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Rece Davis Makes Decision On His Future With 'College GameDay'

Originally posted on The Spun | By Andrew Gould | Last updated Apr 13, 2025 10:36 AM ET

Rece Davis was reportedly a highly recruited talent this offseason.

According to The Athletic's Andrew Marchand, FOX made a big push to poach Davis from ESPN. However, the longtime College GameDay host is staying put.

Marchand reported that Davis signed a seven-year extension worth "tens of millions of dollars." He could have made more elsewhere, as Marchand said the 59-year-old took "a slight hometown discount" to stay with ESPN.

The new contract secures Davis as the College GameDay host for the remainder of ESPN's College Football Playoff deal through 2031-32.

Davis, who joined ESPN in 1995, has spent the last decade hosting the network's seminal college football show. He also leads the basketball version of College GameDay and has hosted soccer coverage.

Had he moved to FOX, Davis would have replaced Rob Stone to host Big Noon Kickoff. GameDay's burgoening pre-game competitor has already snagged reporter Tom Rinaldi and researcher Chris "Bear" Fallica from ESPN.

In 2021, Davis signed an extension to host GameDay for four more seasons.

"I believe I have the best job in sports television, but when you've been doing anything for a while there comes a period of evaluation, I guess, to see whether there are things you would like to pursue," Davis told the Associated Press in 2021. "And for me I still very much wanted to host College GameDay and to still have the opportunity to host some significant events along with that from time to time. Fortunately for me our place was able to provide all of those things."

He wasn't worried about Big Noon Kickoff taking attention away from his show.

"If you start trying to react to someone else, that's more detrimental than helpful in my opinion," Davis said. "We still want to be regarded as the ultimate destination, and if you turn away from our show, you're going to miss something."

Another network tried to land an ESPN talent for its football coverage. Marchand also reported that CBS pursued Dan Orlovsky, who turned down the opportunity but hasn't re-upped a contract that ends this year.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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