Johnny Manziel misses College GameDay after being announced as celebrity guest picker
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Johnny Manziel was initially announced as the celebrity guest picker for Saturday’s College GameDay from College Station for No. 7 Texas A&M vs. No. 10 Miami. When it came time for the GameDay crew to do its picks segment, however, Manziel wasn’t on stage. GameDay was joined by former Aggie basketball star Alex Caruso to pick Saturday’s biggest games, including the CFP tripleheader. Caruso was revealed as the celebrity guest picker during Saturday’s show, with no explanation stated for Manziel’s absence.
On Thursday, Manziel was announced as Saturday’s celebrity guest picker. The official College GameDay account on X (formerly Twitter) has since deleted the post naming Manziel and Brian Bosworth as the weekend’s celebrity guest pickers. Manziel was also mentioned in the ESPN press release promoting GameDay as part of the CFP weekend coverage.
The switch from Manziel to Caruso had fans talking on social media. Here’s a small sample of what was said on X:
College Gameday booked Johnny Manziel as the guest picker knowing he’d be in Miami the night before. That mistake is on ESPN
— Molly (@FSUmollz) December 20, 2025
So
— Kay Jones Davis (@TheKayJ) December 20, 2025
…
What happened to Johnny Manziel? He was supposed to be today's Guest Picker. pic.twitter.com/7ufunwiMpH
College GameDay said last night that Johnny Manziel would be today’s celebrity guest picker but now the graphic say it's Alex Caruso. I wonder what happened there.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) December 20, 2025
Wait wasn’t Johnny Manziel supposed to be the celebrity guest picker??
— sarah (@fangirlfornfl) December 20, 2025
Alex Caruso? didn't they publicize Johnny Manziel as the celebrity picker for today?
— StateOfTheU.com (@TheStateOfTheU) December 20, 2025
This guest picker doesn't look like Johnny Manziel.
— Creg Stephenson the First (@CregStephenson) December 20, 2025
Hopefully Pat spills the tea on why Johnny Manziel aint the guest picker. #CollegeGameDay
— Heather Rae (@TripletMomRae) December 20, 2025
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
