ESPN's New Weekday College Football Live Show to Debut Monday, July 23

Show Includes Fan Interactive Segments; First Week Will Feature Live Interviews with Ray Rice, Les Miles, Jim Tressel, Darren McFadden and Pete Carroll

ESPN’s new weekday College Football Live program – featuring breaking news, analysis, features and interviews -- will debut Monday, July 23 at 3:30 p.m. ET and run through the end of the season.  The 30-minute program, offering a unique opportunity for the college football fan to be seen and heard, will be aired every Monday through Friday at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.  During the NFL season, the Monday show will be on ESPN2 at 2 p.m.

Rece Davis, who currently anchors the majority of ESPN’s college football studio programming, will serve as the show’s primary host.  Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso will provide analysis the first two days (Monday, July 23 and Tuesday, July 24) with Mark May joining them in studio on Tuesday.  Many of ESPN’s other expert analysts will be featured regularly in studio or via satellite, including Chris Spielman, Bob Griese, Robert Smith, Desmond Howard, Jim Donnan, Lou Holtz, Ed Cunningham and many more.  Reporter Joe Schad will also regularly contribute.

College Football Live will feature interactive segments allowing fans to voice their opinion and ask questions directly to ESPN college football analysts through e-mails, home video submission and SportsNation polls.

Beginning with Monday’s debut, the first 25 shows will feature a debate of the preseason top 25 Heisman Trophy candidates with a look at a different player each day. 

Next week’s show will kick off with interviews with top players and coaches, reports from Joe Schad and Shelley Smith at top conferences media days, compelling features, marching band performances, and all the news in college football.  Highlights will include: 

• Live interviews with Heisman Trophy candidate running backs, including Rutgers’ Ray Rice in-studio (Monday, July 23), and Boise State’s Ian Johnson (Tuesday, July 24) and Arkansas’ Darren McFadden (Friday, July 27) via satellite.

• Live interviews with top coaches, including LSU’s Les Miles (Monday, July 23), Ohio State’s Jim Tressel (Tuesday, July 24) and USC’s Pete Carroll (Thursday, July 26).

• Feature on Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and a look at why several of USC’s top players decided to return to the Trojans instead of entering the NFL Draft.

• Segments from a roundtable discussion on what it is like to coach at Notre Dame with current coach Charlie Weis, and former Notre Dame coaches Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz with Brent Musburger moderating.  The 30-minute Notre Dame roundtable is scheduled to be aired Wednesday, Aug. 29 as part of a special College Football Live from 7 to 11 p.m.

• On-campus performances from 10 members of the Grambling State Tigers marching band (Monday, July 23) and USC Trojans marching band (Tuesday, July 24).

The program will include several regular elements throughout the season, including:

• “Senior Thesis” will follow several top senior players through a personal video diary they document exclusively for College Football Live.

• “Sound Off” will feature home viewer-generated video on topics ranging from why their favorite team, campus or tailgating scene is the best to what players should win the Heisman Trophy.  Fans can log onto ESPN.com for additional details on how to submit a video for the show.

Regular daily features will include (schedule subject to change):

Monday

• “The Insiders” -- Bruce Feldman, Ivan Maisel, Mark Schlabach and Pat Forde -- weighing in with the latest news, reaction and analysis from the weekend's games;
• A look back at the best plays of the weekend.

Tuesday

• Live interviews with top coaches.

Wednesday

• “Conference Calls” with college football reporters from around the country.

Thursday

• “Recruiting Trail” with Tom Luginbill providing the latest news on the top high school recruits;
• Live preview of ESPN’s Thursday night game from game announcers Chris Fowler, Doug Flutie, Craig James and/or Erin Andrews.

Friday

• Picks and previews of Saturday’s top games;
• College GameDay crew live from the location of Saturday’s show;
• Live preview of ESPN’s Friday night game from game announcers Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and/or Rob Stone.

                                                               - football07 -