Many college football fans have grown to love the SVP & Russillo show hosted by Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo over the years on ESPN Radio.

The show became a favorite for young sports fans, and college football fans appreciated the understanding that the two brought to the college game when a number of ESPN shows are increasingly NFL-centric.

Russillo’s years of doing ESPN Radio’s College GameDay broadcast around the nation at various college campuses, of course, helped form his view and understanding of the sport we love.

Related: Russillo trolls Big Tens over SEC bias

Since SVP & Russillo broke up (Van Pelt moved to a new SportsCenter format coming this fall), fans wondered what would happen to the afternoon radio slot. Russillo remained, and he’s long said he prefers to do radio with a co-host.

Today, ESPN announced that Danny Kanell, well known to college football fans, will be Russillo’s permanent co-host.

Kanell has been filling in off and on both with and with Russillo, and I believe ESPN made the best choice in making the connection permanent.

Russillo and Kanell share a similar chemistry that Russillo and Van Pelt shared – a chemistry which made the show unique and popular. It was a format more similar to two of your buddies talking about sports over a beer… except that they’re typically more informed and funnier than your friends.

Kanell, of course, has been known as holding the line for the anti-SEC crowd in college football. We talked to him last season, and he disagreed with the label of being a SEC hater. He acknowledged that the SEC has been the best conference, but noted that his aim has been to educate folks that the gap between the SEC and the rest of the country isn’t very big. Fair enough.

Despite being from the northeast, Russillo has long been a supporter of SEC football. Frankly, he’s one of the best at articulating why the SEC has been so great. If you’ve been a fan of his, you might recall an epic rant two years ago before the 2013 season in which Russillo passionately explained why football is just different and frankly better in the south.

Russillo and Kanell have battled on the air about this very topic, even mere weeks ago, and it’s this type of dialogue that college football fans enjoy on ESPN Radio. At a minimum, it provides a break from the endless Ray Rice, deflategate type headlines that consume the airwaves.

Will you be listening to Russillo & Kanell this fall?