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Executive Voice: ‘[We] take great pride in what our ESPN college football team has collectively accomplished this fall’

As the CFP and New Year's Six approach, Senior VP, Production, Lee Fitting salutes ESPN's teamwork during this challenging season

EDITOR’S NOTE: ESPN Senior Vice President, Production, Lee Fitting extends a thank you to ESPN’s College Football Production crew.

When the college football season started, there was so much uncertainty. Some conferences had committed to play abbreviated seasons – all starting at different times, while others decided to postpone or cancel. There were myriad questions about how many games would be played, how they would be broadcast, and more.

When we met via Zoom with our production team and announcers in August, we stressed the importance of flexibility and adaptability. We knew this would be an unprecedented season, rife with challenges and plenty of unknowns as we adopted new travel procedures, workflows, and health and safety protocols.

Week after week, we faced postponements, cancellations, and all kinds of curveballs, yet everyone remained optimistic that we would get to the College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six, which kicks off tonight with Florida vs. Oklahoma in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Our ESPN team produced more than 280 regular-season college football games this fall, and the bowl season will bring that number to exceed 300. College GameDay welcomed fans virtually for the first time while traveling 16 straights weeks, including a historic visit to Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters and recently celebrating CGD’s milestone 400th show.

While we have our biggest games still to come – including our signature Megacast presentation – we should all take great pride in what our ESPN college football team has collectively accomplished this fall. Every department – programming, production, remote operations, audio, digital, marketing, sales, communications, social, and more – has contributed to this success. And now comes the best part – documenting the crowning of a new National Champion on Jan. 11.

Thanks to everyone who played a role in delivering this historic season to our loyal college football viewers. The video above is a collection of images as we look back on this memorable 2020 college football season.

Amanda Brooks produced the video.

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