ESPN’s College GameDay has been going on the road since 1993, and they’ve gone to a lot of different locations and matchups over time. This week will see them again hitting their most-frequent target, LSU-Alabama; this will be the show’s ninth visit to that rivalry. According to ESPN, Miami-Florida State and Florida-Florida State are second with seven visits each. It’s also the 26th time LSU has played in a College GameDay matchup; they’re 15-10 in those games, but have lost the last two. They’re 6-4 in GameDay appearances at home.
Another notable element here is that while Baton Rouge has been a regular GameDay destination, the part of campus featured has frequently changed. It’s going to change again this week, as James Bewers of The Baton Rouge Advocate reports:
ESPN’s traveling pregame show will broadcast from the The Quad for the first time ever, LSU and the network announced Wednesday.
This will be the fourth different location for a College GameDay broadcast from LSU’s campus. The Quad is a tight, tree-lined area located in the center of LSU’s campus.
The Parade Ground, which has been the location for the last four College GameDay shows at LSU, was the initial spot for the Saturday’s broadcast. But LSU Salutes — a ceremony by the Cadets of the Ole War Skule honoring those who have served in United States Armed Forces — is scheduled for Saturday on the Parade Ground at 9 a.m.LSU Salutes takes place every November before a home football game closest to Veterans Day.
Along with the Parade Ground, College GameDay has also broadcast from the Old Front Nine and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center ramp in the past.
What’s also interesting about the choice to go to LSU-Alabama this week is that it’s the only game involving a Top 10 team that’s not on ABC or an ESPN network (it’s on CBS), which is continuing a recent trend for GameDay. This will be the fourth week in a row they’re at a game that’s televised either on CBS or on FS1, and it will be their fourth appearance at a CBS-broadcast game this year. Some have occasionally accused ESPN of hyping up their own inventory on GameDay, but that certainly doesn’t appear to be the case this year.
The GameDay stats suggest there’s a good chance of this one being memorable, too: the last six times GameDay’s been at a road game for the AP #1 team, the game’s been decided by single digits, with that top team falling in the last two (2014 Alabama at Auburn and 2014 Mississippi State at Alabama). Alabama’s also only 3-2 as the top-ranked team in a road game GameDay’s at, and while two of those wins came at LSU, they came by a combined 10 points.
Someone posted further interesting nuggets on GameDay appearances on Reddit here, but it’s notable that their numbers on most-visited rivalries diverge from ESPN’s (they have Florida/Tennessee and Florida/Florida State at eight each, Penn State/Ohio State at seven, and Miami-Florida State at six) and their numbers on Lee Corso’s headgear picks in the GameDay game also differ from ESPN’s (they have him as 177-92, ESPN has him as 189-95). So, perhaps take the Reddit information with a grain of salt. Still, there’s some intriguing stuff there, including the Power Five schools GameDay has never visited: Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Rutgers, Wake Forest, Duke, Syracuse, Virginia, Iowa State, Kansas, California, and Washington State. 6-2 Washington State might be the best bet to get crossed off that list this year, especially if both they and Washington are still in good shape heading into Nov. 25’s Apple Cup.
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