While college football is dealing with the fallout of a 5-star quarterback of a College Football Playoff participant up and leaving his team, we nearly had a similar situation in the college football TV world, as Fox tried to lure its rival's quarterback to come play for them.
According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, Fox made an "all-out effort" to recruit Rece Davis from ESPN to anchor its "Big Noon Kickoff" pregame show. Davis, however, opted to remain at ESPN for a 7-year deal worth tens of millions of dollars.
Davis will celebrated his 30-year anniversary with the Worldwide Leader last month. He took over for Chris Fowler as the host of "College GameDay" in 2015 and in that role has evolved into something like the mayor of the college football world. He not only plays quarterback on the pre-game show of record, he anchors the College Football Playoff selection show and leads pregame coverage of the sport's postseason. It's Davis who asks the tough questions of the CFP selection committee chairman each Tuesday night in November and on Selection Sunday in December, and it's Davis who sets the table for the Rose Bowl, the CFP semifinals and the championship game. Davis also serves in the same role on the college basketball version of "GameDay."
Marchand reports Davis accepted less money to remain at ESPN in exchange for the guarantee he'll be the lead host of the network's CFP coverage through 2031-32. At that point Davis, a shockingly young 59, could look to call it a career. In addition to more money and the opportunity to lead "Big Noon Kickoff," Fox offered Davis the chance to lead its coverage of the 2026 World Cup -- which will take place in North America -- and do play-by-play for college basketball. Davis has anchored ESPN's soccer coverage previously and does play-by-play when he's not in studio.
Elsewhere, Marchand reported CBS approached Dan Orlovsky to be its top college football analyst to replace the outgoing Gary Danielson before promoting Charles Davis to the role. Orlovsky was last seen around these parts saying goodbye for now to ESPN after the Super Bowl; he's been open about considering jumping into coaching in the past, though he did not take the New Orleans Saints quarterbacks job that some speculated he would. Fox is currently in the market for a game analyst after Brock Huard stepped away to help coach his son's high school team.