College GameDay has found its Week 1 destination, and it is a pretty obvious one.
According to On3’s Pete Nakos, ESPN’s traveling pregame show is set for Baton Rouge on Sept. 5 for LSU-Clemson, which marks Lane Kiffin’s first game as head coach of the Tigers. Broadcast details have not been confirmed, but it’s difficult to envision this not being a night game with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit on the call for ABC. ESPN’s top announcing duo called last year’s Week 1 game in Clemson after spending the morning in Columbus for Lee Corso’s final show.
This version of GameDay doesn’t have a farewell to anchor it, nor does it have a matchup that rivals Texas-Ohio State for sheer magnitude. What it has is Lane Kiffin, which has historically been more than enough.
Kiffin’s path to Baton Rouge was a slow-motion wreck that swallowed college football whole for the better part of a month, and GameDay found itself at the center of it. He left Ole Miss two days after the Egg Bowl with the Rebels having just clinched their first College Football Playoff berth in program history, then released a statement casting himself as the wronged party in a dispute with athletic director Keith Carter over whether he would be permitted to finish the season he had built.
Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit spent two weeks on the show publicly arguing that Ole Miss should allow Kiffin to coach through the playoff — while he had already signed a $91 million contract in Baton Rouge — without disclosing that Saban had privately counseled Kiffin to take the LSU job in the first place, and that all three were represented by superagent Jimmy Sexton.
Kirk Herbstreit implores Ole Miss administrators to allow Lane Kiffin to coach the Rebels — if he leaves for LSU — and let him finish what he and his players started. pic.twitter.com/gwdrjDUv4F
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 29, 2025
On the ensuing episode, Rece Davis pulled back the curtain on air ahead of the SEC Championship, acknowledging Saban’s private conversations with Kiffin, the shared CAA representation across the panel, and the questions the entire situation had raised. Kiffin had been scheduled to appear that Saturday before withdrawing the night before, leaving the cast to reckon with the saga without him in the room.
Rece Davis and Nick Saban address CAA, Jimmy Sexton, and Saban’s conversations with Lane Kiffin on College GameDay. pic.twitter.com/cuWhVjIY72
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 6, 2025
On Sept. 5, he will be.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.