A History of College GameDay and Its Impact on College Football

College GameDay, branded as ESPN College GameDay Built by The Home Depot, is a pre-game show broadcast by ESPN as part of the network's coverage of college football. It airs on Saturday mornings during the college football season and has become a staple for fans across the nation. The show is known for its festive tailgate party atmosphere. Thousands of fans gather behind the broadcast set, in view of the show's cameras. Many fans bring flags or hand-painted signs, and the school's cheerleaders and mascots often join in the celebration.

The Evolution of College GameDay

The show has evolved significantly since its inception. Tim Brando originally hosted the show, with Lee Corso and Beano Cook as commentators. Karie Ross soon became the first woman to join the broadcast. In 1993, GameDay underwent a radical transformation, incorporating live broadcasts. The show began going "on the road" for the first time in 1993, broadcasting from the Sports Heritage Hall at the Notre Dame Joyce Center for the match-up between #2 Notre Dame and #1 FSU on November 13. Matchups between the top two teams were rare prior to the BCS. The format also changed from broadcasting from an indoor studio on site to live from outside a stadium hosting a big game most Saturdays.

Key Figures and On-Air Personalities

Several key figures have contributed to the show's success over the years. The longest-tenured original cast member was Lee Corso, whose appearances were pre-scripted after he suffered a stroke in 2009. Rece Davis serves as host, and Kirk Herbstreit is the longest-tenured current cast member, having joined the show in 1996. 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.

The Prediction Segment and Lee Corso's Legacy

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, 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.

Corso's headgear picks became a signature element of the show. From 1987 until his retirement in 2025, the show famously concluded 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. 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. 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 made his 431st and final headgear pick on August 30, 2025, correctly picking Ohio State to defeat the Texas Longhorns.

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Impact of Corso's Retirement

On August 30, 2025, Corso retired from College GameDay, with the show broadcasting from Ohio State for its home opener against Texas. Corso conducted his headgear pick segment for the final time on the field of Ohio Stadium. With the game itself being televised by Fox, its competing pre-game show Big Noon Kickoff also carried the segment in tribute to Corso, as presented by the team's media department on Ohio Stadium's Jumbotron. The segment was retired afterward; the culmination of the show was replaced by Pat McAfee's selection, where he cuts a wrestling-style promo against the visiting team.

Guest Pickers and Their Impact

Over the years, College GameDay has featured a variety of guest pickers, adding local flavor and celebrity appeal to the show. 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.

Music and Theme Songs

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.

College GameDay Locations and Appearances

College GameDay has traveled to numerous college campuses across the country, showcasing the unique traditions and passionate fan bases of different schools. As of December 6, 2025, Ohio State-Penn State and Alabama-LSU are the most featured matchups, appearing thirteen times on College Gameday. Alabama-Georgia has been featured twelve times. Michigan-Ohio State have been featured ten times. Florida-Tennessee and Army-Navy have been featured nine times. Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Florida State, Florida State-Miami, and Oklahoma-Texas currently sit at eight appearances. Alabama has hosted GameDay on campus 20 times and has made a total of 64 appearances on GameDay, making them second in total appearances. With the completion of the 2014 season, the SEC became the first (and, until 2022, the only) conference to have all of its members host GameDay at least once (although Missouri has never hosted while an SEC member; they hosted as a member of the Big 12).

College GameDay and the Georgia Bulldogs

Historically, Athens is not one of the more common College GameDay locations. College GameDay’s last trip to Georgia was last season, 2024. Last year, College GameDay’s Athens trip was tied to No. 12 Georgia’s game against Tennessee.

Let's take a look back at Georgia's past 10 games on "College GameDay":

2020: Alabama 41, Georgia 24. GameDay came to Tuscaloosa for the 2020 Georgia-Alabama game.
2021: Georgia 10, Clemson 3. Georgia defensive back Christopher Smith provided Georgia's only touchdown in 2021 against Clemson.
2021: Georgia 37, Arkansas 0. Georgia’s defense smelled blood in the water early against Arkansas.
2021: Georgia 30, Kentucky 13. Georgia running back Kendall Milton hustled past several closer Kentucky defenders to recover a fumble as Georgia cashed in on that early drive.
2021: Alabama 41, Georgia 24. GameDay traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, for the 2021 SEC championship, which was Georgia's only blemish all season.
2021: Georgia 34, Michigan 11. GameDay was in Miami, Florida, when the Georgia Bulldogs overpowered the Michigan Wolverines behind a dominant first half.
2021: Georgia 33, Alabama 18. GameDay is always on hand for the national championship.
2022: Georgia 27, Tennessee 13. Georgia’s defense dominated the Tennessee offense early and often.
2022: Georgia 42, Ohio State 41. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud played an elite game against the Georgia defense, but the Bulldogs racked up a few second half stops.
2022: Georgia 65, TCU 7. GameDay was on hand to see Georgia's absolute blowout of TCU in the 2022 national championship game.

The Bulldogs are 8-2 in their last 10 games on GameDay. The Dawgs are a perfect 5-0 at home when GameDay is in town during the Kirby Smart era.

