By Jessi Maness | Published Sep 2014
An interview with Lee Fitting, senior coordinating producer for ESPN’s college studio shows, and our friends, Big & Rich.
If you’re a college football fan chances are that every year since its inception, you’ve probably caught ESPN’S College Gameday show. If you catch it on a regular basis, then you not only know who Lee Corso, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit are, it’s likely you also know the duo of Big & Rich.
According to Big Kenny, many times when he and John are traveling together people approach them in airports and say: “Hey – you’re the guys who do ESPN College Gameday!”
But how in the world did Big Kenny and John Rich – world-renowned recording artists – become part of the ESPN College Gameday Brand?
Before we answer that question, whose idea was it to start ESPN College Gameday? And how did this college-game-day review show ever get started anyway?
To answer these and many more questions, we checked in with Lee Fitting, senior coordinating producer for ESPN’s college studio shows and a 16-year veteran of ESPN production.
Fitting begins: “We actually started out as a 15-20 minute review. Then that expanded to a full half hour, and in that time we’d talk about the games each day and try to predict what would happen that afternoon or night. Then Chris Fowler had the idea [in 1993] to take our setup to an onsite location. So we went to the biggest game of the year that year: Florida State against Notre Dame. We took the whole setup and did a pre-game show from Notre Dame and it was great! That’s how it was born…but it was a very small-scale show in ’93.”
Each year after that, Fitting says the ESPN crew would take the “show on the road” three or four times a year. Then seven to ten times a year – until finally, eventually, it was on the road week after week during the season.
And how did they choose the games?
Fitting says around 2004 they just started going out every week to different campuses and would try to find the best game or best story of the day. Fitting informs: “We’d try to think ahead a little thinking like, ‘Number 2 with Number 5 will likely be a sexy game, or a great story like a military academy or a division 2 and a division 3 game would be great’ – to educate viewers on the types of rivalries out there. At some point, grew into a 3-hour show…into a massive monster.”
What’s up with Corso and the mascot head?
Most Gameday viewers wouldn’t miss the end of the show when Lee Corso dons the head of the college mascot for his prediction. Fitting laughs and gives us the scoop: “Corso was an original member and on game day we don’t tell the guys to do anything. This mascot came about in…maybe 1996. It was at Ohio State and Kirk Herbstreit’s wife was a former Ohio State Cheerleader. At some point, Herbstreit turns to Alison (his wife) and asks if she can get Corso the mascot headgear? And it worked out great. And just overall, Corso has probably done more for the popularity of college football than anyone in college history.”
When did you realize that ESPN COLLEGE GAMEDAY had made it?
“When the appetites just continued to grow and kids were camping out overnight to see the show and see the guys, relates Fitting. “When we’d go to the same school more than once in a year and the crowds kept growing…and when we went from 90 minutes to two hours then to three hours, we realized how big it had become. Because the passion of the guys who do the show – they’re genuine, not fake, its not made up, it’s not acting…they’re the real deal. And their chemistry is once-in-a lifetime sports television chemistry.”
When did the celebrity guest aspect get started?
Fitting enthusiastically recalls: “When Charles Barkley first did it – it was probably ten years ago – he was the first one on the show. He was a big Auburn fan. He picked the games and was great at it. So it was probably about 5 years ago when we decided on doing it (celebrity predictions) every week. We had Lance Armstrong, Bill Murray, Bo Jackson, Olympian, Lolo Jones (American track and field and bobsled athlete), Darius Rucker (recording artist), and Bubba Watson (two-time masters winner.) And Kenny Chesney was one of our originals. And he’d do game predictions and he was great at it – and we’ve used Kenny more than one time and the fans love it.
And how did Big & Rich become part of the ESPN Brand?
“Big & Rich got involved when we heard their song, “Coming To Your City,” and got the idea to customize it and use the college [team] names…and it quickly became the show’s anthem.”
Big Kenny (Alphin) asserts: “One of the things I don’t know if people notice – about that song – is that this is our third iteration of it. We’ve written the lyrics now three different times. It’s always the teams that are out there rocking it that end up in the lyrics. I think there are sixteen different teams that we’ve put into the lyric this year.
