In college sports, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.

More than five months of work comes down to a blockbuster matchup between two of the nation’s marquee brands: No. 8 Ohio State meets No. 7 Notre Dame in the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship Game tonight. ESPN has rolled into Downtown Atlanta with a massive production and operations plan to broadcast the festivities from every angle.

The College Football Playoff Championship Game returns to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the first time since 2019.

Among the highlights are an arsenal of more than 100 cameras, 100 microphones, and 23 mobile production facilities to support 11 viewing options in ESPN’s annual MegaCast offering, as well as the first 4K presentation of the CFP National Championship Game’s main telecast ever.

After an expanded 12-team playoff that added eight games to ESPN’s CFP slate over the past month, it is familiar territory for the broadcaster’s behind-the-scenes team of more than 850 credentialed staff: back at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for one big bash.

“It has been like seeing an old friend,” says Jarrett Baker, senior manager, remote production operations, ESPN. “You haven’t talked for a long time, life has happened, and then you get back together, and it’s like you never left. The expanded playoff has been incredible, and the team we work with is top-notch. This is why we do what we do.”

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The Camera Plan

ESPN’s main game production — available to selected subscribers as an upconverted 4K viewing option — will be a fully 1080p HDR production onsite. Producer Bill Bonnell, director Jimmy Platt, and technical director Josh Miller will have more than 100 cameras and 100 microphones at their disposal to tell the story of this epic clash.

The camera layout comprises a total of 115 cameras. Among them are 12 cameras with super-slow-motion (SSMO) capabilities. There are also seven handhelds: three of them RF, one a cabled SSMO on the far sideline. All dedicated game hard and handheld cameras are Sony HDC-5500’s.

ESPN has more than 800 credentialed staffers who have worked this week preparing for tonight’s broadcast. Here, the production and operations groups take a team photo. (Photo: Allen Kee/ESPN Images)

The lineup of specialty cameras is impressive as well. There are eight end-zone PylonCams, including on the pylon at each end of both goal lines. Provided by NEP Specialty Capture, those systems have SMMO. Wireless line-to-gain PylonCams will follow the action with the first-down marker.

Two Skycams are rigged up inside the stadium, with one flying at two points in a side-to-side flight pattern. The other flies in a traditional four-point configuration with a 4K camera and AR capabilities. Aerial shots will also come from inside the stadium via an ESPN-owned and -operated drone and from outside via a fixed-wing plane.

Down on the turf, ESPN aims to take viewers deep into the action with an on-field shallow–depth-of-field rig. That RF rig is a Ronin RS3 Pro stabilizer outfitted with a Sony FX3 full-frame cinema camera.

ESPN director Jimmy Platt (left) and producer Bill Bonnell will call the shots on the main game telecast of tonight’s College Football Playoff National Championship. (Photo: Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images)

Additionally, three officials will wear MindFly BodyCams on their shirts to deliver live video feeds to the truck. The umpire, center judge, and head linesman will wear the AI-stabilized POV cameras with a built-in microphone that ESPN will monetize through its title sponsorship with AT&T as “Connected Cam” on the broadcast. The MindFly BodyCams made their CFP debuts in the semifinals at the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl.

To provide coverage depth, as well as potential officiating assistance, ESPN will have robotic Sony 4800’s shooting at 8X speed on each goal line to catch any close break-the-plane visuals. There will also be a robo (Sony P1) on the crossbar of each goalpost.

Standard fixtures include a cart on each sideline, a jib, robos in the stadium tunnels for entrances, and hard cameras dedicated to each team’s head coach.

Roof Camera Is Back To Blend Creative With Live

The return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium — a stadium with a roof and walkable scaffolding — allows ESPN to bring back a camera angle that became popular a few years ago: a roof camera.

ESPN used a camera in the catwalk of Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the SEC Championship Game last month (Courtesy: ESPN PR)

The camera angle, first made popular by the Atlanta Falcons social- and digital-media team, blends trends in the postproduction creative space with the excitement of live. A Sony 4800 with a 24-300mm Fuji Duvo Lens will be configured as a handheld and operated by a camera operator approximately 285 ft. above the playing surface.

“It is not for those who are bothered by working at heights,” says Baker. “It looks right down on the play. We’re going to run that in 8X mode and through a Sony server, where we’ll be able to make key frames and pan-and-scan to follow the ball and give some really neat effects where we ramp the playout speed to make it very dramatic.”

Platt, Senior Associate Producer Chris Matthews, and the ESPN crew who produced the SEC Championship Game in December used this angle successfully and are excited to deploy it in their first CFP Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium since 2019.

Staying Warm in the Compound

Although tonight’s game will, thankfully, be indoors, that doesn’t mean that chilly weather in Atlanta won’t be a significant factor for the ESPN crew. The temperatures are forecast to reach only 31 degrees today, and the big production compound housing 23 mobile production trucks and office trailers is outside the stadium.

The game production is built around a core of Game Creek Video trucks. GCV Varsity A and B units will be home to the main-telecast production crew and will house support for other elements of replay, graphics, and some MegaCast options. GCV Gridiron A and B are also there to support surround studio programming, including College GameDay, pre/postgame and halftime coverage, and hits for SportsCenter. GCV Edit 1 and Edit 2 are parked to support other initiatives.

ESPN on-air talent Hannah Storm and Harry Douglas shoot a hit for SportsCenter on Sunday prior to the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship. (Photo: Rich Storry/ESPN Images)

Under the hood, the trucks host 222 channels of replay (EVS, 8X SSMO Sony replay, and TD SpotBox) and 80 transmission paths (60 out, 20 in). ESPN added more than 18 miles of fiber to Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s infrastructure and to connect the compound. CES power will be critical to keeping the compound online (and warm). The vendor is providing more than two megawatts of redundant power, 240kva of UPS technology, distribution, and HVAC equipment.

To combat the weather, ESPN weather-treated and heated the first floor of a nearby parking deck housing catering and space for crew members to eat.

ESPN’s coverage of the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship Game begins at 7:30 p.m. ET tonight. The main telecast can be seen on ESPN.