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College GameDay (football TV program)
American television program From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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College GameDay (branded as ESPN College GameDay built by The Home Depot for sponsorship reasons) is a pre-game show broadcast by ESPN as part of the network's coverage of college football, broadcast on Saturday mornings during the college football season. In its current form, the program is typically broadcast from the campus of the team hosting a featured game being played that day and features news and analysis of the day's upcoming games.
The show takes on a festive tailgate party atmosphere, as thousands of fans gather behind the broadcast set, in view of the show's cameras. Many fans bring flags or hand-painted signs as well, and the school's cheerleaders and mascots often join in the celebration. Crowds at GameDay tapings are known to be quite boisterous and very spirited. Flags seen at the broadcast are not limited to those of the home team; for example, one large Washington State flag can be seen at every broadcast, regardless of the location or the teams involved. The idea began in 2003 on WSU online fan forums and has resulted in the flag, nicknamed "Ol' Crimson," being present at 320 consecutive GameDay broadcasts since 2003.[1][2][3]
The tailgate party theme also includes food brought onto the set cooked by a local business and the hosts sample the food prior to a commercial break, but the food is taken away by the time the program resumes.
The show's current main intro and theme music is performed by country music group The Cadillac Three featuring country singers Darius Rucker and Lainey Wilson, who perform the 2005 crossover hit "Comin' to Your City" by Big & Rich, which features revised lyrics which mention several top college teams. Big & Rich had performed the song, which featured a guest appearance by Cowboy Troy until 2022. Rap artist Travie McCoy (of Gym Class Heroes) appeared in the intro from the 2014 season until the 2017 season alongside Lzzy Hale, lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock group Halestorm. The 2018 through 2022 season featured rock artist ZZ Ward, replacing Hale. Additional music that has been used for the show include "Boom" by the rock group P.O.D. and God Bless Saturday by Kid Rock. The show also uses various other songs/music either side of commercial breaks, many of which appear at the same point of each program.
The show is known for its prediction segment that appears at the end of each broadcast. The predictions use the standard scoring system and do not use the spread in determining the pick. Typically there are six predictors: Lee Corso (who will retire shortly after the start of the 2025 season),[4] Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, and an invited guest, usually a celebrity, prominent athlete, or radio personality associated with the host school for that week. The show always concludes with Corso's prediction for the host school's game, after which he dons the mascot's headgear of the team he predicts to win the game, usually to the ire or excitement of local fans. As of January 20, 2025, Corso is 287–144 in his headgear picks. His first headgear pick occurred on October 5, 1996, when he correctly picked the Ohio State Buckeyes over the Penn State Nittany Lions. In 2018, Corso made his first NFL headgear pick when, as a guest on Sunday NFL Countdown, he correctly picked the New Orleans Saints to win their Week 9 game at home against the Los Angeles Rams.[5] Corso made his 400th headgear pick on September 16, 2023, for the Colorado/Colorado State rivalry game, he put on the headgear for Colorado. Corso will make his last headgear pick on August 30, 2025.
As of January 1, 2025, Ohio State–Penn State and Alabama–LSU are the most featured matchups, appearing thirteen times on College Gameday. Alabama–Georgia has been featured eleven times. Florida–Tennessee, Michigan–Ohio State and Army–Navy have been featured nine times. Alabama–Auburn, Florida–Florida State, Florida State–Miami, and Oklahoma–Texas currently sit at eight appearances. Ohio State has the most hosts, appearances, and wins; Alabama is second in all three categories.[6]
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Crew/Staff
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Tim Brando was the original host, with Lee Corso and Beano Cook as commentators. Karie Ross soon became the first woman to join the broadcast.[7] The show underwent a radical transformation beginning in 1993, and began incorporating live broadcasts. Today, the only original cast member remaining is Lee Corso,[8] whose appearances have been pre-scripted since suffering a stroke in 2009.[9] Rece Davis serves as host and Kirk Herbstreit is Corso's counterpart. Desmond Howard was added to the cast of the show in 2008. Craig James served as an analyst from 1990 to 1995. Erin Andrews joined the GameDay crew as a co-host and contributor in 2010, replaced in 2012 by Samantha Ponder (and in 2017 by Maria Taylor after Ponder left to become host of Sunday NFL Countdown that same year). In 2015, Rece Davis (also host of the college basketball version of GameDay) replaced Chris Fowler as host of the show. In 2022, Pat McAfee joined, having previously been an analyst, and Nick Saban was added to the show in 2024. Corso will retire from GameDay after the August 30, 2025 broadcast.[4] In 2010, the program started airing from 10:00am to 11:00am, with the opening hour broadcast on ESPNU until the present.