John Rich adds: “Which is quite a homework assignment to make them rhyme…”
“People ask what the number one condition of the team being in the song is, and it’s that it rhyme, says Kenny. “It might not be the team name; it could be the stadium name, the town, the city, and anything they’re known by. We get creative.”
Jokingly, Rich continues: “For instance, this new version says ‘Well we rolled right through Death Valley, Boomer Sooner, Gig’ Em Aggies” because Aggies doesn’t go with Tomahawk Chop and it never will.”
In 2011, the song “Coming to your city” was reworked specifically for ESPN Gameday again – but that time, complete with a rap from Cowboy Troy. This year, Lizzy Hale from Halestorm, Travie McCoy and Cowboy Troy are all part of the show’s theme song performance.
“It’s really a Musik Mafia feel because you’ve got different genres and different singers all on the same 90 seconds. It’s so cool and…people will be pretty pumped to see the new blood in on the song and feel how hard it rocks,” says Rich.
What is especially intriguing about Big & Rich is they are not only a part of the ESPN College Game Day brand they each have their own individual brands as well.
How multi-faceted is the Big & Rich Brand? We can start with the fact that they are “Big & Rich,” a world-renowned musical-duo with such a unique vibe that many have tried to emulate their harmonic stylings. (Their most recent duo album was released this past September).
Big & Rich are two [of four] founders of the Muzik Mafia– an organization whose mission is to encompass and promote talent of all genres and advocate for all styles of creativity – musical and non.
Big Kenny has his own musical brand called “Electro Shine” – electronic dance music coupled with country overtones, while John Rich has his Redneck Riviera lifestyle line officially released back in March and designed to reflect the laid-back, carefree beach lifestyle.”
John Rich, via his appearance and win on Celebrity Apprentice (in 2011) raised over $2million for St. Jude. He also supports multiple charities local to Nashville – like Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital – as well as many national/international charities. He is an advocate for our U.S. troops and does all he can to see they are never forgotten.
Big Kenny has a mantra: “Love Everybody.” It is a part of everything he does and everything he believes in. Kenny has been to multiple countries to aid in the building of homes, schools, offer his services as a volunteer in times of crisis and much more. He has raised money for the Red Cross, United Nations Foundation, and Little Kids Rock, a charity that offers free instruments and rockin’ lessons to kids in underprivileged public schools across the county.
Rich sums up the relationship between himself and Big K: “We’ve always been two distinct individuals and as a duo we make some interesting music and have a great friendship. When you separate the two of us and we’re doing our own thing, he’s [Kenny’s] always going to be lighting a rocket and so am I. That’s what we liked about each other in the beginning, was to see this other guy that was lighting as many rockets as I was and vice versa. We said, man, we should put our rockets together.“
Lee Fitting agrees that not only did they join rockets, they’ve added a bit of a rocket to ESPN’S Gameday as well. “They bring a great energy to the show. They’ve done a great job rewriting the song for the show and they were a great addition as far as we’re concerned.”
Things are going pretty well considering ESPN College Gameday has won an Emmy for the best sports show on television. Not too shabby at all.
But remember, the SEC has just launched it’s network. Does ESPN College Game Day have anything to worry about as far as ratings go?
According to Fitting, he has no concerns at all. “Anytime there’s an appetite for more college football on television, it’s a huge positive for the sport and a huge positive for college sports.”
We know you all are going to keep on watching ESPN College Gameday – right? Raise your hand if you’re saying “right,” because I can’t hear you. (Okay, even I admit that was corny.)
So, what’s next for the show? “The beauty of Gameday is that you really never know what is next…the next week, the next year or the next. But our viewers like the unpredictability of the show. One thing I can tell you is that we tweak the show a little each year to try to improve it. I can also say I don’t think we’ll see the show expanding in time, not past the three hours. We’ve kind of taken it upon ourselves to be educational and entertaining and we’re trying to be real. If we can always do that, I think we’ll be around for a long time.”