Like other recently announced ESPN departures (Simmons, Olbermann), Colin Cowherd is a polarizing figure. Holding down a premier radio slot of 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET for years on the national ESPN radio platform, Cowherd is undoubtedly good at one thing in particular: making people react.

Most people either love him or hate him.

To me, Cowherd has always been a good listen. While his opinions can sometimes cross the line into ridiculousness, he’s extraordinarily talented, and I prefer thoughtful and interesting angles over endless talk about the NFL’s Jets, Giants and Cowboys. Moreover, Cowherd covers the college game pretty well, something other national radio hosts don’t do much at all (Mike & Mike). I’m able to set aside the arguments and rants I disagree with, and smile, laugh, or nod at the ones I do agree with or just find entertaining. It doesn’t get much more entertaining than listening to Jim Harbaugh be the most awkward individual in the country during an easy interview on The Herd, right?

Hopefully whoever ESPN fills the slot with will pay attention to college football and offer entertaining thoughts and opinions on the game. It’s been shows like The Herd and SVP/Russillo that were great on college football (now, both shows are gone/changed) while most of the ESPN platform sticks to wall-to-wall NFL coverage.

Sports fans – including college football fans – reacted strongly on both sides when the news broke that Cowherd was leaving ESPN.

A Reddit thread on the CFB sub-reddit had hundreds of comments. Here are a few showcasing the wide range of opinions on the radio host:

reddit

It’s worth noting that ESPN did not fire Cowherd. It’s been reported that they tried to keep him, but likely a competitor made him a bigger offer. Where is he going? The rumor is he might be heading to Fox Sports. Awful Announcing speculated on this today:

But while Cowherd and Fox may seem like a fit on paper, how much of a fit are they in reality? The Herd airs at 10 AM on ESPN Radio, but that wouldn’t work at Fox Sports Radio – Dan Patrick is on from 9 AM until noon, and Rich Eisen has a hold on the airwaves from noon until 3 PM. A later slot wouldn’t work too well because of Fox Sports 1’s live event coverage, and preempting that coverage for a radio simulcast would be a much bigger problem than preempting a radio simulcast for live game broadcasts. Cowherd could also join an outlet like SiriusXM and have the radio show simulcast on FS1, but then Fox would be looking at the odd situation of two radio shows under their banner airing TV simulcasts on opposite networks at the same time.

As a college football fan, what national radio shows do you enjoy?