After announcing that all SportsCenter Los Angeles employees would be moving back to the company's Bristol, Connecticut headquarters, ESPN has lifted the curtain on another huge change in 2025.
ESPN College GameDay, which has been broadcast live from colleges across the country every Saturday morning since 1993, will now return to a studio-only show, featuring a drastically reduced cast. The move is being touted as a cost-saving decision, given the network's financial struggles.
"We just can't afford to keep flying all over the country, with truckloads of equipment every week," chief of fawlty engineering Mike Brady told the press in a statement. "Pat McAfee's salary alone tripled our cost over the past few seasons, and we simply can't keep doing it. And have you seen how much that guy eats? The catering budget is ridiculous."
The cast -- which had featured host Rece Davis, along with analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Lee Corso and newcomers Pat McAfee and Nick Saban -- will now be reduced to a two-person panel featuring McAfee and ESPN everything-man, Stephen A. Smith.
"Why would you need more than two people to talk about a bunch of college football games?" Smith said via his website. "ESPN has been paying too many people too much money for this damn show. I mean, I love Herbie and all the others, but nobody needs to make money at this network but me and Pat. That's right. I said what I said."
The other cast members will be loaned out on contract to the FOX Sports Big Noon Kickoff broadcast to wake viewers who weekly doze off while listening to Brady Quinn and Matt Leinart.
What about Lee Corso's Headgear Picks?
Corso's headgear picks, a staple of the show and one of the only reasons fans still tune in, will now be generated by Artificial Intelligence and CGI in yet another unpopular decision.
"Hey, I'd do the headgear picks myself," McAfee told reporters, "But I can't find any mascot heads big enough to fit around my genetically-enhanced cranium. Computers are the future anyway, right?"
When asked for comment about the change, Corso only had this to say. "Not so fast, my friends. This is a terrible call."
Fans are visibly upset by this announcement, but only because it fell on April 1, and they couldn't determine if ESPN was really this out of touch. Well, maybe they are, but this story is just a big fish hook. Gotcha!