ESPN Enters College Football’s Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows for Championship Week

Expanded tech builds, camera plans power productions for SEC, ACC, Big 12, American title games

For ESPN, the month of December is a marathon of high-stakes football compressed into a sprint.

This weekend, seven conference championships will flood four networks — marquee SEC, ACC, Big 12, and American matchups on ABC alone — and lead directly into the rapid holiday cadence of bowl season. It’s, undoubtedly, the network’s most operationally complex stretch of the year.

ESPN has loaded up on production resources for marquee college-football conference championship games this weekend, including at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the SEC Championship. (Photo: Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images)

“December is the apex of our college-football calendar,” says Catherine Chalfant, manager, remote operations, ESPN. “It’s incredibly demanding from a production and operations perspective, but it’s also where we hit our stride. Our crews are prepared for the volume, the pace, and the high stakes. This is the moment our teams are ready for: delivering the biggest shows on the biggest stages, night after night.”

Unified Yet Flexible Production Model

ESPN’s approach to Championship Week blends full onsite productions, REMI operations based in Bristol and the Wide World of Sports Complex, and support from packagers who help the network scale its bandwidth.

“We have a mixture of full production, REMIs out of Bristol and WWOS, and packagers,” says Jim Birch, senior manager, remote operations, ESPN. “It allows us to scale appropriately depending on the venue and the event.” The model allows ESPN to adapt to the various technical realities of each site while keeping the overall production philosophy consistent.

The SEC and ACC Championships, however, operate on a different tier. These are ESPN’s marquee titles of the weekend, and the broadcaster expands its regular-season workflows to match the stakes.

The SEC Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta receives one of ESPN’s most ambitious builds of the year. A Sony HDC-5500V camera paired with Fujinon’s UA125x long-lens system sits on a stacker cart to capture dramatic field-level isolation shots. A Sony HDC-4800 handheld outfitted with the Duvo 24–300 lens is positioned inside the stadium’s roof to deliver elevated, cinematic overhead views.

PylonCams will be deployed at all major conference championship games this weekend. (Photo: Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images)

The broadcast incorporates additional super-slo-mo cameras, goal-post robotics, pylon angles, and deeper camera and communications integration with accompanying studio shows, such as College GameDay and alternative broadcasts like Field Pass.

“From top to bottom,” says Birch, “it’s a larger crew, expanded equipment, and more integration with our studio partners. We take our routine production footprint and amplify it.”

The ACC Championship in Charlotte, NC, mirrors that elevated approach. ESPN deploys six super-slow-mo cameras, expands its field-level coverage, increases replay capacity, and integrates two official-worn RefCams provided by JockeyCam/POVORA.

“The RefCam we’ve used a few times during the regular season,” Birch says. “It gives fans a truly immersive look at what’s happening on the field.”

The ACC broadcast also incorporates AR SkyCam graphics and receives remote-based graphics support through Viz Libero (based in Bristol). The SEC Championship has its Libero support onsite.

The ACC Network studio show ACC Huddle is fully integrated into the production, and its alternativee broadcast, Field Pass, connects directly to the game broadcast.

Technology, Storytelling, Viewer Experience

For ESPN’s crews, the emphasis throughout the month is on enhancing both clarity and emotion. Isolation shots, overhead perspectives, replay variety, referee-mounted cameras, and increased audio capture all contribute to ESPN’s evolving visual language.

“These tools reflect ESPN’s continued push for cinematic visuals and more intimate storytelling,” Birch says. “We want fans to feel the speed, physicality, and emotion in new ways.”

Chalfant adds that the technology ultimately serves a broader creative purpose. In her words, December is a time of celebration, and these games should feel as such. “We hope fans come away with a deeper sense of connection to the teams, personalities, and stakes. Enhanced coverage helps viewers feel closer to the field and the passion that defines college football.”

Meeting that scale of Championship Week and bowl season requires an extensive network of vendor partners who support ESPN across hundreds of college-football broadcasts each year. Among those companies are True Grip and Chapman, who support camera-cart solutions; SkyCam, which provides aerial coverage; JayBird Jibs, which outfits the SDF Ronin systems; Fully Armed Productions, jib carts; BSI and Bexel, pylon-camera technology; Fletcher, responsible for robotics; and CP Communications and BSI, RF systems.

Coordination at Scale: Keeping Everything on Track

Successfully executing this stretch of the year requires months of planning, refined workflows, and an operations team capable of managing extreme complexity.

“We’re fortunate to have an operations team with years of experience working on college football,” says Chalfant.

That team includes Operations Supervisor Eric Kimmel; Senior Operations Producer Bob Simon; Specialists Terry Cook and Mitch Workman; and Coordinators Charlie Skoog, Tatianna Montalvo, Aaron Thompson, and Renee Greenwood.

Each of this weekend’s largest productions has dedicated leaders steering the ship behind the scenes. The operations team at SEC features Cindy Pennington, Tony Gregory, Jovy Serviss, and Montalvo. Handling the ACC Championship are Tim Denyes, Adam Ramirez, Erinn Enos, and Tanner Holcomb. Meanwhile, in the Big 12, the operations crew is Fred Clow, Terry Cook, and Leatrice Smathers.

On the production side, championship season is overseen by ESPN SVP, Production, Amanda Gifford; VPs, Production, Bryan Jaroch and Shawn Murphy; Coordinating Producer Evan Cohen; Coordinating Director Lorenzo Lamadrid; and Managing Producers Jeff Anthony and Lori Mancini.

The group’s collective experience enables ESPN to anticipate and address the advanced logistical needs of December before they become bottlenecks. Planning begins early in the season, and postseason scenarios take shape long before the first championship kickoff.

“There are checks and balances in place to ensure nothing is overlooked,” Chalfant adds. “Our operations teams in the field are the final check, and they’re some of the best in the business. College football is a massive collective effort. It’s the dedication, problem-solving, and passion of these teams that make every broadcast possible.”