A Comprehensive Look at the ESPN College Football Awards
ESPN College Football is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football across The Walt Disney Company properties including ABC, ESPN, ESPN DTC, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews, ESPN Classic, ACC Network, SEC Network, ESPN Deportes and ESPN Radio. ESPN began airing taped college football games during the 1979 regular season, starting with a game between Colorado and Oregon. The network was limited to airing tape-delayed games because the NCAA controlled television rights through exclusive contracts. After the 1984 Supreme Court decision in NCAA v.
ESPN's Extensive Coverage
ESPN College Football consists of four to five games a week, with ESPN College Football Primetime, which airs at 7:30 on Thursdays. Saturday include 12:00 game, a 3:30 or 4:30 game that is not shown on a weekly basis, and ESPN College Football Primetime on Saturday. The American, ACC, Big 12, Conference USA, MAC, SEC and Sun Belt are all covered by ESPN. With the expansion of ESPN, including multiple networks and outlets, their coverage has likewise increased. In 2007, the ESPN family of networks aired over 450 games.
Regular Season Coverage
During the regular season, ESPN airs pre-selected Thursday night marquee matchups. ESPN2 airs pre-selected Friday night contests from lesser known Division I schools. The weekend games with the exception of the regular season are typically selected a week or two weeks out. ESPN/ESPN2 formerly aired coverage of ABC games in a "reverse mirror" format.
College GameDay
ESPN airs College GameDay. Since 1993 and almost exclusively in recent years, it has aired from the top game of the week or one of significance. Since 1990, ESPN has aired the show live from the Boardwalk in Orlando, Florida. ESPN's Saturdays during the regular season begin at 9:00 AM ET with College GameDay, a three-hour live show that previews the day's games. This counts down to the first set of games for the day, which begin at noon ET on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. Another set of games will begin across those three networks around 3:30 PM, including an SEC game on ABC.
Saturday Primetime
College Football Saturday Primetime starts around 7:00, as does another game on ESPN2 during the college football regular season, which has been the case since 2017.
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Kickoff Week and Championship Drive
Modelo Kickoff Week is the first weekend of the college football season. Games include the Aflac Kickoff Game, Duke's Mayo Classic, and other non-conference action. One game will air on ABC on Sunday night, and a second game will air on ESPN on Labor Day night. During the season, ESPN will designate one of its games as the Dr. Pepper Championship Drive Game of the Week. Dr. Pepper Championship Week always features the MAC Championship Game and Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game on ESPN, while the ACC Championship Game, SEC Championship Game, Big 12 Championship Game, and American Conference Football Championship Game are shown on ABC.
Bowl Season
College Football Bowl Season Kicks Off Across ESPN Platforms. ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Radio, ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV to Provide Coverage of 29 College Football Bowl Games.
Recent Developments in On-Air Presentation
In 2024, ESPN began to soft launch a revamp of its college football on-air presentation and branding, beginning with new graphics specific to SEC games on ABC, and a related design for College Football Playoff broadcasts-both of which switching to a centered scoreboard, and heavily incorporating sidebars (known internally as "blitz towers", and also adopted by Monday Night Football) for statistics graphics to take advantage of the 16:9 aspect ratio.
Key Award Winners
Daniels received the Davey O’Brien Award as the season’s top quarterback, as well as the Walter Camp Award Player of the Year Award. Wilson took home the Chuck Bednarik Award for defensive player of the year along with the Butkus Award. Additional National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) honors announced during the two-hour live show include: Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II received the Doak Walker Award, Marvin Harrison Jr. Mendoza received the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award as the nation’s best quarterback and the Maxwell Award for college football’s player of the year. Rodriguez earned the Chuck Bednarik Award as defensive player of the year and also took home both the Nagurski Trophy and Butkus Award. BYU Head Coach Kalani Sitake received The Buddy Teevens Award. The award celebrates coaches who’ve been innovators in growing and improving the game of college football. Additional National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) honors announced during the two-hour live show include: Caleb Downs (Ohio State) receiving the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award for best defensive back, Tate Sandell (Oklahoma) earning the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award, Spencer Fano (Utah) taking home the Outland Trophy as the most outstanding interior lineman, Logan Jones (Iowa) winning the Rimington Trophy, and Brett Thorson (Georgia) capturing the Ray Guy Award as the punter of the year. Additional NCFAA honorees included Eli Stowers (Vanderbilt), who received both the John Mackey Award and the William V. William V. Since 1994, ESPN has aired the Heisman Trophy from New York City.
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