Kirk Herbstreit Reveals Reason He Didn't Leave 'College GameDay' After Amazon Deal

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit has been a staple of “College GameDay” for 29 years. Next season will mark his 30th year with the network and the show, which debuted in 1987 and featured the iconic Lee Corso.

Herbstreit has become a household name and is now one of the top play-by-play announcers in the business. His rising profile led to a major broadcasting deal with Amazon three years ago, where he joined the famous Al Michaels to call “Thursday Night Football” games on Prime Video. Despite this, Herbstreit planned to continue calling college football games on ABC's prime-time Saturday night broadcasts with Chris Fowler. 

However, during an interview on On3's “Andy & Ari's” podcast this Tuesday, Herbstreit revealed that he had seriously considered giving up "College GameDay" after accepting the Amazon deal. He feared it would be too difficult to manage all three commitments.

But the arrival of Pat McAfee as a regular contributor — something Herbstreit hadn't anticipated — and the addition of Nick Saban, brought a new energy to the show, and rekindled Herbstreit's love for it. Now, as the season wraps up, he reflected that this year has been the most fun he’s ever had on the historic college football pregame show.

"I've never had more fun on the show in 29 years. I thought when I took the Amazon deal three years ago that I would probably have to give something up because it's so hard to do all three of these things. And then not knowing that Pat [McAfee] would become a regular and, obviously, Coach Saban would retire—I had no idea. But now, you couldn't kick me off the set. I absolutely love it. I hope it lasts a long time. I couldn't imagine not being on 'GameDay'."