ESPN's College GameDay will embark on a very special season on Aug. 30. The beloved college football pregame show will head to Columbus, Ohio—a frequent location of the show—for the massive Week 1 showdown between No. 1 Texas and No. 3 Ohio State. The season's first episode will also serve as a sendoff for legendary analyst Lee Corso, who rose to prominence for his quirky headgear picks for games each week. The first of those picks came back in 1996, when he donned the head of Brutus Buckeye outside Ohio Stadium, picking the Buckeyes over Penn State. They would go on to win 38–7.
College GameDay traditionally picks its next location about a week out, with selections largely based on season results and the juicy storylines that develop during the march to the College Football Playoff. Naturally, ESPN skews towards its own broadcasts (which means a lot of SEC games these days), but with Fox broadcasting Ohio State vs. Texas, GameDay still won't exclusively attend Disney Family broadcasts, even going so far as to broadcast from FCS or even Division III games on occasion.
GameDay will continue on after Corso's August retirement, bolstered in recent years by the additions of Pat McAfee and Nick Saban. Which 2025 games will the show broadcast from, however? That is what we'll attempt to predict today.
Week 2 College GameDay Prediction: Oklahoma vs. Michigan
The Sooners and Wolverines—who enter the season ranked No. 18 and No. 14 in the AP Top 25, respectively—both bring significant question marks into the 2025 season. Oklahoma coach Brent Venables may be one of the more vulnerable coaches at a blue-chip job entering 2025, after posting losing records in two of his three seasons in Norman. Michigan finished the season strong in its first year under Sherrone Moore, beating eventual national champion Ohio State and upsetting Alabama during bowl season, but those wins papered over a disappointing campaign in which the Wolverines fielded one of the worst passing games in college football.
Both programs open the season with light matchups, with OU hosting FCS club Illinois State and Michigan taking on New Mexico. The Week 2 matchup at Gaylord Family—Oklahoma Memorial Stadium will be the first big test for the new quarterbacks attempting to elevate their respective programs. Washington State transfer John Mateer is one of the nation's most intriguing quarterbacks entering 2025 after posting an impressive season stepping in for Cam Ward with the Cougars in 2024. Michigan has not settled on a starter yet, but big-armed true freshman Bryce Underwood is expected to edge out Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for the role.
The Week 2 matchup will air on ABC, giving it the edge over a few other notable matchups like Iowa State vs. Iowa and Oregon vs. Oklahoma State. The best alternative may be the first football Border War showdown between Missouri and Kansas since conference realignment broke the rivals apart after the 2011 season. Both programs are expected to be competitive in their respective leagues in '25, adding some real juice to the renewed rivalry.
Week 3: LSU vs. Florida
The college football season wouldn't feel complete without a big-time night game in Death Valley. Amazingly, College GameDay's trip to Baton Rouge in 2024 for LSU's game against Alabama was the show's first since 2019. With big home games against South Carolina and Texas A&M later in the season, ESPN will have its choice of Tigers games in '25, though they shouldn't have to wait too long to go down to the Bayou, as Week 3's game with Florida is replete with storylines.
LSU coach Brian Kelly faces serious pressure to reach the College Football Playoff after a dropoff in 2024 that saw the Tigers finish outside of the Top 25. His Florida counterpart, Billy Napier, staved off the axe last season by a surprising 8–5 finish despite facing one of the nation's most difficult schedules, and is now hoping that quarterback DJ Lagway takes a significant sophomore leap. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is one of the preseason favorites for the Heisman Trophy, and Lagway could find himself in the running with a few big weeks right out of the gate.
Week 3 has a host of great options, with Tennessee hosting Georgia and Texas A&M heading to South Bend to face Notre Dame, but the primetime ABC game between Florida and LSU looks like the best bet, especially if the Tigers can get by Clemson in Week 1 and end Kelly's rough streak of opening game losses.
Week 4: Miami vs. Florida
After narrowly missing the College Football Playoff a year ago due to a final game collapse at Syracuse, Miami continues on its quest to prove once and for all that The U is, in fact, back. The Hurricanes have the opportunity to make a real statement in September, as they open at Notre Dame and host Florida on Sept. 20.
