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023,2024 and 2026. Davis also hosts the weekly ESPN College GameDay podcast. In 2026, Davis expanded his coverage areas to tennis, hosting coverage of Wimbledon from the historic All England Lawn Tennis Club. 

 Previously, he was the host of ESPN’s Saturday college football pregame, halftime and postgame studio coverage and College Football Final with analysts Lou Holtz and Mark May. Davis also called the ESPN College Football Primetime game on Thursday nights with Jesse Palmer, David Pollack and Samantha Ponder until 2014. Davis hosted ESPN2’s weekend RPM 2Night and Sunday morning RPM 2Day programs (1997-1999), and ESPN2’s NBA 2Night, the network’s daily NBA highlights/news program (1996-97). He has also worked on ESPN and ABC’s Triple Crown horse racing, World Cups, and the European Championships. 

 Davis has garnered a number of accolades, including the Lester Jordan Award (2019) and Jake Wade Award (2016), both given by CoSIDA for outstanding contributions to intercollegiate athletics, and Best Sports Host (2008 – Cablefax).  

 Before joining ESPN, Davis worked at WJRT-TV in Flint, Mich., as a sports anchor/reporter (1993-95). From 1988 to 1993, he was a sports anchor and sports director at WRBL-TV in Columbus, Ga., and, while he was still as student at the University of Alabama in 1987, was a general assignment reporter for WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa. He also worked as a freelance television play-by-play announcer, studio host and radio announcer in select media outlets in Alabama (1983-93). 

Davis, a native of Muscle Shoals, Ala., graduated cum laude from the University of Alabama in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the school of communications in news and public affairs. Davis was named the University of Alabama School of Communication Broadcast Department’s outstanding alumnus for 2001. In 2019, Davis was inducted into the University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences Hall of Fame. In 2026, he received the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame’s Distinguished American Sportsman Award.