The College Football Playoffs National Championship between Miami and Indiana experienced an error before kickoff during ESPN’s broadcast of the U.S. national Anthem, sparked outrage online
19:48 ET, 19 Jan 2026Updated 20:37 ET, 19 Jan 2026
The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship saw network technical issues interfere with singer Jamal Roberts’ National Anthem(Image: )
Before even the kickoff of the College Football Playoffs National Championship between Miami and Indiana on Monday night became a major talking point after ESPN’s broadcast blunder during the United States National Anthem.
Before a coin toss flew through the Florida air or the Hurricanes and Hoosiers lined up across from each other at Hard Rock Stadium, ESPN already lost control of the show. An early streaming error annoyed fans, while Donald Trump got a very loud and telling reaction as he was shown on the big screen.
What should have been a routine ceremonial opening took a turn after viewers heard repeated microphone checks bleed into the live feed during the United States national anthem. It came 24 hours after a very striking rendition of the anthem generated a strong reaction from the NFL Playoffs.
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Singer Jamal Roberts, the winner of American Idol Season 23, performed in front of an expected audience of over 70,000.
Florida Memorial University’s Ambassador Chorale also sang “America the Beautiful,” while local high school students provided an American Sign Language rendition.
Instead of silence, hat removal, and hand-on-heart declarations, television audiences were met with a voice repeatedly saying “check, check, check” over the broadcast.
Viewers online questioned how a live mic check could have made it to air during one of the night’s most-watched moments, especially during a patriotic moment in front of US President Donald Trump.
ESPN previously experienced the same issue during the college basketball season (Image: )
One viewer wrote, “Really? Check, check, check, live mic on national TV? If you need a real engineer… call me.” Another college football fan added, “Sound check should happen before the song,” while a third wrote, “Looks like they got mic feeds messed up.”
The comments continued when another witness added, “Your announcer is doing a mic check on a live mic is pretty dumb. I hope he at least makes it fun and cusses or says something derogatory.”
The error seemed to be due to unchecked or improperly muted mic feeds, allowing production audio to override the anthem.
The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship saw a broadcast error before kickoff(Image: )
The timing also undermined Trump’s arrival for the national championship, prompting ESPN personality Pat McAfee to worry that his inclusion could delay the game.
The delay didn’t occur, and McAfee was the only ESPN College Gameday cast member on a panel that included Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, who predicted the Hoosiers would win.
What made the error more alarming for ESPN was its recurrence. Multiple viewers noted that the exact same “check check check” mic-check issue happened on ESPN less than a month earlier during Gonzaga’s Dec. 14 win over UCLA at the Seattle Hoops Showdown.