Where will College GameDay visit each week of the 2024 season?

college-gameday

It’s a new era in college football and in college football television coverage, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.

The SEC has completed its acquisition of most of the original Big 12’s value by adding Texas and Oklahoma to Missouri and Texas A&M. The Big Ten pilfered the Pac-12 the way the ACC once did to the Big East by plucking USC and UCLA, and then Oregon and Washington. We’ll see if it stop there, but I doubt it.

Off the field, the SEC is now essentially a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney. ESPN has long held the SEC’s second- and third-tier rights in addition to being a partner on SEC Network, but now the conference’s top-tier games will air on ABC. This action actually follows the re-action, the Big Ten has left ABC/ESPN, mimicking an NFL model with games airing on Fox, CBS and NBC.

In a world where ESPN and its parent company are all-in on the SEC, how often will ESPN’s three-hour hype machine visit a game it doesn’t own the rights to? The best indicator of future behavior is past performance, so in that light:

— In 2023, GameDay visited 6 non-ESPN games: No. 6 Ohio State at No. 9 Notre Dame (NBC), No. 7 Penn State at No. 3 Ohio State (Fox), No. 14 LSU at No. 8 Alabama (CBS), No. 8 Oregon at No. 13 Utah (Fox), No. 2 Ohio State at No. 3 Michigan (Fox), and No. 8 Alabama vs. No. 1 Georgia (CBS). Two of those games would be ABC properties if played this fall, while one GameDay site visit (No. 8 Oregon at No. 7 Washington) would’ve been lost to Fox.

— In 2022, GameDay crossed streams 7 times, but that number drops to 4 when applied to 2024.

— In 2021, GameDay left ESPN on 6 occasions, and still would’ve left 6 times when applying today’s rules.

Lest we apply Good Old Days Syndrome here, GameDay broadcast from games outside of ABC/ESPN roughly 25 percent of the time from 1996-98. They now leave the friendly confines of the Disney family roughly a third of the time. Or at least they did until now.

Week 1 (Aug. 31)

This feels like an easy choice: No. 19 Clemson vs. No. 1 Georgia in Atlanta. If those rankings hold, it’ll be Clemson’s lowest pre-season ranking since 2011, when the Tigers were unranked. If this holds, Georgia will be the first back-to-back preseason No. 1 since Alabama did it in 2021-22, and since Clemson did it in 2019-20. That’s a long way of saying this game serves as an interesting bookend on the 2021 season-opener, when No. 5 Georgia upset No. 3 Clemson 10-3. That was the beginning of the beginning for Georgia’s back-to-back title rusn, and the beginning of the end for Clemson. At least for now.

Week 2 (Sept. 7)

It’s the defending national champs, the nation’s first look at a post-Harbaugh Michigan, hosting a “back” Texas led by a Heisman-candidate quarterback in their first visit to the Big House. That’s enough for ESPN to cross the iron curtain: No. 4 Texas at No. 13 Michigan.

Week 3 (Sept. 14)

Not a great week. There are a couple SEC options (Texas A&M at Florida, Georgia at Kentucky) but this feels like the right time to check in on post-Saban Alabama as they make their first trek to Camp Randall since 1928: No. 9 Alabama at Wisconsin.

Week 4 (Sept. 21)

This is the week our Brave New World begins in earnest: USC at Michigan, Northwestern at Washington, Cal at Florida State, Utah at Oklahoma State. The thought here is GameDay celebrates by making its first visit to Norman since 2020 for No. 16 Tennessee at No. 14 Oklahoma.

Week 5 (Sept. 28)

Mark it in blood: Washington at Rutgers. Oh, wait, no. Bandage up that finger, then mark this one in blood: No. 1 Georgia at No. 9 Alabama.

Week 6 (Oct. 5)

If we’re projecting based purely off of 2023, Michigan at Washington is an easy choice. However, I’m skeptical Washington will instantly gel as, essentially, an expansion team with an entirely new roster and coaching staff. Let’s make the safe choice and send Rece, Kirk and co. to Tallahassee for No. 19 Clemson at No. 15 Florida State.

Week 7 (Oct. 12)

GameDay has been in Dallas for the Red River Shootout for two of the last three seasons, so it’d take something special for the show to skip the State Fair of Texas, especially with both teams in the preseason top-15. We have something special in Week 7 with No. 2 Ohio State at No. 3 Oregon.

Week 8 (Oct. 19)

The suits in Bristol will have an eye on Red River, and they’re probably rooting for Texas because the following week brings us No. 1 Georgia at No. 4 Texas.

Week 9 (Oct. 26)

We’ve reached our third straight week with a game pitting preseason top-10 teams, and the fourth in the last five. That will mean nothing by this point in the season, but this might: if they can defeat Texas A&M on the road and Auburn at home, the Tigers will very likely prowl into Tuscaloosa undefeated: No. 7 Missouri at No. 9 Alabama.

Week 10 (Nov. 2)

Another week, another matchup of preseason top-15 teams. Two, in fact. Are you sensing a theme yet? Some would say the Power 2 and the networks are actively creating a haves/have nots dynamic; they would retort that such a world already existed, and they acted accordingly. Either way, here’s betting that GameDay bypasses No. 3 Oregon at No. 13 Michigan for its co-favorite matchup of all-time (12 appearances): No. 2 Ohio State at No. 8 Penn State.

Week 11 (Nov. 9)

This week’s schedule could easily send GameDay to yet another SEC locale, with No. 6 Ole Miss set to host No. 1 Georgia. Or its other all-time favorite matchup, No. 9 Alabama at No. 12 LSU. While we’ve been loading GameDay up with one big brand, we’ve neglected another: No. 15 Florida State at No. 6 Notre Dame. After opening at Texas A&M, the Fighting Irish will be double-digit favorites each week except for Louisville heading into this game.

Week 12 (Nov. 16)

Week 12 gives us one matchup of ESPN’s preseason top 16, and it’s Tennessee at Georgia. GameDay isn’t following the Dawgs for a fourth time, for this game. That leaves a vacancy for… your guess is as good as mine. Kansas at BYU? FIU at Jacksonville State? Boise State at San Jose State? Those are serious questions. Let’s take a shot in the dark and say Troy at Georgia Southern.

Week 13 (Nov. 23)

Look, I know. I get it. I’m sick of it, too. It’s too much! Fourteen of ESPN’s preseason top 25 hail from the SEC and the Big Ten, and those 14 teams play each other a combined 25 times. But is GameDay going to skip No. 9 Alabama at No. 14 Oklahoma, airing on its network, for UCF at West Virginia?

Week 14 (Nov. 30)

The easiest choice on the board. We don’t know what shape the visitors will be in when they arrive, but it doesn’t matter. In fact, in some ways the more losses they have, the greater the stakes for the home team. No team has ever had more monetary pressure to beat a specific opponent and then win a national championship than this outfit, which is why for the fourth year in a row, GameDay will be at No. 13 Michigan at No. 2 Ohio State.

Week 15 (Dec. 7)

Actually, on second thought, this is the easiest choice on the board. If Vegas took bets on such a thing, they’d have to place the odds at -10000 on the chances that GameDay is anywhere other than Atlanta for the first SEC Championship on its air since 2000.

So, there you have it. At first blush, that’s six non-ESPN games in 15 weeks, in line with past seasons — five Big Ten games, plus one trip to South Bend.