As the crimson and cream confetti fell inside Hard Rock Stadium on Monday night, a clip from an October episode of ESPN’s First Take went viral.

“Did Indiana make the right move with Cignetti?” Stephen A. Smith asked Paul Finebaum following the news that the Hoosiers had just signed their second-year head coach to a lucrative contract extension.

“They did not,” Finebaum replied. “… I’m still not convinced that Curt Cignetti is one of the top coaches in America.”

A mere three months later, Curt Cignetti was hoisting the College Football Playoff championship trophy.

In retrospect, the clip was obviously humiliating, and Finebaum admitted as much while eating some much-deserved crow this past week. But for as much of a blemish as it was for the longtime SEC personality, one could argue that it was even more embarrassing for First Take, considering that he often provides the best college football analysis that ESPN’s morning debate show has to offer.

Look no further than Friday’s episode, which took place as news broke that the College Football Playoff will remain at 12 teams for the 2026 season. Rather than breaking down the nuances of the development, including the ongoing standoff between the Big Ten and SEC, the show devolved into a debate regarding the changes that will take effect for the 2026 CFP.

Never mind that these changes — including each of the Power Four conference champions receiving automatic bids and Notre Dame automatically qualifying with a top-12 ranking — were announced months ago and were already going to be implemented whether the 12-team field expanded or not. That didn’t stop Stephen A. Smith, Cam Newton, and Ryan Clark from debating the adjustments as if it were new information, with Newton offering the most curious commentary regarding the Fighting Irish’s new advantage.

“Notre Dame hasn’t been relevant in years,” the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner exclaimed.

“They were just in the national championship game one year ago,” host Shae Cornette, seemingly exasperated, reminded him.

This has been par for the course when it comes to First Take‘s college football coverage in recent months, including Newton’s typical pro-SEC slant. If First Take is talking CFB, it’s typically a safe bet that it will feature personalities who are traditionally more focused on the NFL, relying on tired tropes like SEC supremacy to get them through the segment.

(To her credit, Cornette — an Indiana alum— noted that the Hoosier State has more wins in the CFP over the course of the last two years than the entire SEC combined.)

It doesn’t have to be this way.

ESPN possesses the industry’s deepest roster of college football analysts and reporters. Heather Dinich has been one of the best in the business when it comes to CFP reporting, Pete Thamel is arguably the sport’s top news-breaker, and you could take your pick from the College GameDay set of personalities who would improve First Take‘s coverage.

But for whatever reason — be it his lack of enthusiasm for the sport, preference to embrace debate, or something else — Smith seems content with his show’s college football segments often consisting of surface-level, fallacy-filled shouting matches. Maybe that’s simply the First Take formula. But such content typically fails to resonate beyond providing fodder for fans to dunk on once it’s proven wrong.

Presumably, ESPN knows it can do better.

Earlier this month, Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel reported that the network is looking to expand Josh Pate’s role. Even more interesting than the personality involved is the explanation behind it, as ESPN wants to invest more heavily in its coverage of the country’s second-most-watched sport.

That movement started this past season, with Pate and Bussin’ With The Boys‘ Will Compton and Taylor Lewan making weekly appearances on Get Up and SportsCenter. The trio, however, was seldom seen on First Take, a show that could have benefited from their college football expertise.

Considering that Smith has often made it clear that he has a significant say in who appears on his signature show, it will certainly be interesting to see where First Take‘s college football coverage goes from here. Because it’s hardly ideal when the best you have to offer is one of Paul Finebaum’s freezing cold takes.