{"id":691263,"date":"2026-01-20T13:44:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/691263\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:44:25","slug":"espn-ruins-national-anthem-with-humiliating-error-at-national-championship-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/691263\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN ruins national anthem with humiliating error at National Championship Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n

19:48 ET, 19 Jan 2026Updated 20:37 ET, 19 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

\"Jamal<\/p>\n

The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship saw network technical issues interfere with singer Jamal Roberts’ National Anthem(Image: )<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Before a coin toss flew through the Florida air or the Hurricanes<\/a> and Hoosiers<\/a> 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.<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Carson Beck GPA emerges after Miami QB has not attended class for two years<\/a>READ MORE: Caitlin Clark picks her side in Miami vs Indiana after player named dog after her<\/a><\/p>\n

Singer Jamal Roberts, the winner of American Idol Season 23, performed in front of an expected audience of over 70,000.<\/p>\n

Florida Memorial University’s Ambassador Chorale also sang “America the Beautiful,” while local high school students provided an American Sign Language rendition.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Jamal<\/p>\n

ESPN previously experienced the same issue during the college basketball season (Image: )<\/p>\n

One viewer wrote, “Really? Check, check, check, live mic on national TV? If you need a real engineer\u2026 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.”<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

The error seemed to be due to unchecked or improperly muted mic feeds, allowing production audio to override the anthem.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship saw a broadcast error before kickoff(Image: )<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The College Football Playoffs National Championship between Miami and Indiana experienced an error before kickoff during ESPN’s broadcast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,7,2643,10607,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-691263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-football","11":"tag-miami-hurricanes-football","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115927729427039870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}