The 2025 season is yet to lift the curtains, and guess who chose to stir the pot? NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. A report by John Ourand of Puck started to do the rounds. It stated, Goodell’s “league could approach networks before the 2029 opt-out and try to renegotiate new deals.” Streaming has been a big thing for the NFL media committee over the last five years.

Goodell and the NFL were under the impression that they were seriously undervalued after the NBA signed an eleven-year $76 billion deal with Comcast’s NBC and Disney’s ESPN. For so long, college football fans were at peace, thinking that Goodell is making the changes only to the NFL. But the time has come for them to wake up, as Goodell’s plan is going to affect the college football sport. And it did not sit well with one of the leading college football analysts, Andy Staples.  

On August 5, On3 tweeted, “NEW: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hinted at the potential launch of a College Football RedZone product on ESPN🍿.” And the news started spreading like wildfire. That’s when Staples could not keep calm. Retweeting the post, the On3 analyst shared his take, “The NFL might be the one entity that could make ESPN, Fox, NBC, and CBS play nice enough to even contemplate this. Or maybe it would just be games Disney has rights to, which would exclude the entirety of the Big Ten schedule.” But what’s the hoopla all about?

ESPN’s RedZone channel, the non-stop live highlights program that airs each Sunday during the pro football season, will take up the partnership with the NFL. Goodell now hints at ESPN expanding and taking in college football under its umbrella. The commissioner assured, “It’ll continue to be produced right here in this building. It will be the NFL RedZone. I don’t think fans will see any difference in that. Obviously, in the context of that, though, ESPN purchased the RedZone name, and they will be able to utilize that for other sports, college football, and other things, and I think that could be an exciting thing for our fans also to see a RedZone, maybe in college football or other sports.” But why is Staples sensing trouble for the college football collab?

First things first, the NFL is privileged to own all the broadcast rights and can centralize them through partnerships (like with ESPN). College football is yet to get a unified rights holder. Long story short, a RedZone-style show would require all-ESPN, ABC (Disney), Fox, CBS, and NBC to be on the same page and share a live broadcast. Now, that’s a very unlikely situation. 

Secondly, with this College Football RedZone project, ESPN might strike of major conferences and their games. As Staples noted, the Big Ten might fall prey since the rights are held by Fox, NBC, and CBS. Now, what are the college football fans saying?  

College football fans’ reaction to Roger Goodell’s announcement 

Well, this seems to be one part of the story. Taking into account ESPN’s case of NFL RedZone acquisition, in return NFL will receive 10% equity. This makes up to an amount between $25 billion and $30 billion. This boosts the NFL’s stake worth to approximately $2.5 billion to $3 billion. Coming back to college football, a fast-paced, highlight-driven RedZone channel would attract both die-hard and casual fans.

This, in turn, might propel ESPN to charge premium ad rates. In the future, the College Football RedZone might open gates to cross-network deals. Keeping the financial gains aside, the channel could help build stronger national narratives around emerging stars. Introducing the College Football RedZone would make it easier for smaller schools and underdog programs to get screen time after making big plays. Right at the moment, college football fans are divided into two halves. One group belongs to Staples’ team, who are still worried and speculating about the future.

This CFB fan group is worried that ESPN will make massive changes to the fan-favorite channel. And there is this other half. This college football enthusiast group is excited about the possibility of a RedZone channel, as it would make it easier for them to check in on multiple games at once. “I speak for America when I say this is a 10/10 idea,” one fan said. While some fans’ decision is dependent on who is going to take the hosting seat, they will most likely have to wait till 2026 to find out whether the plan will materialize or not.