ESPN’s College Gameday will return to Columbia, South Carolina for the first time in a decade.
The announcement came after South Carolina defeated Kentucky on Saturday, 31-6, improving the team's record to 2-0.
The premier college football pre-game show featuring Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Kirk Herbstreit, Pat McAfee, the recently retired Nick Saban and Lee Corso will air ahead of South Carolina’s SEC matchup on Saturday against the No. 16 LSU Tigers. It will be the seventh all-time appearance in Columbia for the football show.
Gameday’s last appearance in Columbia during football season was in September 2014 when the Gamecocks faced the Missouri Tigers. But the basketball edition of the show has featured the Gamecocks in recent years, most recently being last spring when the Georgia Bulldogs came to Columbia.
South Carolina also appeared on the show at the beginning of the 2023 football season when the team faced the North Carolina Tar Heels in Charlotte, North Carolina, as part of the "Duke's Mayo Classic"
This will also be the Tigers first trip to Columbia with a packed Williams-Brice Stadium since the 2008 season. The matchup between the SEC schools was moved in 2015 being to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, due to historic flooding in Columbia, and the 2020 matchup was played with COVID-19 restrictions.
The Tigers head into next Saturday’s game with a 1-1 record, having lost to then-No. 23 University of Southern California in it’s season opener before defeating Nicholls State on Saturday.
College Gameday will be hosted live from Gamecock Park. Previously, the campus' Historic Horseshoe has played host to the show's past three trips to South Carolina's campus.
College Gameday will begin at 9 a.m. on ESPN and ESPNU on Saturday. The Gamecocks will kick off against the Tigers at noon following the show, and the game will be broadcast on ABC.