ESPN’S NEWEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL HOST CHANGES THE GAME

What comes to mind when you think of college football? Millions of fans might say College GameDay — ESPN’s pregame ritual that’s become synonymous with the sport itself. Hosts and commentators like Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Lee Corso populate the Saturday morning show, previewing the day’s biggest matchups and engaging in pointed debate, banter and storytelling. It’s a weekly warmup that’s been a fan favorite for 30 years, but there’s a new face in the familiar — and all-male — cast: Her name is Maria Taylor.

“I feel like I’m in the right place, right time, but also the right person,” says Taylor. “There’s a push to bring diversity to the forefront of sports.… I don’t know if it’s a new movement, but I’m riding the wave.”

Taylor was hired by ESPN in 2012; since 2014, she has worked for the SEC Network. This past May, the week she was turning 30, she got the call offering her the job reporting for GameDay and ABC’s Saturday Night Football (she replaced Sam Ponder, who left to host ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown). As the first African-American female reporter to lead ESPN’s premier college football programs, Taylor’s arrival may have seemed sudden, but she’s been in the trenches — and has the chops as a former athlete and seasoned journalist.

Taylor graduated in 2009 from the University of Georgia, where she studied broadcasting, played basketball and was a three-time All-SEC star in volleyball. With an offer to play professional volleyball in hand — a move that would’ve suspended her media career — she sought out her coach for advice. “I was going to play professionally in Puerto Rico,” Taylor explains. “But [UGA head coach] Andy Landers encouraged me — actually, he kind of scolded me — not to put my career goals on hold.”

She forged ahead and is now an ESPN rising star, but her network is not without turmoil. Still considered the mother ship for jobs in sports media, ESPN has been accused of political partisanship, is hemorrhaging cable subscribers (13 million lost since 2011) and recently announced its third round of layoffs in two year. One must question Taylor’s long-term future at the network.

Taylor spent the first 10 years of her life in Chicago before moving just outside Atlanta. The 6-foot-2 middle child in a family of giants — her father and her brother are both 6-foot-7 and …

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