It was fun while it lasted.

Facing instantaneous backlash from college administrators and NCAA rights partners, ESPN has put an end to its in-game ‘cover alert’ graphics according to Awful Announcing.

The Worldwide Leader has focused much of its pre-game college football coverage this season to gambling, including but not limited to point spreads and over/under totals with Chris Fallica during its Saturday morning College GameDay telecast.

RELATED: ESPN’s shift to gambling coverage worries administrators

ESPN used a chime and image in the corner of the screen during a Thursday night game in Week 1 to update viewers when a favorite was closing in on a cover.

The programming addition wasn’t appreciated by the powers that be in college football.

From Sports Business Journal:

On Sept. 4, ESPN broke into its Baylor-SMU telecast to show a highlight when Western Michigan scored a touchdown late in the third quarter to cut Michigan State’s lead to 17. The Spartans were favored by 18, and ESPN branded the break-in as a “cover alert,” something the network had not done before. Michigan State ended up winning the game by 13 points.

That was the only time ESPN used a “cover alert,” and ESPN executives said they made a quick decision to get rid of it even before they heard any complaints.

“We did it once. I didn’t like it, and we stopped it,” said John Wildhack, ESPN’s executive vice president of programming and production. “To me, it was too overt. Part of everything we do has a little bit of trial and error.”

ESPN has been upfront about its plans to discuss gambling on its shows more regularly this season, from Scott Van Pelt’s studio show to Brent Musburger’s veiled references to his “friends in the desert” (i.e., Las Vegas gamblers). Though Wildhack stressed that talk of gambling takes up a tiny percentage of ESPN’s programming (it’s around 2 percent of “College GameDay” and Van Pelt’s show, he said), the increased attention on gambling makes college officials uneasy.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently weighed in on the issue after picking up on ESPN’s attention to sports betting this season.

“We certainly try to be mindful of the culture around us, but that doesn’t mean that we accept it as entirely appropriate,” Sankey said, according to Sports Business Journal. “There is an existing concern about gambling becoming more central to the sport (and the broadcast). Although there has not been any official discussion as a conference about this issue, we need to be attentive to the integrity of the game.”