Maria Taylor won't be replaced on ESPN's 'College GameDay'
ESPN has filled some of the holes left by Maria Taylor's recent departure from the network, but one of her old jobs will reman unfilled.
Front Office Sports reported on Monday that ESPN won't replace Taylor on "College GameDay," their Saturday morning college football pregame show. The network didn't give a reason why, but sources told Front Office Sports that ESPN will "look for opportunities to use different personalities from its talent bench to appear on the popular college football pregame show."
Taylor joined "College GameDay" in 2017, replacing Samantha Ponder. Taylor recently left ESPN for NBC after the two sides were unable to agree to terms on a contract extension. In the final weeks of her ESPN contract, it was reported that Taylor was unhappy with how the network had handled an incident of racism from fellow ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols. Nichols had been caught on tape heavily implying that Taylor had only been given NBA Finals hosting duties because she was Black.
Nichols wasn't punished (though the person who leaked the recording was), and Taylor and others were reportedly dissatisfied with how ESPN responded. Just a few weeks later, Taylor left ESPN and almost immediately started appearing on-air for NBC.
ESPN has already announced that Holly Rowe will replace Taylor as sideline reporter during Saturday night college football games. As for "College GameDay," ESPN will let the show's familiar faces pick up the slack.
“We look forward to kicking off the 35th season of College GameDay with our talented crew, including Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack, Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica, and reporters Jen Lada and Gene Wojciechowski,” ESPN said in a statement to Front Office Sports.
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