No matter how diligently fans watch games, at times it’s never enough. NFL has its fans covered with the highlights, thanks to NFL RedZone. It curates every touchdown and highlight play from the game. This left host Scott Hanson to share his wish of having the same in college football.
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“Yes… I’d like college RedZone, too,” wrote Hanson on X.
NFL RedZone, hosted by Hanson on NFL Network, officially launched on September 13, 2009, Week 1 of the 2009 NFL season.
Rather than limiting fans to one game at a time, the show offered a broader viewing experience by jumping between Sunday afternoon matchups. It quickly established a groundbreaking way for American audiences to keep up with the NFL’s biggest moments in real time.
“With NFL RedZone, host Scott Hanson kicks off your Sunday with 7 straight hours of live football, featuring up to 8 games at once within the octobox. NFL RedZone brings you every touchdown from every game, every Sunday afternoon during the regular season and acts as the perfect fantasy football companion,” their website reads.
While Hanson has served as its iconic host since the show debuted, his heart now craves to explore the college football landscape. But it’s not as easy as it seems.
First things first, there is a huge disparity in the number of teams that play pro league and college football. In the NFL, there are 32 teams, while in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), 138 teams compete. Besides this, there are hundreds of FCS teams. It’s not possible to juggle everything and keep track of all the action while switching between broadcasts.
The broadcasting scene is also different in college. The media rights are divided among several broadcasters. For instance, ESPN holds the major rights to the SEC and ACC, while FOX holds the rights to the Big Ten and Big 12.
“The potentially complicating factor, if we look at college football compared to the NFL, is ESPN doesn’t currently — we’d have to look at the fine print of all these contracts — have the in-game highlight rights for a distribution like ‘RedZone,’” Octagon SVP/Global Media Rights William Mao said to Sports Business Journal’s Ben Portnoy. “… Would they be able to put a ‘RedZone’ highlight from a Notre Dame home game if they don’t have a deal with Notre Dame? Does it get covered in the reciprocal rights that college sports broadcasters usually grant each other to share highlights rights with each other?”
The central point is that college football doesn’t lack the games or the audience for a RedZone-style show. The biggest problem is bringing all the broadcasters together to enable comprehensive coverage.
It’s not that college football hasn’t tried to replicate a RedZone-style experience for fans. ESPN lent a helping hand, operating a channel called Goal Line. But more plans are on ESPN’s radar.
“We have the opportunity to expand the RedZone brand to other sports, other leagues,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro told Front Office Sports in August 2025. “We would do that in partnership, and in concert, with the NFL. Of course, the other leagues would need to agree to it. We’re starting to think about what we can do. We are very passionate about the RedZone brand. We think it’s very compelling and there’s a lot of value there.”
But as of now, fans are not convinced about things taking shape in college football, as they commented on Hanson’s post.
“Would send someone into cardiac arrest trying to cover that,” a fan wrote.
“Would you be able to handle back to back days??” wrote a fan.
“It would be impossible. College is way too weird and easy to score sometimes lol. Maybe wait until halfway through the season at least to where teams are playing better competition,” read a comment.
“This would be biblical,” a sarcastic comment read.