For the first time this season, an SEC team will not be featured on ESPN’s College GameDay.
On Saturday, ESPN announced that the traveling pregame show will head to University Park, Pennsylvania, in Week 5 for what will be a top-10 showdown between Penn State and Oregon. It will be Penn State’s second consecutive season hosting the show and its 11th all-time.
The record suggests heartbreak might be in store for the home team. Penn State has made 27 prior appearances as the featured game on GameDay. The Nittany Lions are 10-17 in those appearances. Oregon, which will be making its 33rd all-time appearance, is 19-13 when featured on GameDay.
Penn State lost as the host team last season, 20-13 to Ohio State in a battle between top-5 Big Ten squads. The Nittany Lions are 4-5 in home games this century with GameDay in attendance.
The Nittany Lions (3-0) are currently ranked No. 2 in the country. They were off in Week 4. The sixth-ranked Ducks moved to 4-0 on Saturday with a 41-7 win over Oregon State.
Kickoff from Beaver Stadium next Saturday is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC. A lookahead line from ESPN Bet has the Nittany Lions favored by 3.5 points.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
