The Bear is heading to Fox.
Chris Fallica, a popular voice on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” is leaving the network for Fox Sports, The Post has confirmed.
A spokesperson for Fox declined to comment. The news was first reported by Awful Announcing.
Fallica, an everyman who resonates with football fans across America, will join Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff,” the college football pregame show that the network launched in 2019 to compete with “GameDay.”
The pregame show was created in synergy with FOX’s strategy of putting the best game of their slate on at noon ET, where there has traditionally been less competition against big games on other networks.
“Big Noon Kickoff” features host Rob Stone alongside analysts Urban Meyer, Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and Charles Woodson.
The move is somewhat of a stunner as Fallica has been at ESPN so long he is almost like furniture. He started at ESPN as a production assistant at ESPN radio in 1995, and then joined “GameDay” as a researcher in 1996.
He worked on the program, and a number of other ESPN properties, behind the scenes until 2013, when he began making game picks on the show.
“He is as knowledgeable as anyone I know that’s been around the game, yet he comes across as sort of the everyday fan, yet he comes across as his own unique character,” ESPN production executive Lee Fitting told The Athletic for a profile of Fallica in 2019. “But most importantly, he’s real and he’s passionate about the sport. And that’s what makes him beautiful.”
