Friday night marks a new era for college football, as the 12-team College Football Playoff begins with Notre Dame hosting Indiana in a first-round matchup in South Bend. ESPN is celebrating the occasion by debuting a brand new college football graphics package.

"Introducing ESPN's new scorebug and graphics package," Bill Hofheimer, ESPN's vice president of communications, posted to X as the game kicked off. "Our CFB production and Creative Studio teams put so much work into these packages. Readable, vibrant, clear fonting and sleek."

The new graphics package features a pop of color on each team's side of the scorebug, which feature the programs' logos. It also crucially doesn't take up too much space on the screen... at least, when ESPN isn't utilizing a bottom line, a relative rarity for the network at this point.

Early reactions have been largely positive.

There is one major issue, however, and it is one that has plagues scorebugs for years now. Constant flashes of yellow for the down-and-distance make it appear that a flag has been thrown.

The use of yellow for non-penalty information is not new, and not exclusive to ESPN, and it remains pretty perplexing for a sport where yellow is a clear indiciation of one thing: a penalty:

That concern, and the potential for screen clutter when a bottom line is inserted, aside, ESPN did a nice job here.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ESPN Unveils New Scorebug for College Football Playoff, and Fans Have One Big Issue.