In the same week ESPN has laid off multiple people from its NFL staff, the broadcaster has confirmed a new show concerning college football. The brand-new weekly CFB show will feature three personalities who have gained prominence over the last few years.

According to reports from Front Office Sports, the new show will feature Josh Pate and Bussin’ With The Boys co-hosts Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. The show will air on Friday afternoons throughout the season. It will be a traveling studio show that will visit different universities. The time slots have not yet been disclosed.

On many weekends, it will broadcast on-site from the week’s College GameDay host campus. Until last season, Pat McAfee hosted his Friday show at the site of the College GameDay show. It usually featured him in a discussion with Nick Saban. It is unclear whether the new Friday show will intersect with the McAfee show.

The new show is a strategic push by ESPN’s president of content, Burke Magnus. The aim is simple: to cover the sport on a much wider level. Magnus strongly felt that college football is undercovered across the network, even though it has the highest viewership numbers.

The announcement of the show comes at a time when many NFL analysts were laid off. Some of the prominent names included Tom Pelissero, Ryan Clark, Cam Newton, Bart Scott, and Karl Ravech. It can be viewed as shifting the budget from NFL broadcasts to CFB.

“We introduced Josh into the fold for this football season, on a short-term deal, and he’s been fantastic—so have Taylor Lewan, Will Compton, and a slew of other college football voices,” ESPN SVP Mike Foss told FOS. “As the year is coming to a close, and as it’s been an incredible year for football in general, it’s a good opportunity to look to the future. As we look at everything Josh has done, we certainly want to find a world where he’s a part of it.”

The newly hired hosts, all three of them, are well-known faces of college football. They even had regular appearances on ESPN’s studio programming during the previous football season. ESPN initially signed the trio to limited, short-term agreements before the football season, slotting them into their rigid morning television lineups.

The three new hosts and their ESPN journey

Josh Pate boasts over 500,000 YouTube subscribers, which landed him a short-term trial with ESPN. He was placed under programs such as Get Up and SportsCenter, alongside occasional debate slots on First Take. He also frequently appeared on the Pat McAfee show, which is also licensed to ESPN. His presence was a huge hit in ESPN’s core football audience.

The two former NFL teammates, Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, joined ESPN’s Manhattan studio lineup. As their initial assignment, they were given a recurring Thursday slot on Get Up with Mike Greenberg. To keep their Bussin’ With The Boys podcast going, the duo alternated between in-studio segments and remote locations with their touring podcast bus parked outside.

The three hosts were a hit on ESPN, and that’s when the trio went legit. In August of 2025, Compton and Lewan officially added Pate to their independent podcast. They launched a collaborative audio show called The Locker Room: CFB. This joint venture landed them their show with ESPN.