In 2023, ESPN laid off a large number of on-air staff, including College GameDay hosts Gene Wojciechowski and David Pollack.[10][11]
Current
- Rece Davis: (Host, 2015–present)
- Lee Corso: (Analyst, 1987–present; retiring after the August 30, 2025 broadcast)[12][4]
- Kirk Herbstreit: (Analyst, 1996–present)
- Desmond Howard: (Analyst, 2005–present)
- Pat McAfee: (Contributor, 2019–2020; Analyst, 2022–present)
- Nick Saban: (Analyst, 2024–present)[13]
- Jen Lada: (Reporter, 2016–present)
- Jess Sims: (Reporter, 2022–present)
- Pete Thamel: (Insider, 2022–present)
- Steve "Stanford Steve" Coughlin: (Sports Betting Analyst, 2023–present)[14]
- Katie Feeney: (Contributor, 2025-present)[15]
Former
- Trev Alberts: (In-Studio Analyst, 2002–2005)
- Erin Andrews: (Reporter/Contributor, 2010–2011)[16]
- Tim Brando: (Host, 1987–1988)[12]
- Bob Carpenter: (Host, 1989)[12]
- Beano Cook: (Analyst, 1987–1990)[12]
- Chris "Bear" Fallica: (Researcher/Contributor, 1996–2022)
- Chris Fowler: (Host, 1990–2014)
- Robert Griffin III: (Contributor, 2021–2022)
- Craig James: (Analyst, 1990–1995)
- Rocket Ismail: (Contributor, 2003–2004)
- Nick Lachey: (Contributor, 2005)
- Norm Hitzges: (Contributor, 1992–1995)
- David Pollack: (Analyst/Contributor, 2011–2022)
- Samantha Ponder: (Reporter/Contributor, 2012–2016)
- Tom Rinaldi: (Contributor, 2011–2020)
- Maria Taylor: (Reporter/Contributor, 2017–2020)
- Gene Wojciechowski: (Contributor, 1992–2022)
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History
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GameDay started on ESPN in 1987 and originally broadcast from a studio in Connecticut.
In 1993, GameDay took the show "on the road" for the first time, going to South Bend, Indiana for the match-up between #2 Notre Dame and #1 FSU on November 13.[17] (Matchups between the top two teams were rare prior to the BCS). It broadcast from the Sports Heritage Hall at the Notre Dame Joyce Center. The broadcast was such a success that they did nearly half their shows in 1994 on the road and in 1995 abandoned the studio altogether.
The format also changed from broadcasting from an indoor studio on site to live from outside a stadium hosting a big game most Saturdays. The selected stadium is usually hosting one of the biggest matchups of the day, regardless of whether the game airs on an ESPN network.
Typically, the show will end with Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit issuing their predictions for that day's key matchups, finishing with the game to be played at the stadium hosting GameDay, for which Corso signifies his prediction by donning the head piece of the mascot of his predicted winner. Starting with the 2009 season, a celebrity guest picker gives picks for the day's key games alongside the GameDay regulars (such as Bob Knight when GameDay aired from Texas Tech in 2008, NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. when GameDay aired from Bristol Motor Speedway (a NASCAR track) in 2016 and Verne Lundquist in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, since it was his final season calling college football games on CBS). Prior to 2009, this was not done on a regular basis. Herbstreit, who in 2006 became a game analyst for ABC's Saturday Night Football, is not allowed to make a pick for the game at which he is assigned due to parent company Disney's conflict-of-interest rules; however, he is allowed to give one or two keys to the game.
In past years, when no suitably important game was available, it would originate instead from the ESPN studios. In 2017, with no suitably important game available, one show aired from Times Square instead. In August 2019, College Gameday aired from parent company Disney's Magic Kingdom Park in Disney World ahead of the University of Florida-Miami game played in Orlando.
College GameDay was also a source for many arguments regarding the purported east coast bias: From 1993 until 2004, GameDay had only been to two regular season games on the entire West Coast (1998 at UCLA and 2000 at Oregon). Given the popularity of the show and the media coverage it brought to the highlighted game, teams and fans of the West Coast teams felt that the show was only magnifying the perceived problems with excess media focus on East, South and Midwest games; ESPN attributed its lack of West Coast games to the need for a very early start time (07:00 AM PST) and an alleged lack of high quality matchups.[18]
With the addition of the Saturday Night Football game on ABC in 2006, GameDay has increasingly aired from that game. This could be done for many reasons including the fact Kirk Herbstreit is on both programs, thus making it easier for him. Another reason could be to give the Saturday Night Football game added exposure.
Beginning with the show's 21st season (2007), College GameDay began broadcasting in high-definition on ESPN HD. Also the same season, California became the first (and as of 2024, only) team to decline to host College GameDay,[19] as the school believed GameDay should go to Virginia Tech after the Virginia Tech shooting earlier in the year. 17 years later, California would finally make its debut hosting College GameDay for a 2024 matchup against Miami.