Miami poached Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, a Heisman favorite entering last season who should now have a chip on his shoulder after a disappointing 2024. Last year, another transfer—Cam Ward—parlayed the opportunity under coach Mario Cristobal and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson into becoming the No. 1 pick in the '25 NFL draft. Beck has the talent to make a similar run, and can re-enter Heisman talks with big early-season performances. His showdown with Lagway should be one of the best quarterback battles of the early season.
Week 4 is light in terms of other great GameDay options, but if ESPN wants to give the Big Ten some love, 2024 upstart Indiana hosts Illinois, a veteran team that many analysts believe could make a run to the College Football Playoff similar to the one that the Hoosiers had a year ago.
Week 5: Georgia vs. Alabama
Alabama and Georgia share an intense rivalry thanks to their many postseason matchups over the last decade, but regular season games between the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are more rare in the conference realignment era than you may think. The two juggernauts have played five regular season games since the 2007 season. Four have been featured on College GameDay, including last season's game in Tuscaloosa, a 41–34 Alabama win that proved to be one of the best games of the entire college football season.
Both programs enter 2025 with something to prove. Georgia is ranked No. 5 in the preseason AP Top 25, while Alabama is all the way down at No. 8—the Crimson Tide's lowest preseason ranking since 2008, after their first season under Kalen DeBoer ended on a very sour note. Even so, whenever the two teams face off it is appointment television, as will be the reaction from the thousands of Dawgs fans that descend upon the GameDay set to jeer Nick Saban.
Penn State vs. Oregon should be one of the games of the year in the Big Ten, if ESPN opts to go away from this game, while Ole Miss vs. LSU is another intriguing SEC option, though it is hard to see the network picking anything other than the Dawgs and the Tide.
Week 6: Notre Dame vs. Boise State
No college football program flaunts its tradition like Notre Dame. Boise State is, in many ways, a philosophical opposite of the Fighting Irish—a new money, small conference program that became famous for blue turf and wild trick plays. Both teams reached the College Football Playoff a year ago and have similar expectations in 2025.
Notre Dame should get plenty of points for its early-season slate, with the Broncos set to be the third team in the preseason Top 25 that the Fighting Irish will face in the first six weeks of the season. Boise State opens with a tricky road trip to USF and hosts Appalachian State in Week 5, but should be favored in every game leading up to this showdown, which will be the first ever between these two programs.
Florida vs. Texas is a prime SEC option for ESPN, while Alabama vs. Vanderbilt should have plenty of hype after the Commodores' huge upset a year ago, but a trip to South Bend is always a strong draw, and the novelty of this game against Boise State may be too much for ESPN to pass up, even with NBC broadcasting the game.
Week 7: Texas vs. Oklahoma (in Dallas)
The Red River Rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas has long been one of college football's best, and College GameDay's history has reflected it, choosing it as the host game eight times since 2001. With Texas entering the season with a No. 1 ranking, national championship aspirations and the nation's most famous college quarterback, Arch Manning, set to make his Red River debut, this feels like a logical choice.
Manning did not appear in last season's game at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, as Quinn Ewers returned from his mid-season injury to throw for 199 yards and a touchdown as the Longhorns rolled to a 34–3 win. That result wasn't a huge surprise given the trajectory of both programs at the time last season, but this is a true "throw out the records" game that has seen some wild upsets in recent years.
Week 7 features a host of other potential GameDay spots, including upstart Illinois vs. Ohio State, new-look Big Ten games Oregon vs. Indiana and USC vs. Michigan, and top SEC matchups LSU vs. South Carolina and Texas A&M vs. Florida.
Week 8: Arizona State vs. Texas Tech
College GameDay didn't set up shop at a single Big 12 game last season, and even in the years prior, the show's choices from the league were heavily slanted towards Oklahoma and Texas before their departure for the SEC. While fans may still be settling into the idea of Arizona State as a Big 12 program, after the Sun Devils made the move to the league ahead of the 2024 season along with Arizona, Colorado and Utah, they made a quick splash in their new conference home with last year's unexpected run to the College Football Playoff.
