College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic – Yet Familiar – Saturday of Production

While two games are sub-licensed to TNT Sports, ESPN crews and facilities produce all four games

In its second year, the expanded College Football Playoff is settling into a familiar — yet demanding — operational rhythm for ESPN.

The First Round once again transforms four college campuses into playoff-scale production environments, blending venues that feel routine during the regular season with heightened staffing levels, expanded technical infrastructure, and a centralized production model that spans multiple distribution partners.

“It might be a Saturday, but it’s not a regular Saturday,” says Jim Birch, senior remote operations manager, ESPN. “You can feel the excitement in the air. I think at every site, it’s a noticeable step up in our facilities and our approach to things. We’re extremely fortunate that we’re at some locations that we are familiar with, but it’s a little amplified.”

While two of the four games will air on TNT platforms, all four matchups are produced by ESPN crews, with trucks, personnel, and workflows aligned across the entire First Round. That centralized approach extends through the remainder of the postseason, as ESPN will also present all four CFP Quarterfinals, both Semifinals, and the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 19 at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

A Familiar Saturday — Turned Up for the Playoff

Operationally, the First Round sits in a unique space. These are campuses ESPN visits throughout the season, but the playoff context elevates the scope of the show in nearly every dimension.

At Texas A&M alone, ESPN’s footprint approaches 450 credentials, driven by the live game, multiple studio shows, and MegaCast productions. Studio positions are spread across the stadium footprint, including field-level locations on all four corners — a configuration rarely deployed during the regular season.

“There’s a lot more gasoline in the fire,” Birch said. “We’re looking to make as big of a fire as we can.”

That scale-up extends to infrastructure partners as well, with vendors supplying additional power, transmission, and technical support to meet playoff demands.

Despite the shared distribution window with TNT Sports, ESPN remains the production backbone for all four First Round games. ESPN crews, trucks, and workflows are responsible for the live game production at every site, including the two matchups airing on TNT platforms.

TNT Sports’ involvement centers on studio programming, including a Bleacher Report show from College Station and a postgame show from Oregon. Extensive coordination between the two organizations began well ahead of kickoff, with joint site surveys and regular planning calls to align footprints, feeds, and technical needs.

“They attended the site surveys with us, which was really huge,” says Catherine Chalfant, manager, remote operations, ESPN who, along with Birch and Eric Kimmel, sit as operational leads across the entire weekend. “Just so we could really get a strong idea of where they were going to be in relation to us, what their footprint’s going to be, how are we going to integrate.”

That coordination includes format considerations. ESPN is producing most First Round games in 1080p HDR, while TNT’s broadcasts operate in 1080i, requiring conversion workflows to ensure consistent delivery across platforms.

“They’ve been really good partners,” says Chalfant, who, in a special happenstance, is stationed in Oxford, MS this weekend at her alma mater for the first Playoff game in Ole Miss’ history. “It’s just been a lot of really good communication and increased presence with them throughout the planning process.”

The ESPN squad nationwide is being supported by the crewing team of Anna Ciccone, Kim Gunkel, Alex Smith, and Jillian Kesri. Remote traffic led by Brian Burney, while REMI operations are spearheaded by Scott Chamberland, Ryan Jones, Ben Neiger, and Marissa Bonertz. ESPN’s mobile unit leads are Kim Kanner and Liza Cole.

Bigger Trucks and Expanded Technical Footprints

All four First Round games are being produced on site with full mobile-unit deployments. At Oklahoma and Texas A&M, ESPN is building upon season-long truck configurations while adding additional Game Creek Video units to support the expanded production scope.

In Norman, Game Creek’s Varsity A+B and B4 are parked with on-site oversight from Cindy Pennington, Tony Gregory, Kevin Cleary, Lindsay Bohlen, and Aaron Thompson. Meanwhile, Game Creek’s 79 A+B and B7 are in College Station with Birch, Tim Denyes, Adam Ramirez, Erinn Enos, and Tatianna Montalvo.

At Ole Miss and Oregon, crews have stepped into entirely new, more powerful trucks than those used during the regular season. Game Creek Yogi A+B and Robo 1 are in Oxford with Chalfant, Fred Clow, Dave Campolongo, Terry Cook, Leatrice Smathers, and Renee Greenwood. Out in Eugene is Game Creek Pride with Kevin Wendling, Shawn Erickson, Jenny Brocious, Andrew Pennington, Charlie Skoog, and Sara Hair.

“The crew here at Ole Miss has really been spending — it’s almost like Week 1 again,” Chalfant said. “They just need a more powerful truck than what they have during the regular season.”

The difference is measurable. REMI-style productions that typically operate with 12 to 14 paths have expanded to roughly 30 paths for the playoff environment, reflecting the added cameras, feeds, and alternate-show requirements that come with CFP coverage.

HDR Growth, 4K Expansion, and MegaCast at Playoff Scale

From a technical standpoint, the First Round continues ESPN’s steady push toward HDR as the foundation of its premium college-football coverage. Three of the four First Round productions are HDR, an increase from last season.

All 4K presentations this postseason — including Alabama–Oklahoma, Miami–Texas A&M, the Rose Bowl, both Semifinals, and the National Championship — will be delivered as 1080p HDR upconverts.

“We’re upconverting more playoff games this year than we ever have,” Birch said.

The approach allows ESPN to expand 4K availability while maintaining consistent HDR workflows across its production ecosystem.

Additionally, ESPN will deliver more than a dozen MegaCast presentations across its two First Round games, with offerings distributed across ESPN platforms. Rather than relying on new technology, execution hinges on planning and coordination.

Extensive pre-production meetings focused on feed sharing, camera access, communications, and redundancy have enabled Command Center, SkyCast, and Field Pass to operate as fully integrated extensions of the main telecast.

“With all these extra angles that we have, we definitely want to make sure that they’re well utilized,” Birch said. “So we kind of spread the wealth as much as we can.”

Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show returns for Miami–Texas A&M on ESPN2, with McAfee and his crew operating from the Kyle Field sidelines. From a production standpoint, Field Pass has become a familiar workflow rather than a disruption. The Field Pass production is supported by the Game Creek Maverick truck with Bob Simon, Mitch Workman, Kelsey Hahn, and David Quintanilla on the scene.

“It’s really kind of there, but it’s not,” Birch said. “They’re really great about how they conduct themselves.”

The College Football Playoff First Round opens Friday night with No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oklahoma on ABC and ESPN, followed by a Saturday tripleheader featuring No. 10 Miami at No. 7 Texas A&M on ABC and ESPN at noon. Later that day, TNT Sports presents No. 11 Tulane at No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 12 James Madison at No. 5 Oregon at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. ET, respectively.