College GameDay announced Thursday that country star Jelly Roll will serve as guest picker for Saturday’s top-10 matchup between No. 9 Georgia and No. 5 Ole Miss in Athens.
Jelly Roll was on the sidelines at Neyland Stadium last weekend during Tennessee’s game against Arkansas, photographed wearing Volunteers gear and taking selfies with Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar’s family. The Nashville native has publicly supported both Tennessee and Vanderbilt throughout the season. He has no known connection to Georgia or Ole Miss.
Two weeks ago, comedian Theo Von served as the guest picker in Tuscaloosa for Alabama-Vanderbilt despite having no Alabama connection. Von lives in Nashville, in the former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason’s house, and spent the season attending Vanderbilt practices. Alabama fans questioned the selection of someone who was actively supporting the opposing team.
Von joins a long list of guest pickers in Tuscaloosa with zero Alabama ties, including Nate Bargatze, Sam Hunt, Eric Church, Verne Lundquist, Rick Ross, Marcus Luttrell, Jake Peavy, and Brian Wilson.
When asked about the Von selection, GameDay host Rece Davis pointed to his reach.
“Have you checked out his social media following? Do you know how many people follow him?” Davis said.
Von has 8.5 million Instagram followers and runs one of the most popular podcasts in the country.
“He’s hilarious, he’s been on the show before,” Davis continued. “I mean, I understand that schools like to have their legends. And we do that a lot. We’ve had Joe Namath here. If memory serves, we’ve invited Ozzie Newsome here… When you have someone who sort of transcends the game and kind of expands your reach, and he’s also awesome like Theo Von, I mean, Theo Von’s like an easy yes.”
Jelly Roll fits that profile. He’s a four-time Grammy nominee with millions of social media followers. His song “Get By” served as ESPN’s college football anthem last season. He performs at major sporting events and has built a platform that reaches far beyond country music fans.
The guest picker role has become significantly higher-profile over the past year, with Timothée Chalamet’s appearance last December serving as a potential turning point. The Oscar-nominated “Dune” star showed up in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game between Texas and Georgia with no ties to either school. SEC fans were skeptical before he even sat down. Then Chalamet started making picks.
He correctly picked underdog Ohio over Miami (Ohio) in the MAC Championship when no one else on the panel did, specifically citing fourth-year Bobcats quarterback Parker Navarro’s 65% completion rate and predicting Navarro would be the decisive factor. Ohio demolished Miami (Ohio) 38-3. He called SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings “a legit Heisman contender” for 2025. He broke down Jackson State’s eight-game winning streak with well-researched stats.
His appearance demonstrated that A-list celebrities would treat the role seriously and that GameDay could generate massive engagement even without school connections, essentially proving the guest picker role had reached mainstream visibility that makes A-list talent seriously consider it.
As for Jelly Roll, he’s appeared multiple times on The Pat McAfee Show. The two have developed a public friendship, with Jelly Roll calling McAfee “an earth angel” on social media. They appeared together at McAfee’s Big Night AHT event in Pittsburgh, where Jelly Roll performed “Renegade” at PPG Paints Arena.
McAfee joined College GameDay in 2022. His daily show on ESPN has become central to the network’s daytime programming. ESPN content president Burke Magnus said last month he “could not imagine our daytime schedule without” McAfee’s show. McAfee’s connections in entertainment and sports have given GameDay access to talent that might not have considered appearing on a college football pregame show in previous years.
The guest picker role used to go almost exclusively to people with direct ties to the host school — former players, famous alumni, local celebrities. GameDay occasionally made exceptions for massive cultural figures, but those were rare and typically reserved for uniquely high-profile matchups.
Davis acknowledged during his defense of the Von selection that some fans would prefer former players as guest pickers. But he argued the picks segment is just one part of the show and that expanding the show’s reach matters.
“It’s fun,” Davis said. Von is “in the business of fun.”
So is Jelly Roll, it would appear.
GameDay airs Saturday morning at 9 a.m. ET from Athens. Georgia hosts Ole Miss at 3:30 p.m. on ABC.
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.