Two Years Later and College Football Fans Are Still Wondering Why the Bear Isn’t on ‘Gameday'

College Football fans noticed a glaring omission from the Gameday lineup: long running research producer and commentator Chris 'The Bear' Fallica was absent from the line up.

Folks were left scratching their heads wondering where he was. Unfortunately, if you were hoping he was just out sick, that's not what happened.

ESPN viewers will have to make do without their Ursine analyst of University Pigskin plays. That's because Fallica and the popular media company have officially parted ways.

And it's not like this is news, either: Fallica's been off of Gameday since December of 2022. But it seems every time Saturday rolls around, fans of the sport just miss him.

According to Sports Illustrated there wasn't any bad blood between Fallica and the company, though. He's just juked and routed to a new vertical of his career.

The publication wrote that he was migrating on over to Fox for the network's "college football coverage."

On his final show with ESPN, the network "gave him a special send-off during Saturday's edition of College Gameday," wishing him the best inhis new endeavors.

So if you're going to miss Fallica and want to see him enthusiastically sharing all of his insight on Gameday, then you'll have to change the channel.

Fallica's dedication to the sport, and his position with ESPN was evident as his role grew with the company when he first joined the Gameday team in 1996 as a research producer.

Up until his last broadcast with the network, Fallica represented a large part of the channel's college football programming, offering up betting line statistics along with his top-favored picks to win.

Fox wasted no time in getting Fallica's profile page up on its website, where The Bear's proclivity for sports betting is made evident with the closing line of his blurb: "Chris recently won the inaugural Circa Football Invitational and finished in the Top 10 of the Golden Nugget Football Contest. He’s a multiple-time qualifier for the NHC Handicapping Championship. Remember, "The less you bet, the more you lose when you win!"

Fox currently lists Fallica's role with the network as the Fox Sports wagering expert, and it's not difficult to understand why. That's because Fallica uses his deep knowledge of the sport to make betting recommendations on a variety of different programs he produced.

In addition to his Gameday appearances, Fallica's regularly offered up his advice on ESPN's Daily Wager program. He's also the co-host of Stanford Steve and the Bear podcast, which he tag team's with Steve Coughlin of SportsCenter.

The bear also regularly posted sports betting content for ESPN.com when he wasn't on air.

Pat McAfee, who is probably one of the biggest broadcast personalities in the world of football right now, has also had Fallica on his show where they previously discussed a strange issue with ESPN's bet application.

That problem? Well, despite the fact that ESPN is based out of the state of Connecticut, residents of the C-T who are looking to place wagers on the network's weren't able to do so.