ESPN’s multi-network studio coverage for the College Football Playoff begins Wednesday, Dec. 30, ahead of the New Year’s Six, and continues through Saturday, Jan. 2, live from the College Football Playoff Semifinals on New Year’s Day – the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Capital One, featuring No. 4 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 Alabama (4 p.m. ET, ESPN), and the Allstate Sugar Bowl, with No. 3 Ohio State facing No. 2 Clemson (8 p.m., ESPN). Hosts, analysts and reporters will be live from Arlington, Texas and New Orleans, with news, highlights and more as college football rings in the New Year with marquee matchups.
Studio coverage will appear across ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network and ACC Network, including appearances on SportsCenter and Get Up. A special edition of College GameDay Built by The Home Depot, with host Rece Davis and analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack, and Lee Corso from his home in Florida, will air from the Sugar Bowl on Friday, Jan. 1 (9 a.m. – noon ET, ESPN).
GameDay Highlights:
- Live interviews with the four head coaches in the CFP semifinals – Nick Saban (Alabama), Dabo Swinney (Clemson), Brian Kelly (Notre Dame), Ryan Day (Ohio State)
- Shaun Wade’s Redemption – Ohio State’s Shaun Wade thought he made the biggest play of his career in last season’s Playoff semifinal against Trevor Lawrence and Clemson. Instead, it almost became his last play of his college career – until fate, a pandemic, and a sense of honor brought him back to Ohio State, the Playoff, and Lawrence and Clemson. Reporter: Gene Wojciechowski
- Patience and Preparation – When Mac Jones committed to Alabama, Jalen Hurts was the established starter, and Tua Tagovailoa was arriving as the highest-rated quarterback prospect in the country. Jones came anyway, based on two key beliefs: the benefits of competition, and the value of development. In his mind, he wasn’t a third string quarterback. He was “a first-string quarterback, working and waiting to play.” This season, he got his chance–becoming a Heisman finalist, an SEC champion, and proof in the power of patience. Reporter: Tom Rinaldi
- Trevor Talks – Tom Rinaldi sits down with Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence to talk about 2020, the highs and lows, his improvement as a leader, and how he feels he has already learned how to be a professional.
- Owusu-Koramoah’s Impact – Sportswriter Pete Sampson went looking for the best way to describe how hard Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah hits and ended up enlisting Notre Dame alum and Naval Academy physics professor PJ Moran. Reporter: Jen Lada
- CFP Wives Club – Maria Taylor hosts a Zoom roundtable with the wives of the four coaches in the CFP semifinals as they share their perspectives on the unprecedented 2020 season
- Images of the Year
New Year’s Six/College Football Playoff Semifinals
- Host Kevin Negandhi and analysts Booger McFarland and Mark Sanchez will be live from Mercedes-Benz Superdome, providing studio coverage of bowls games on Wednesday, Dec. 30 and Thursday, Dec. 31 – Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl and AutoZone Liberty Bowl, as well as the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic featuring No. 7 Florida vs. No. 6 Oklahoma on Dec. 30 (8 p.m., ESPN), and two bowls set for Jan. 1 – the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl as No. 9 Georgia faces No. 8 Cincinnati (noon, ESPN) and the Vrbo Citrus Bowl between Auburn and No. 14 Northwestern (1 p.m., ABC)
- The College GameDay crew will handle pregame and halftime coverage of the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl
- SportsCenter and other studio shows will be complemented by reporters Marty Smith and Allison Williams, who are assigned to cover Alabama and Notre Dame, respectively, from the Rose Bowl, as well as Tom Rinaldi (Clemson) and Maria Taylor (Ohio State), from the Sugar Bowl
- SEC Network: With the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide gearing up for their sixth College Football Playoff Semifinal and eight additional SEC squads participating in bowl action, SEC Network will feature nearly 30 hours of around-the-clock studio analysis and in-game reaction surrounding the College Football Playoff and SEC teams playing in the postseason. On New Year’s Day, SEC Network will have 13 hours of original College Football Playoff programming, including 11 hours straight of live coverage. For more information, click here.
- ACC Network: With two ACC teams – No. 2 Clemson and No. 4 Notre Dame – in the College Football Playoff Semifinals for the first time, ACC Network will have wide-ranging surround coverage of both the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Capital One and CFP Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl all week, including 14 hours on New Year’s Day beginning at 11 a.m. Additionally, the Packer and Durham morning show will provide postgame reaction and analysis of all ACC team bowl appearances. Click here for more information.
Championship Drive will air Saturday, Jan. 2 (10 a.m. – noon, ESPN), recapping the entire New Year’s Six. Davis, Herbstreit, Howard and Pollack will analyze the College Football Playoff semifinals and preview the National Championship matchup, set for Monday, Jan. 11.
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