As Chris Fallica was approaching three decades working at ESPN, he began to feel that he was at his peak with the company. Having started out of college as a production assistant in radio and eventually landing a research role with College GameDay, he satisfied a distinctive niche and crafted an individual brand through an on-air position taking part in the show. By the time his contract expired, he was exploring opportunities with other entities and had a call with FOX Sports executive Brad Zager.
Fallica remembers Zager informing him that FOX Sports had rights to two of the next three Super Bowl championships, FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship and Belmont Stakes. ESPN used to hold some of these broadcast rights, and he valued being involved with the broadcasts in different capacities. In fact, he considered the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa to be the best thing in which he ever participated with the company. These chances to expand his portfolio as a wagering analyst, combined with a lucrative offer and ability to remain embedded in college football coverage, ultimately resulted in him making the move.
“It was funny. Even a couple of people mentioned to me, like, ‘This was good for you to go out there and kind of show that you can do some different things at FOX,'” said Fallica. “‘There are a lot of opportunities there that you didn’t necessarily have at ESPN.’”
Although Fallica appreciated landing the new job, one of his early concerns was transitioning to Big Noon Kickoff after spending years on an opposing college football road pregame show. ESPN College GameDay helped place Fallica as an on-air talent, granting him his ‘Bear’ nickname and immense credibility among viewers. While he had built relationships with those working on the show, he had the chance to reconnect with former colleagues and new industry professionals as he assimilated into Big Noon Kickoff. On top of that, Mark Ingram II was also in his first year with the show, allowing them to experience their rookie campaigns together and make the necessary adjustments.
“It’s kind of a small world getting back in touch with some people that you worked with in the past,” Fallica said. “The rapport with the guys has been great. It really is sitting around in the afternoon just after the show watching all the games, making fun of each other’s picks and yelling at the TV like a bunch of college football fans, which I think everybody can see that we really are.”
Building Lasting Friendships Over Business
Lee Corso, the longtime College GameDay analyst on ESPN, is going to be retiring after 38 years on the program following Week 1 of the season. While Fallica no longer works with Corso directly, he still maintains contact with his former colleague and reminisces on the good times, feeling as a paternal figure who could put different circumstances and impediments in perspective. Fallica contributed to Super Bowl LIX coverage from New Orleans, La. last February, and shortly after he finished a segment, he heard from the award-winning broadcaster responsible for deriving his pseudonym.
“On the way back to the hotel, he called me and was like, ‘It was great to see you on the Super Bowl. I’m so happy to see you doing well. It’s so great – you deserve everything,’” Fallica recalls Corso telling him. “It was really, really cool just to see Lee and just the relationship we built throughout the years, and he still feels the same way about me that I do about him.”
Having experience working on rivaling college football pregame shows, Fallica has insights and perspectives pertaining to their similarities and differences. The FOX Sports pregame show leads directly into the dedicated early afternoon window oftentimes showcasing games featuring teams from power conferences such as the Big Ten and Big 12. Heading into the upcoming season, the company will open with a matchup featuring the reigning national champion Ohio State Buckeyes facing the Texas Longhorns. This will include an on-site broadcast of Big Noon Kickoff with anticipation as two heralded programs face off on the gridiron.
“It feels like everything just builds from 10 to 11 to when we move inside the stadium and I’m standing there on the sideline doing a hit, and then finally at noon and 12:10, you send it over to Gus, Jenny and Joel,” Fallica said. “It gives it kind of an urgent-type of feel where we get what we need to get out there in terms of the day and college football stories in general maybe before we move in.”
Part of what Fallica feels sets him apart is his authentic relatability, conveying that people can visualize him as participating in online chatrooms and engaging in spirited debates. He did not play college football nor did he secure a National Championship. On the contrary, Fallica studied broadcast journalism and history at the University of Miami while freelancing as a broadcast statistician, and he first worked professionally as an intern at WFAN. Even though he would preferably see his alma mater do well, he does not hesitate to vocalize criticisms.
“Now it seems like people see FOX as the Big Ten agenda, and when I was at ESPN, people see ESPN as the SEC agenda,” Fallica said. “I don’t care – it doesn’t matter to me. You go back to last year – I’ll talk about Indiana [making] it with a non-conference schedule that’s not deserving to be in, and at the same time, Alabama and Ole Miss, you know what? Don’t lose to Kentucky at home, don’t lose to Vanderbilt. So I’m not afraid to just kind of speak my mind on any of these topics.”
Fallica first started taking part in wagering discussions while he was a member of College GameDay, and it has been a focus of his role with FOX Sports. The proliferation of this content has occurred as more states have moved to legalize sports betting. Remaining objective is one of the challenges associated with the craft, and Fallica tries not to hold grudges against those who underperform.
“You just kind of need to [go], ‘Okay, I got beat. I could laugh about it,’” Fallica said. “Maybe you made a bad pick, maybe someone played bad, and then just kind of, ‘They’ll be a next time, and we’ll have to just get them then,’ but yeah. Just being subjective and just kind of clearing your mind of things that have happened in the past is vital, and that along with money management in terms of betting are the two things that I think people struggle with the most.”
How to Weave Wagering Into Entertainment
Whenever Fallica is providing suggestions for betting on a college football game, he is trying to render the content relatable to experts and novices alike. At the start of a week, he will look at the lines and try to discover potential underdogs that could prove to be victorious. Fallica keeps up with trends and communicates such details to the audience through a variety of forums on linear television and digital platforms. On top of that, he provides intel surrounding other sporting events aside from football games, including the upcoming Belmont Stakes taking place from Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York.
“My preparation for the Belmont horse racing this week is pretty much the same way I would attack any day that I’m just looking to handicap races,” Fallica said. “[I] just kind of go through the form and look for certain angles and remember some races that I may have been involved with in the past and just kind of talk about [it] from how I interpret the past performances.”
FOX Sports is preparing to broadcast the final leg within the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing for the third time under an eight-year pact with the New York Racing Association. After ‘Sovereignty’ won the Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs last month, the horse did not compete in the Preakness Stakes to protect long-term interests. Junior Alvarado is expected to ride the thoroughbred in the race this weekend, taking on Preakness winner ‘Journalism’ and six other horses. Nonetheless, Fallica is excited for the challenge of involving casual fans and disseminating his wagering insights on the airwaves.
“I used to sit around on the GameDay bus at the time and have the racing form out, and I’d have a little screen on the lower left with the TVG on there, and Kirk [Herbstreit] and everyone would kind of make fun of me until Kirk started to kind of get the itch to get involved with horses too, and then he [understood] what I was doing,” Fallica explained. “I can’t wait to get up there and get after it for a couple days.”
More College Football, Please
With the expanded College Football Playoff and hastened momentum to potentially progress towards a 16-team format, Fallica hopes to find a way to contribute to such coverage once again. Concurrent with a possible expansion, he also would like to see if FOX could become involved in potentially covering a game within the proceedings. Since the Big Ten Conference is among the largest partners for FOX, Fallica is also interested in potentially airing a Big Noon-style preview show from a college campus.
“The college football sport is evolving and changing so much that, we don’t even know some of the things that are going to be happening this year with the Playoff,” Fallica said. “They can’t seem to really come to an agreement on what’s going to happen, so maybe that’s something to look forward to in the future as well.”
Although the start of college football is just over two months away, Fallica is continuing to communicate his valuable knowledge and shrewd perspectives through digital forums. Leveraging his background in research and passion for sports, he has maintained relatability to the fans and evinces his good fortune in adjusting to being in front of the camera and continuing to receive opportunities. For now though, he is focused on the Belmont Stakes and the storylines that will unfold from Saratoga.
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Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
