Rece Davis Opens Up About Turning Down Fox Offer to Stay at ESPN

‘College GameDay’ host explains why he didn’t move over to host ‘Big Noon Kickoff.’

Rece Davis is now in his 10th season as the host of ESPN's 'College GameDay." / Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

With Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff lagging behind ESPN’s College GameDay in the ratings battle and on the prestige front, Fox wanted to go for the double whammy prior to this season.

The network wanted to poach GameDay host Rece Davis from ESPN to take over the same job on Big Noon Kickoff.

Davis, though, rejected Fox’s offer and signed a new deal at ESPN.

On the latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina, Davis opened up about his career decision.

“I was very flattered by the opportunity at Fox and really impressed with everybody associated there,” said Davis. “The opportunities beyond college football were enticing, but I love this sport so much, and I feel like that GameDay was just starting another chapter with Nick [Saban] and with Pat [McAfee] and the transition there. It just wasn’t time for me to do something else yet.”

Speaking about Fox, Davis said, “Those guys were great and they do a great job over there and they do big events very well and I was very flattered at the opportunity. But my heart was with GameDay, and I think I have the best job in television right now.”

Davis reiterated that the current cast of GameDay was too good to leave.

“Can’t do it forever, you know, I'm going to turn 60 in a couple weeks, a little less than that. And so I know it’s not going to last forever, but I feel like we were in a really good spot and we were turning the chapter doing some exciting things. A new era of GameDay with Nick and with Pat, and then Kirk [Herbstreit] and Desmond [Howard] are such great partners. I didn’t want to leave it yet. And in the end, that’s what it came to.”

You can listen to the full interview with Davis on SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple andSpotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.