GameDay was a fixture at Army-Navy from 2014-2021, but it skipped the event in 2022 and will not air again in 2024. After briefly returning to Gillette Stadium for Army-Navy with new North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick in tow, GameDay will be off the air this weekend.
Belichick was College GameDay‘s guest picker for Army-Navy last season, but there will be no guest picker this week with the crew not going on location this week.
It’s unclear if the crew will be in the studio instead or if they have the week off entirely.
Looking at local listings for ESPN on Saturday morning, SportsCenter will run from 9 a.m. ET until the Incarnate World-South Dakota State FCS quarterfinals matchup at noon. Over on ABC, South Carolina State and Jackson State will play in the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta at the same time.
They are not https://t.co/2zBH9BMcJB
— Navy Athletics (@NavyAthletics) December 4, 2024
And around 3 p.m. ET, CBS will have coverage of Army-Navy from Landover, Maryland, at Northwest Stadium, home to the Washington Commanders. Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson will have the broadcast call.
But it won’t be a typical college football Saturday with Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Kirk Herbstreit, Pat McAfee, Nick Saban, and Lee Corso leading you into the event.
ESPN’s commitment to sending the College GameDay crew to the game location has made the Army-Navy Game so special in recent years, even though the network doesn’t carry the broadcast. It’s always been a spectacle for everyone involved, including Belichick, who got his first taste of being involved with the media in ’23.
But we’ll have to wait until 2025 to see if GameDay returns for Army-Navy at M&T Stadium in Baltimore.
You also have to remember that with the expanded Playoff, College GameDay will run longer this season. The show has already announced that it will be in Columbus and South Bend for the opening round of the 12-team Playoff.
Earlier this season, College GameDay traveled to Dublin, Ireland, for Week 0, the first time they’ve done so and a departure from their usual in-studio setup for that week.
Perhaps this was part of the trade-off.
