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Is college football turning into cable news?
The networks are certainly embracing their partisan proclivities.
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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
🏀 Down to No. 2. ESPN NBA analyst Doris Burke has been demoted to the network’s second NBA booth after two years joining Mike Breen and numerous “thirds” on the lead team. Burke is being replaced by Tim Legler, who will join Breen and Richard Jefferson, on the team that calls the NBA Finals. To her credit, she stayed loyal to ESPN, signing a multi-year extension with the network.
🏈 Decade of Des. College GameDay stalwart Desmond Howard has signed a multi-year extension to remain at ESPN and continue his work on the flagship pregame show. “There’s nothing I’d rather be doing during the fall than showcasing the incredible sport that we all love alongside my College GameDay family,” the former Heisman Trophy winner said. The deal will bring him into his second decade with ESPN.
👋 Wright away. Former Villanova head coach Jay Wright announced yesterday that he is leaving full-time broadcasting with CBS Sports and TNT Sports. His television tenure is ending in similar fashion to his coaching tenure: unexpectedly. Per his announcement, it’s fair to expect some limited TV appearances down the line.
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️🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨
Is college football turning into cable news?

Edit via Liam McGuire
College football season has finally arrived, but tomorrow’s headlines might be dominated just as much by off-the-field happenings as on-field ones.
Lee Corso will make his final appearance on College GameDay in what is sure to be an emotional whirlwind for both viewers at home who have watched Coach for nearly forty years, and his colleagues on the show. Former GameDay host Chris Fowler is set to make an appearance to send Corso off in Columbus before hopping on a jet to Death Valley (South Carolina version) alongside his booth partner Kirk Herbstreit to call LSU-Clemson.
Corso, for his part, flew commercial to Columbus.
There will surely be numerous other tributes throughout the show and, of course, the final headgear pick. Expect waterworks aplenty.
Over at Fox, a new-look Big Noon Kickoff will debut with less-sentimental fare. We’ll get our first look at Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy’s new role on the show, which is still largely undefined. So much so, in fact, Urban Meyer doesn’t even seem entirely sure what he’s up against.
But the season-long storyline that is likely to dominate coverage of these two warring shows will mimic the debates college football fans have been having since at least the BCS era: real or perceived biases against one’s team or conference based on a network’s contractual arrangements.
ESPN vs. Fox is turning into SEC vs. Big Ten, and the networks are leaning in.
Fox, of course, hired the biggest Michigan homer in sports media for the express purpose of slurping the Big Ten on-air. ESPN personalities have done the same for the SEC for years. Here’s Puck’s John Ourand reporting:
“Fox executives see a chance to insert a big personality to their lineup, and to leverage Portnoy’s Michigan fandom, which dovetails naturally with their Big Ten rights package. After all, ESPN has a number of high-profile commentators, like Paul Finebaum, who openly advocate for the SEC, especially when it comes to getting teams in the College Football Playoff. (ESPN, of course, holds all of the SEC’s media rights through 2034.) In short, Fox executives and Big Ten officials wanted an on-air fanboy of their own.”
Ourand also noted that “the need for a passionate conference booster” had been a topic for Big Ten and Fox executives long before the Barstool deal.
Fox clearly feels they need to be an evangelist for the Big Ten to combat ESPN’s (real or perceived) SEC bias. From a business perspective, it makes sense, right? Fox is essentially a corporate parent of the Big Ten, a relationship unique in college sports. Fox is the majority owner of Big Ten Network. BTN, not the conference, controls the sale of media rights for the league. Media rights are by far the biggest revenue driver for the conference. Therefore, Fox is essentially the Big Ten’s daddy. Fox, perhaps more than any other network-conference relationship, has a vested interest in the success of the Big Ten.
ESPN is not innocent either. They own a network dedicated to the SEC and own exclusive rights to the conference. There’s surely a benefit to pumping up SEC programs that fill an entire day of ABC programming each Saturday.
And unlike any other sport in the country, the fates of college football programs are shaped by the media. How often do we hear about poll inertia impacting a team’s standing at the end of the year? A bunch of college football writers voting on their preseason favorites can have a tangible impact on where a team is ranked come late November.
How about the selection committee itself? They are real people susceptible to the narratives pushed by the media they consume.
The way Fox and ESPN cover the sport matters in a way that just isn’t applicable to other sports. And rather than trying to distance themselves from any perception of bias, both networks seem to be embracing it. Fox shamelessly takes Big Noon Kickoff to a Big Ten game every week, regardless of its quality. ESPN promotes characters like Finebaum and hired Nick Saban onto GameDay. Battle lines are being drawn.
It’s beginning to mirror cable news. Partisans know where to go to be served the narratives that fit their worldview. Are we on the precipice of Big Ten homers only watching Fox and SEC homers only watching ESPN? Luckily, for the neutral, things haven’t gotten that bad yet. But if both networks decide it’s in their best interests to lean all the way in to the partisan aspects of college football, we soon might be choosing to watch whichever network fits our biases the most.
And if declining cable news ratings are any indication, people don’t love when their options are one side or the other.
💬 AROUND AA 💬
RIP Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo’s Sunday NBA pods