College GameDay expanded to 3 hours, with the first hour being televised on ESPNU, beginning September 4, 2010. In addition, ESPN Radio simulcasts the television version from 9am-noon ET. Other changes include the addition of a female contributor—first Erin Andrews in 2010 and 2011, and then Samantha Ponder (then known by her maiden name, Samantha Steele) after Andrews left ESPN for Fox following the 2011 season. Both Andrews and Ponder have anchored several segments during the first hour on ESPNU, contributed during the ESPN portion, and also worked as a sideline reporter on the game from which College GameDay originated, if it aired on one of the ESPN family of networks (i.e. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ABC).[20]
Beginning with the 2013 season, the third hour moved to ESPN and was hosted by Fowler. Starting in 2014, the show began a now annual visit to the Army-Navy Game in mid-December. As of 2018, the entire show is simulcast on both ESPN and ESPNU.
As previously mentioned, beginning with the 29th season (2015), Rece Davis (who is also the host of the college basketball version) replaced Chris Fowler as the football version's new host. Fowler retained his play-by-play duties on ABC's Saturday Night Football.
In March 2018, ESPN announced that it would broadcast a special edition of College GameDay from Arlington, Texas, as a pre-show for its coverage of day 1 of the 2018 NFL draft. The broadcast accompanied a secondary telecast of the draft on ESPN2, which was hosted by the College GameDay panelists (barring Kirk Herbstreit, as he was involved in ESPN's main broadcast to replace the outgoing Jon Gruden).[21][22]
In the 2020 season, College GameDay underwent modifications due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was broadcast without an audience, and with a modified desk to comply with social distancing rules. Corso did not travel with the remainder of the College GameDay panel due to health concerns, and instead made remote appearances from his home in Orlando, as well as in filmed sketches with appearances by team mascots.[23][24][25][26]
By 2023, the crowds of students returned, and exceeded their pre-pandemic numbers. James Madison University holds the record for the largest GameDay crowd in its 30-year history:[27] 26,000 people jammed on The Quad on November 18, 2023.
Sports Emmy scandal
As of 2018, College GameDay has collected eight Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Studio Show, tied with TNT's Inside the NBA for the most wins by an analysis program. An incident happened in 2024 where ESPN admitted that for some of the Emmys it had won from 2010 to 2018, it had submitted some invented names of fictitious associate producers to receive statuettes, then quietly replaced or modified the inscriptions on the statuettes to match the show's real on-air personalities rather than the fake names. The people given the statuettes did not realize that they had not, strictly speaking, qualified for an Emmy themselves. This modification was done because the Emmy rules exclude on-air talent from the honor of the "outstanding weekly studio show" award, and the ESPN staff thought this rule was "stupid." After the scheme was discovered in 2023, the affected staff were asked to return their trophies.[28]
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Locations
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Appearances by school
Appearances through August 30, 2025.[29]
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Power Four schools who have not yet hosted
Appearances through December 21, 2024
Frequent matchups
College GameDay matchups with at least 5 games played.
AP Number 1 vs Number 2
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Celebrity guest pickers
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Auburn and NBA basketball player Charles Barkley was the first celebrity guest picker on the October 2, 2004, show and has made the most show appearances with six, with his most recent appearance on December 14, 2019. Olympian and Arizona swimmer Amanda Beard was the first female celebrity guest picker on November 21, 2009. Georgia golfer Bubba Watson became the first celebrity picker to pick all games correctly on September 28, 2013. Oklahoma State and NBA player Marcus Smart became the first ever student athlete guest picker on November 23, 2013. The Oregon Duck became the first school mascot to be the guest picker on September 6, 2014. Guests have included athletes, coaches, military veterans, Make-A-Wish Foundation kids, athletes, school mascots, professional sports owners, CEOs, singers, actors and celebrity personalities.
Appearances through January 2, 2024:
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International broadcasts
In the UK, College GameDay was shown in full during BT Sport's decade on air (2013–2023), unless live sport was being aired on all of its channels. In July 2023, BT Sport was relaunched as TNT Sports following the sale of BT Sport to Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA.[31] This saw the cessation of ESPN programming, and College Gameday stopped being shown in the UK.[32][unreliable source?] The program returned to UK screens on 18 November 2023 following an agreement between Sky Sports and ESPN which sees Sky Sports broadcasting College Gameday and three College Football games each week.[33]
College Gameday is broadcast fully in Australia and New Zealand from 11pm-2am AEST on Sunday mornings, before carrying at least 3 college football games across the ESPN Australia networks through Foxtel or Fetch TV and streaming service Kayo Sports on Sunday mornings.
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See also
- College GameDay (basketball) (2005–present)
- ESPN Radio College GameDay (2000–present)
- SEC Nation (2014–present)
- Big Noon Kickoff (2019–present)
References
Further reading
External links
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