No one will be underestimating Arizona State this year, with coach Kenny Dillingham leading an offense that returns quarterback Sam Leavitt, a trendy Heisman pick. On the other side of this bourgeoning desert-based rivalry is Texas Tech, a program that has opted to move all of its chips into the middle of the table for the NIL era. The Big 12 is expected to be wide open yet again, with Arizona State and Texas Tech currently tied with Kansas State at +550 odds to win the conference title. This game could have significant College Football Playoff ramifications, for two deeply ambitious and energized fan bases.
Preseason Big Ten favorite Penn State heads to Iowa, Georgia hosts Ole Miss and Alabama hosts Tennessee in some other solid options for GameDay in Week 8.
Week 9: South Carolina vs. Alabama
There weren't many scarier teams by the end of the 2024 season than South Carolina, and while the Gamecocks did not ultimately receive an invite to the College Football Playoff, that is the goal for Shane Beamer's team in '25. South Carolina hasn't had expectations that high in some time, certainly not since the Steve Spurrier's heyday in Columbia. GameDay has made the trip to Columbia, S.C. eight times, one of which came during that Spurrier run for a game against Alabama in 2010. The Gamecocks blasted a Nick Saban-coached team 35–21, a win that helped spur Carolina to its only SEC East title and conference championship appearance.
If GameDay in Columbia comes to pass for this year's rematch of last season's tight 27–25 Alabama win over South Carolina in Tuscaloosa, Saban will certainly be asked about that game 15 years ago. He'll also certainly break down just how Kalen DeBoer's defense can slow down Gamecocks Heisman hopeful LaNorris Sellers, a battering ram of a dual-threat quarterback who threw for 238 yards and a pair of scores against the Tide last season. His play only improved from there last fall, and he should be a matchup nightmare for even the best defenses.
Week 9 is a relatively light slate, with another SEC showdown—LSU vs. Texas A&M—as another prime option.
Week 10: Ohio State vs. Penn State
This Big Ten showdown may be just too good for ESPN to pass up for College GameDay, even with a rival network set to broadcast the game. Penn State and Ohio State enter the season as Nos. 2 and 3 in the country, and while this rivalry doesn't have quite the same history or vitriol of The Game between Ohio State and Michigan, it should make for some great television. Ohio State vs. Penn State has been the featured College GameDay matchup 13 times, tied for the highest number in the show's history.
Nittany Lions coach James Franklin has been under a microscope since arriving in Happy Valley, and while no reasonable person would say he's on the hot seat by any stretch, his teams' struggles in big games have become a serious narrative. Franklin is just 1–10 against the Buckeyes, and has yet to defeat Ryan Day. A loss at The Shoe likely won't knock Penn State from College Football Playoff contention, but with an experienced roster that returns quarterback Drew Allar, two All-America-level running backs and a host of other experienced players, it would be a demoralizing result for a team with a national title on the brain.
If ESPN wants to avoid feting the Big Ten on Nov. 1, the annual Florida-Georgia rivalry game in Jacksonville is a clear option, along with a spicy ACC matchup between SMU and Miami and a pair of solid Big 12 games: Iowa State vs. Arizona State and Kansas State vs. Texas Tech.
Week 11: Alabama vs. LSU
The other rivalry game with 13 College GameDay appearances? Alabama-LSU, the SEC matchup that defined the sport in many ways through the 2010s. We've already laid out the stakes for Kelly as he enters year four coaching the Tigers. Logically, it is too early to mention DeBoer and the "hot seat" in the same breath, but if his Crimson Tide struggle down the stretch yet again, after missing the College Football Playoff a year ago, those talks may pop back up... especially if any heat is added to the Nick Saban unretirement rumors that dominated SEC media days.
Last year, DeBoer's program had all the answers in this matchup, dominating LSU 42–13 in Death Valley and holding Garrett Nussmeier to just 5.7 yards per attempt and one touchdown to two interceptions, as Jalen Milroe rushed for 185 yards and four scores on the ground. Alabama will look much different offensively, with Ty Simpson slated to start under center, while Nussmeier enters the season with plenty of Heisman hype. With both teams eyeing their first CFP berths of the 12-team era, the stakes are as high as ever for this matchup, especially if the two coaches are in need of a big win to keep questions about their futures at bay.
