ESPN College GameDay will be at Miami on Saturday as the No. 4 ranked Hurricanes host their in-state rival, the Florida Gators. NHL All-Star Matthew Tkachuk, who’s helped the Florida Panthers win each of the last two Stanley Cup championships, will be on hand as the guest picker.
ESPN made the announcement on Friday.
Saturday, @CollegeGameDay takes its talents to Miami for Week 4 @univmiami
🏈@CanesFootball @coach_cristobal joins the show live
🏒Guest picker: @FlaPanthers’ @TKACHUKycheese_
🗣️@PatMcAfeeShow Kicking Contest!☀️9a ET | ESPN, ESPNU, Disney+
More: https://t.co/SILotkscU2 pic.twitter.com/He6IR7WZsD
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 18, 2025
NBA star Trae Young in was the Week 2 guest picker when College GameDay was on site for Oklahoma’s win over Michigan. In Week 3, with GameDay at Tennessee for the SEC matchup between the Volunteers and Georgia Bulldogs, the guest picker was former WNBA star and current analyst for Prime Video, Candace Parker. And while Tkachuk will be following the trend of stars from other sports serving as guest pickers, unlike Young (Oklahoma) and Parker (Tennessee), he’s not an alum of either of the two colleges in the matchup GameDay is on hand for.
The apparent mismatch between an unranked Florida and No. 4 Miami led to some criticism of ESPN for picking this matchup for College GameDay, particularly with three other games between ranked teams on the Week 4 schedule.
Miami has largely gone untested since prevailing 27-24 over Notre Dame in Week 1. The Hurricanes followed that game with a 45-3 win over Bethune and a 49-12 victory over South Florida. The Gators, meanwhile, have been a much different story. Florida opened the season with a 55-0 drubbing of Long Island. But following an 18-16 loss to South Florida and a 20-10 loss to LSU, the Gators are 1-2, unranked and coach Billy Napier is seemingly coaching for his job.
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