College Football Final
College Football Final is a one-hour program totally devoted to college football and airs every Saturday night during the college football season. It was previously named College Gameday Final until 2006. It is seen at 12am ET on ESPN and lasts until 1am ET (or later if a game runs over) and the program re-airs early the next morning on ESPNU and ESPN2. It is similar to ESPN's Baseball Tonight, NBA Fastbreak, NFL Live, and College GameNight, except that it only appears once a week. The program breaks down the days' games with highlights of all the biggest games, analysis of the big stories and a look ahead to next weeks' matchups.
College Football Final | |
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Starring | Matt Barrie Joey Galloway Jesse Palmer |
Country of origin | United States |
Production | |
Running time | 60 min. |
Release | |
Original network | ESPN |
Original release | August 28, 1999 – present |
Starting with the 2017 season with Adnan Virk hosts the show with analysis from Joey Galloway and Jesse Palmer. In 2015 it was hosted by Joe Tessitore and from 1999 to 2014, ESPN sportscasting veteran Rece Davis hosted the show. Joining Davis with analysis were College Football Hall of Fame Pittsburgh offensive lineman Mark May (since 2001) and head coach Lou Holtz. Trev Alberts, who was a former analyst on the show, resigned after the 2004 season saying, he was tired of being second to the College GameDay gang all the time; Holtz later replaced him.
Personalities
Current
- Matt Barrie (studio host, 2019–present)
- Joey Galloway (studio analyst, 2015–present)
- Jesse Palmer (studio analyst, 2017–present)
Former
- Rece Davis (studio host, 1999–2014)
- Trev Alberts (studio analyst, 2002–2004)
- Mark May (studio analyst, 2001–2014)
- Lou Holtz (studio analyst, 2005–2014)
- Joe Tessitore (studio host, 2015)
- Danny Kanell (studio analyst, 2015–2016)
- Adnan Virk (studio host, 2016–2018)
Segments
- Note - These segments were carried during the Davis/Holtz/May run of the show, and are likely to change for the new iteration of the show launching at the end of August 2015.
- Highlights is the part when they run down all of the biggest games of the day in college football from the top 25 to the rivalries and is usually the longest segment.
- Game Changing Performance is the part of the show when all the analysts tell who they thought had the biggest game changing performance.
- Helmet Stickers is when each of the panelists, including the host, give out two helmet stickers to the players in their mind deserve it the most.
- Highlight Lounge is a segment where the hosts, seated in comfortable chairs in front of a gigantic monitor, give their specific impressions of the best plays from a featured game played earlier that day.
- Lasting Impressions is when both Holtz, May and Davis deliver a monologue with their overall thoughts about the day's games or events from around the country.
- Garage is a segment similar to The Ultimate Highlight on SportsCenter, in which they run all of the best plays of the day while music is playing in the background.
- Poll Movements: show hosts move teams up or down in the polls before they come out on Sunday based on how a team played on Saturday. If a team is ranked, say, #5 and loses they then predict or give their opinions as to where they think that team should now be ranked.
- The Big Play is when Mark May and Lou Holtz break down a specific play from a game. The play is telestrated and frozen at key points to provide analysis of why the play was successful or unsuccessful.
- The Final Verdict is a segment where Rece is the "judge" (complete with robe) and suggests a case which Mark and Lou then argue. Rece then picks a winner ("announces his verdict").