ESPN’s College Football Playoff MegaCasts Return, Featuring Pat McAfee, Hometown Radio Feeds, and More

ESPN is bringing back its MegaCast alternate broadcasts for this year’s College Football Playoffs giving college football fans a dizzying amount of different viewing options.

ESPN will present nine offerings of each College Football Playoff Semifinal on Saturday, Dec. 31, and across all “New Year’s Six” games, ESPN will provide fans with nearly 40 different presentations across the six matchups. Among the most notable broadcasts include Field Pass, hosted by Pat McAfee, which will offer free-flowing commentary from the sidelines of Mercedes-Benz Stadium for both semifinal games.

McAfee will call the action from a unique vantage point while being joined by a rotation of ESPN analysts, notable personalities, and celebrities throughout the game. Robert Griffin III, Taylor Lewan, and A.Q. Shipley are set to join McAfee and his “Pat McAfee Show” cohorts A.J. Hawk and Darius Butler, who will be live from Atlanta.

Additional alternate broadcasts for all the ESPN “New Year’s 6” games include:

• Command Center (ESPNU): A multi-angle presentation, which includes up to four different vantage points at any one time, with real-time player and team statistics supplementing the game action.
• AT&T 5G SkyCast (ESPNEWS): The popular view from above the action and behind the offense on most plays. This unique angle has long been one of ESPN’s alternate viewing options and is readily available on multiple games every week. Replays will be shown every time the main telecast shows a replay, while never losing the look from Skycam.
• All-22 (ESPN App): Watch the game the same way players and coaches study film, with a vantage point high above the field of play. The angle allows for the 22 players on the field to be seen at all times, providing the ability to distinguish how plays develop while listening to the ESPN Radio call.

The following alternate broadcasts will be available for the College Football Playoff games only:

• CFP Semifinal Marching Bands on ESPN App: Returning in 2022, the halftime marching band performances at the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will be available on the ESPN App.

New this year is coverage of pre-game marching band performances from both semifinals. The sights and sounds of the Michigan Marching Band, TCU’s Horned Frog Marching Band, Georgia’s Redcoat Marching Band, and the Ohio State University Marching Band will be streaming live from their respective College Football Playoff semifinals via the All-22 view.

• Hometown Audio Feed: Fans can listen to the local radio broadcast of each of the four teams, with their audio feed synced up with ESPN’s presentation. You can watch all four feeds in the ESPN App, but the SEC Network will also air Georgia’s games with the hometown audio.
  • Georgia (SEC Network & ESPN App): Scott Howard, Eric Zeier and DJ Shockley
  • Michigan (ESPN App): Doug Karsch, Jon Jansen and Jason Avant
  • Ohio State (ESPN App): Paul Keels, Jim Lachey, Matt Andrews, and Skip Mosic
  • TCU (ESPN App): Brian Estridge, John Denton and Landry Burdine

ESPN has brought the head with alternate broadcasts over the past several years and to great success. While the worldwide leader in sports has been doing multicasts for major events for over a decade, the alternate broadcast idea has exploded since the launch of the “ManningCast,” the Monday Night Football alternate broadcast starring Peyton and Eli Manning.

That success has led to the “KayRod” Broadcast starring Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay for select “Sunday Night Baseball” games, a Stephen A Smith-hosted NBA alternate broadcast, and countless others. The more casual alternate stylings seem to resonate with viewers, so don’t expect them to go anywhere anytime soon.