ESPN is deepening its college football bench. A new Friday program will pair Josh Pate with Bussin’ With The Boys hosts Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, according to a report by Front Office Sports.
What We Know: According to the report, the new show airs Friday afternoons, often from campus sites tied to College GameDay. A specific time slot hasn’t been set yet. Pate appeared regularly on Get Up last season, while Compton and Lewan also joined ESPN studio programming around the same time. In January, reports surfaced that ESPN president of content, Burke Magnus, was looking to do more work with college football programming this coming fall.
What They Said: Josh Pate on discussions with ESPN about more ways to collaborate (via Barrett Media – March, 2026): “Everyone sat down around the camp fire and realized we all love this. We all want more of it. Let’s work it out, and we’re in the process of doing that right now. Those are the people that I want to be in business with for a long time. You cross your fingers that they feel the same about you. But we talked about a lot of exciting concepts and ideas that are still up in the air right now. I strongly believe we’ll get something worked out for the upcoming season.”
What Remains Unclear: Exact details of the new program are uknown. ESPN has not responded to Barrett Media for confirmation or comment. More specifics should surface as kickoff nears.
What It Means: This new venture for ESPN is different than the ones previously seen by the network. Instead of inserting independent talent into network studio programs, this is a network building a show surrounding independent talent. A far cry from a licensing deal that the network has used in the past. However, the play couldn’t be better. The talents identified are top talents for college football fans. For Pate, it’s another expansion beyond On3 and Yahoo Sports. For Bussin’, it’s further proof their post-Barstool rise keeps compounding, following a recent NASCAR show launch too.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.