FOX’s “Big Noon Kickoff” show is trying to fashion itself as a rival to ESPN’s “College GameDay,” but it seems to have a long way to go in the eyes of its competitor.
GameDay analyst Desmond Howard spoke about “Big Noon Kickoff” in a new interview, and essentially dismissed them as a meaningful rival to his own program. Howard was not even aware that the FOX show recently added Dave Portnoy to its stable of personalities.
“This must be their move to try and offset what we have with [Pat] McAfee, I’m assuming,” Howard told John Mamola of Barrett Media. “They want to compete. I like those guys. To me, our competitor has been the NBA on TNT because we’re always battling against them for the Sports Emmy. No disrespect to those guys [Big Noon Kickoff], I’m sure they do a fantastic job.”
That is quite dismissive of the FOX show, which Howard suggests he does not even pay attention to.
FOX has made no secret of its desire to challenge “GameDay” as the preeminent Saturday pregame show. Portnoy even took a shot at ESPN in announcing his partnership with FOX. However, “GameDay” still wins in the ratings and simply garners more attention than its upstart rival. They only became further entrenched when Nick Saban joined the crew last season.
Howard has been part of the “GameDay” crew since 2005. He, Saban, Pat McAfee, and Kirk Herbstreit will continue to form the backbone of the show this season alongside host Rece Davis.
H/T Awful Announcing
