ESPN’s College GameDay and Kirk Herbstreit accused of influencing firing decisions

There are few bigger shows in sports than College GameDay.

Saturday mornings during fall are reserved for ESPN’s traveling panel program, which broadcasts from campuses across the country to build-up to the biggest games of the weekend.

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The 2025 season was GameDay’s most-watched ever, and averaged 2.7 million viewers over 15 weeks — more than doubling the audience of its closest competition.

With such a platform, the likes of Kirk Herbstreit, Pat McAfee and Nick Saban have become some of the most influential voices in college sports.

Too influential, in fact, according to numerous coaches.

GameDay accused of influencing college football decisions

As the dust settled on one of the most dramatic coaching carousels of recent memory, which was headlined by Lane Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss, The Athletic spoke to more than 25 FBS head coaches, assistants and staffers, and asked for thoughts on the landscape.

One question put forward asked if athletic directors are ‘influenced by College GameDay when hiring/firing?’

The response from one anonymous SEC assistant was eye-opening.

“Whatever is said on GameDay is like gold because now more than ever the fan support matters more than anything else,” they told The Athletic.

“The fan support is paying the bills. It always has, but even more so now. You’ve got to keep those guys happy and they get their information from those guys on College GameDay.

“If Kirk Herbstreit said some guy is doing a really good job, they’re going to believe it. If they say he’s not doing a good job, they’re going to believe it.

“Right, wrong or indifferent, whatever is said they’re going to believe it.”

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Other anonymous coaches also shared their thoughts.

“I don’t know if it’s them specifically, but the media controls the narrative, the narrative gets heard by the donors and the donors affect the ADs [Athletic Directors],” a Big 12 head coach said.

“So it may not be direct, but through influence, but 100 percent those huge voices have an effect.”

An American head coach added of GameDay’s influence: “Yes, because ADs are weak as hell.”

Others, though, aren’t convinced about the idea.

An ACC analyst suggested ADs don’t ‘pay that much attention to TV’ and the ones that do ‘won’t be employed long.’

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Meanwhile, an ACC assistant argued that college football is a ‘results-driven industry’ and that if you win, everything takes care of itself.

ESPN stars lobbied for Lane Kiffin during LSU saga

Since 1987, GameDay has been a fan favorite on the ESPN slate. But it came into some criticism in 2025, at the height of the Kiffin to LSU drama.

Both Saban and Herbstreit used their platforms to lobby for the departing Ole Miss coach to stay with the Rebels for their College Football Playoff run.

Saban told viewers that the situation was a ‘college football conundrum’ rather than a problem with the outgoing coach, and in late November, Herbstreit urged Ole Miss to ‘set emotions aside’ and allow Kiffin to ‘finish the run’ before leaving for LSU.

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Just a day later, he officially took the job in Baton Rouge, and was not offered the opportunity to coach the Ole Miss in the postseason.

Regardless, GameDay had pushed pretty strongly for a different outcome.

That was potentially dangerous, as it sounds like the ESPN show is not only watched closely by college football fans, but by plenty of school administrators as well.

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