Here's a table of Georgia's College GameDay appearances:

Date	Opponent	Game Result
Oct. 18, 2025	Ole Miss
Nov. 16, 2024	Tennessee	Georgia 31, Tennessee 17
Nov. 11, 2023	Ole Miss	Georgia 52, Ole Miss 17
Nov. 5, 2022	Tennessee	Georgia 27, Tennessee 13
Oct. 16, 2021	Kentucky	Georgia 30, Kentucky 13
Oct. 2, 2021	Arkansas	Georgia 37, Arkansas 0
Oct. 3, 2020	Auburn	Georgia 27, Auburn 6
Sept. 21, 2019	Notre Dame	Georgia 23, Notre Dame 17
Sept. 28, 2013	LSU	Georgia 44, LSU 41
Sept. 27, 2008	Alabama	Alabama 41, Georgia 30

Behind the Scenes: Volunteers and Event Management

When ESPN’s College GameDay announced that the show would be making its way to Athens for the UGA vs. Notre Dame football game last fall, Frank Romano (B.S.Ed. ’19, B.B.A. After graduating from the College’s sport management program, Romano began his career in the sports industry as an account trainee with Octagon, a global sports and entertainment content marketing agency. As part of The Home Depot team, his primary responsibility was to manage all 16 College GameDay events around the nation and to contribute to the overall execution of The Home Depot’s title sponsorship from an experiential perspective. During football season, Romano recruited between 10-20 students to volunteer at the event each week. When he discovered he would be returning to Athens, he immediately contacted Michael Slonaker (M.S. ’17), his advisor at UGA and an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology, to help recruit 16 sport management students to volunteer that Saturday.

“My big responsibility was handling volunteers and making sure they were learning from all the different avenues that the show brings to the front because there's a lot of ways this experience can be transferable for these kids moving forward,” says Romano, who currently works for CSE Talent as a talent agent for sports and news broadcasters. For fourth-year advertising and sport management student Dillon Rathbun, the opportunity to work at College GameDay added another eye-opening layer to his college experience-he also volunteered at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta the previous year. Not only did Rathbun see how the show was set up behind-the-scenes, he also gained knowledge in events management by working at different fan activation stations, including a sign-making tent, photo booth, and backstage with VIP guests.

Read also: College GameDay: A Deep Dive

“There was not a dull moment from the second we arrived to the crowd of hundreds before the sun was up until the show was over later that day,” says Rathbun. “Having a chance to work on some of the largest stages in sports is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I will forever be grateful for. The combination of learning in both a classroom and on the job is so important to those pursuing a career in sport management. During fall 2019, Romano traveled to 16 cities across the country and engaged with more than 97,000 fans as part of the onsite management team for College GameDay. While he admits the constant traveling was tough at times, the lessons he learned on the job challenged him to think critically and to be a more productive worker leading up to the event.

Before Saturday morning, Romano had to ensure all materials and premium items for GameDay were shipped to the correct city and venue and that catering and volunteers were successfully booked. “It's truly awesome because you're giving up so much time, and you're putting in so much effort to make these events a success,” he says. “When you put in all that work and all that effort, it just means a lot more to see it all come together on Saturday morning.” On Saturday, Sept. “There was not a single school that we connected with throughout the year that was able to execute and give students the best possible volunteer experience as well as UGA,” says Romano.

Awards and Recognition

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.

Controversies and Scandals

Beginning in at least 2010 and possibly going back as far as 1997, ESPN had listed fake names in the credit list for its College GameDay program. These names were similar to the names of actual ESPN employees who were ineligible to receive the awards-for example, "Lee Clark" and "Kirk Henry" were listed as "associate producers" on the show, which has Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit as on-air personalities. I was naive to the whole thing. I thought obviously the people on the set would get an Emmy. So, all these years I didn't know that, I didn't know what was going on. I was not privy to that information. I just thought, 'Hey it finally came.

In a statement released on January 12, 2024, ESPN said, "Some members of our team were clearly wrong in submitting certain names" and that "This was a misguided attempt to recognize on-air individuals who were important members of our production team". ESPN also stated that they had worked with NATAS to overhaul their submissions process to avoid something similar from happening in the future. NATAS stated that, after alerting ESPN to the scandal, "the network took steps to take responsibility for the actions of its personnel, to investigate thoroughly, and to course correct".

Multiple individuals who had to return their Emmy statuettes expressed disappointment in the situation. Smith said that the actions of the producers in fraudulently gaining the statuettes for her and her colleagues had been "really crummy". Speaking a few days after the story became public, Desmond Howard-a College GameDay host who also received fraudulent statuettes-expressed frustration over the fact that Corso had to return his statuettes, saying, "They're taking that old man's Emmy's? If they're going to take his, you can have all of mine. I'll break these damn things. … I said 'How could y'all even let this happen to him?' I was fucked up over that. I'll break all of them. Take 'em in pieces.

Changes Due to COVID-19

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. By 2023, the crowds of students returned, and exceeded their pre-pandemic numbers.

Other Notable Moments

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).

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, as the school believed GameDay should go to Virginia Tech after the Virginia Tech shooting earlier in the year.

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.

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.

College GameDay Beyond the US

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.

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