ESPN usually doesn’t announce the site of its College Gameday broadcasts until the previous week of college football action comes to an end. No matter what happens this week, it might be a safe assumption that Penn State hosts the World Wide Leader next week for what will almost certainly be a top ten matchup between the Nittany Lions and Ohio State.
But what about the week after that?
ESPN has been no stranger to the Texas State Fair in recent years. It makes a great pregame location for broadcasts from Texas and Oklahoma’s annual meeting in Dallas for the Red River Showdown, but Fox is making it clear that in 2018 ESPN will either have to share that space or find another location entirely.
Not only will the Fox team of Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt be on the television call of the game, but the network is bringing its studio crew to Dallas for the entire day. Fox will air a two-hour edition of Fox College Football Pregame from the Texas State Fair that day beginning at 10am. The first hour will air on FS1. The broadcast team of Rob Stone, Matt Leinart, Dave Wannstedt, and Robert Smith then switches to Fox for the 11am hour.
Auburn’s trip to Starkville to play Mississippi State and Notre Dame’s visit to Virginia Tech could also be candidates to host the ESPN pregame show that day. Both of those games could potentially be top 15 matchups. College Gameday could also opt to use that weekend for its annual visit to a smaller school. It could also end up in Colorado Springs for Navy’s visit to Air Force, as the show likes to broadcast from a game featuring two service academies occasionally.
