ESPN College GameDay information for CFB Playoff

Corso hanging out with the Tiger (Joshua Kelly - USA Today Sports)

by Press Release - Wed Dec 30 13:14:17 GMT-04:00 2020

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

Alabama quarterback Mac Jones is the overnight success that took a lifetime. A look at the preparation and patience that shaped his path from those who know him best. Reporter: Tom Rinaldi

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

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, AutoZone Liberty Bowl and Mercari Texas 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.

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.

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.