Credit: Bill Simmons on YouTube
With Ryen Russillo reportedly off to launch an independent venture sponsored by Barstool Sports (still waiting for details here), it’s pretty safe to say that he will no longer be appearing on Bill Simmons’ eponymous podcast next NBA season.
Our Brendon Kleen wrote an excellent retrospective of Russillo and Simmons’ longtime partnership, and examined what it means for the future of The Ringer’s NBA content.
📱 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟
Watch a touching sendoff from Lee Corso’s Southwest Airlines gate agent before his final flight to Columbus for College GameDay.
@fishsauce0515 We love you Coach!! Shout out to @Southwest Airlines for honoring this legend! @College GameDay @Kirk Herbstreit @Barstool Sports @Ohio St... See more
The First Things First crew learned about the Micah Parsons trade as they were doing a Micah Parsons segment on FS1.
The Dallas Cowboys trade Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers right as 'First Things First' is talking about the Cowboys reportedly listening to offers.
Here's the live reaction on FS1. 🏈📺🎙️ #NFL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing)
9:15 PM • Aug 28, 2025
🔥THE CLOSER🔥
Drew Brees can’t stop talking about how great he’d be at broadcasting jobs he doesn’t have

Edit by Liam McGuire
Awful Announcing’s Sam Neumann is chipping in for today’s Closer with a brilliant column outlining how Drew Brees is setting expectations for his broadcast return way too high.
Drew Brees isn’t giving it a rest.
The former New Orleans Saints quarterback and soon-to-be Hall of Famer can’t stop talking about how great he’s going to be in the broadcast booth.
Brees has spent the last three years making the same bold predictions about his broadcasting future, and now Netflix is giving him another shot on Christmas Day. Based on his recent media tour, Brees is putting so much pressure on himself that he’s already writing checks he might not even be able to cash.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that I’d be one of the best broadcasters in the NFL, if given that opportunity,” Brees told Jim Rome earlier this week. “I’m excited to have that opportunity with Netflix on Christmas.”
For better or worse, this is just who Drew Brees has become. He’s merely a man who can’t stop telling anyone who will listen how great he’s going to be at broadcasting. His confidence has never wavered, even as the results — and lack of opportunities — would suggest otherwise.
“I love the game, and I would love to broadcast NFL games at some point again. I think I could be the best at it.”
“I think I could be the absolute best at it if given the opportunity.”
“I chuckle, because even as I look at the landscape right now, man, I have so much respect for a lot of the guys in the booth right now, but I would step in the booth right now and be a top-three guy.”
The Netflix Christmas Day games represent Brees’ biggest opportunity since that disastrous Raiders-Bengals playoff call in January 2022. That game should have been his coming-out party. Instead, it became Exhibit A in why former quarterbacks don’t automatically translate to the booth.
While fans were losing their minds over an errant whistle that potentially impacted a crucial touchdown, Brees ignored the controversy for nearly 10 minutes of real time. It was broadcasting malpractice, the kind of rookie mistake that gets you benched in any other profession.
NBC couldn’t figure out what to do with him after that. The network had signed Brees as a marquee free agent, expecting him to become their version of Tony Romo. Instead, they got a cautious analyst who seemed afraid to make any definitive statements about what he was watching.
But even now, Brees insists the split was mutual.
“It was my decision to step away from NBC. It was not theirs. They wanted me back,” Brees told Dan Patrick. “Unfortunately, I think it got reported a little bit differently, and now somehow, that’s become the narrative. It could not be further from the truth.”
The truth, according to Brees, is that there’s a level of work that goes into elite broadcasting. He’s talked to Cris Collinsworth. He’s talked to Troy Aikman. He understands there’s a “formula to being really, really great.” He understands there’s a process, a craft that takes years to master.
So why is he publicly guaranteeing excellence before he’s put in that work?
Because this is Drew Brees we’re talking about. He literally wrote a book, “Coming Back Stronger.” He has never lacked for self-belief. It’s the same impulse that drove his comeback from shoulder surgery. The same mentality that powered his legendary Saints career.
But in broadcasting, that kind of pressure can be paralyzing. When you’ve told the world you’re going to be one of the best, every stumble gets magnified, every awkward pause becomes evidence of failure.
Look at Tom Brady’s approach by comparison. He took a year off, prepared methodically, and while he certainly has confidence, he’s not making grandiose predictions about becoming the GOAT broadcaster. Brady seems to understand that broadcasting greatness is earned, not declared.
Brees, meanwhile, is setting expectations so high that anything short of perfection will feel like failure. He’s essentially turned his Netflix debut into a referendum on his entire post-playing career.
The tragedy is that Brees probably could become a solid broadcaster with time, patience, and realistic expectations. His football IQ is undeniable, and his ability to break down quarterback play could be valuable. But by positioning himself as a future legend before he’s even proven competent, he’s creating a narrative where success becomes impossible.
Christmas Day will tell us whether Drew Brees learned anything from his NBC disaster, or if he’s doomed to repeat it under even brighter lights. Based on his recent interviews, he’s already lost the most important battle, which is the one against his own expectations.
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