Should ESPN opt against this oft-featured rivalry, Clemson vs. Florida State could be a very important game for the ACC race (if FSU rebounds from its dreadful 2024), while Penn State vs. Indiana is an intriguing Big Ten matchup.
Week 12: Georgia vs. Texas
Texas's first season as an SEC program went incredibly well, as the Longhorns won 13 games, including a pair of dramatic matchups in the College Football Playoff before falling to eventual national champion Ohio State. One of their new conference rivals quickly proved to be a thorn in their side, however: Georgia.
Kirby Smart's club went into Austin and won last season's Week 8 College GameDay showdown in decisive fashion, 30–15. They also took down the Horns in Atlanta at the SEC championship, 22–19 in an overtime thriller. It is relatively rare for one team to host GameDay twice in a season, but conference realignment has thrown out many of the norms of the college football calendar, and led to schedules that feature both Georgia vs. Alabama and Georgia vs. Texas less than two months apart. If the Dawgs, who will now feature Gunner Stockton, live up to the lofty standard set by Smart's program, it is hard to see the powers that be in Bristol, Conn. avoiding a repeat trip to Athens, Ga.
Other options are also SEC-centric, including Alabama vs. Oklahoma, Texas A&M vs. South Carolina and Ole Miss vs. Florida, though Pitt vs. Notre Dame could be intriguing if the Panthers are in the ACC title mix.
Week 13: Colorado vs. Arizona State
It is a bit shocking that GameDay didn't make its way out to Boulder for Deion Sanders's impressive second season at Colorado in 2024, a year that saw his team jump from 4–8 to 9–4 and wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter make a historic run to the Heisman Trophy as a two-way player. If the Buffaloes are a factor in the Big 12 race once again, with Hunter and Shedeur Sanders now off in the pros, don't expect ESPN to pass on the opportunity again, especially with a huge matchup against the Pac-12-turned-Big 12 program that made an even bigger leap forward in '24: Arizona State.
Sanders and Kenny Dillingham are two of the most reliable quotes in the sport today, which should make for good television on an early Saturday morning in the mountains. They also oversee two of college football's more exciting teams in its most unpredictable power conference. ASU quarterback Sam Leavitt is appointment television, and should have a very intriguing opponent in this QB duel—whether it is against veteran Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter or five-star freshman Julian Lewis, the two gunslingers vying for the top job in Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur's offense.
Oregon hosts USC and Florida takes on Tennessee in a pair of other potential GameDay matchups for Week 13.
Week 14: Michigan vs. Ohio State
Is there any other choice?
The Game may be bound for Fox's airwaves, but the rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan has rarely been as hot as it is right now. After losing all but one matchup between 2004 and 2019, the Wolverines got a year respite from The Game in 2020 due to the COVID-19 shortened season, a year in which the Wolverines went just 2–4, nearly costing Jim Harbaugh his job. Michigan went back to basics in '21, running for 297 yards and six touchdowns in a 42–27 win, and has gone back to that well in each successive victory, rushing for at least 156 yards in each game of the current four-game winning streak vs. the Buckeyes. Even last season, when completing a forward pass appeared to be a concept above the Wolverines' operational capacity at times, Michigan dragged Ohio State into the mud and pulled out a 13–10 road win over the eventual national champions.
This year, Michigan is looking to break in five-star true freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood in order to cure those passing woes, and hand the Buckeyes a fifth-straight loss in the rivalry. Ohio State will likely tab a new QB of their own, Julian Sayin, to deliver the ball early and often to Jeremiah Smith as coach Ryan Day attempts to remove a giant monkey from his back. The hot seat talk that dominated the airwaves after the Buckeyes' most recent losses has largely dissipated after Day and Ohio State ran through the 2024 College Football Playoff, but a segment of the fan base in Columbus wont be satisfied until the Buckeyes get back in the win column on the regular season's final Saturday.
Week 14 is packed with big rivalries and new powerhouse conference showdowns including the Iron Bowl between Auburn and Alabama, Oklahoma vs. LSU, Texas vs. Texas A&M and South Carolina vs. Clemson, but given the myriad storylines, it is hard to find a pick better than The Game if these two programs live up to the billing in 2025.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Predicting Where ESPN's 'College GameDay' Will Head for Every Week of the 2025 Season.