For years, one of ESPN’s most popular original programs has been “College GameDay.”
The show, which features some of college football’s most prominent personalities traveling to different campuses across the country, has been a fan favorite for well over three decades now.
One of the best parts about “GameDay” is the students and fans piling into a small area on campus to express themselves and cheer on their team, and one way they’ve done that since the show started was to bring handmade signs.
A sign is seen at ESPN College GameDay ahead of the Ole Miss-LSU game in The Grove in Oxford, Miss., on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
They’ve featured everything from clever jokes to insults to opposing mascots, but last weekend in Tuscaloosa, the “GameDay” executives took a stand and introduced a “no religious signs” ban ahead of the Crimson Tide’s top-ten showdown with Georgia.
This took pretty much everyone by surprise, including 40 Days For Life CEO Shawn Carney.
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Carney’s company focuses on holding peaceful vigils outside of abortion facilities, offering pregnant women alternatives as well as a last chance to “choose life.”
Shawn Carney is a father of eight and the President and CEO of 40 Days for Life, a pro-life organization. (Courtesy of 40 Days for Life)
To say faith is near and dear to his heart is an understatement, and when he first heard the news about the religious sign ban, he was perplexed.
“We’ve done this and it doesn’t work,” Carney said when discussing the ban. “It’s called 2020 and all of the companies that decided to go in that direction, it just backfired. It’s so stupid.”
Carney reveals that he’s a huge fan of “College GameDay” and a diehard Texas A&M Aggie, and ESPN trying to muzzle what he calls their largest demographic of fans doesn’t make sense in his eyes.
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“Football is religion in the South,” he explains. “You look at the SEC and you can throw in the Big 10, these are religious people that follow college football. That’s a huge market that is college football.”
And it isn’t just the fans, either.
Coaches and players alike are very faith-based and give credit to Christianity with helping guide them through trying times.
Nick Saban is on stage at ESPN College GameDay ahead of the University of Oklahoma-Michigan college football game in Norman, Oklahoma, on Sept. 6, 2025. (IMAGN)
It’s a clear case of Disney and ESPN not understanding who they’re appealing to with these decisions.
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For the ban to take place at the University of Alabama, of all places, was even more stupefying to Carney.
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“It’s shocking that (Alabama) would be the location,” he admits. “It’s the heart of the Bible Belt unapologetically, and Nick Saban definitely had a theme of his faith and faith in God when he was a coach.”
“Bear Bryant is definitely rolling over in his grave.”
Make no mistake about it either, the rule may have said “no religious signs,” but as Carney points out, the only religion ESPN – or any big corporation – cares about is Christianity.
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“They’re not going after Muslims, they’re not going after Hindus… It’s dumb corporate America doing what they often do all the time, which is decide that they just want to ban a group, and it’s almost always Christians.”
A fan gives thumbs down during ESPN’s College GameDay at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa., on Sept. 27, 2025. (Getty Images)
The amount of backlash that Disney and ESPN have received in the wake of their decision is a sign that things are trending in the right direction, though.
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“Nobody’s for this. Nobody likes it,” Carney says. “Do you think atheists watching “GameDay” are offended that somebody has a sign that says John 3:16?
“It’s embarrassing.”