Opinion: ESPN College Gameday's location problem

After years of being the most entertaining live show in college football, ESPN College Gameday has received recent backlash from the college football audience, primarily when it comes to their bias toward the bigger brand conferences like the SEC and Big Ten.

To begin the 2025 season, Gameday has traveled to four SEC schools, three Big Ten schools, and one ACC school. There isn’t much diversity in their location selections so far. Heading into Week 8, many thought this would be the week of the Big 12 as No. 23 Utah face No. 15 BYU in this year’s Holy War.

Instead, Pat McAfee and the rest of the gameday crew are scheduled to travel to what should be an action-packed SEC matchup between No. 5 Ole Miss and No. 10 Georgia in Athens.

There should be no questions about the magnitude of the matchup, but the Georgia Bulldogs have been a part of the show’s most memorable moments for years, including Gameday traveling to this same matchup during the 2023 season.

Highly-intensified SEC and Big Ten matchups pile up during the season. With 10 SEC teams ranked, there are plenty of opportunities for them to receive the spotlight.

It becomes repetitive when the same teams have the same opportunities every year. As a company, ESPN should be feeling the need to capture rare opportunities for certain schools.

Just to put into perspective, for the first time in 16 years, the Holy War between the Utes and the Cougars features two ranked teams.

In addition, the game was decided by one point last season in a 22-21 BYU win. This season, the anticipation seems to be even greater.

As we look ahead, South Florida and Memphis are No. 19 and No. 22 in the AP Poll’s top 25. They are matched up next week in a game that will likely define the Group of Five representative in the College Football Playoff.

Not traveling to Memphis in Week 9 would simply exemplify the bias College Gameday has in this day and age of college football.

Just two years ago in 2023, College Gameday traveled to James Madison for the final game of the Dukes’ undefeated season up to that point.

The occasion brought in record-breaking crowd sizes in the show’s 30-year history, setting an example for how electric a small school’s environment can be.

College Gameday has always been about attempting to capture the highlight moments of fandom throughout every school across the country, and it should remain that way before the magic is completely lost.

Owen Daszko is a second-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email him at opd5073@psu.edu.