College GameDay Head to Baton Rouge for Week One This Season

May 13, 2026 Michael Brauner Featured News, SEC
COLUMBUS, OH - AUGUST 30: ESPN College Gameday anchors Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit before the game against the Texas Longhorns and the Ohio State Buckeyes on August 30, 2025, at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, OH. (Photo by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire)

The location for the first edition of “College GameDay” this upcoming season has been decided upon. The show prepares to head to Baton Rouge, according to a report from Pete Nakos of On3 .

With LSU welcoming Lane Kiffin to town as their new head coach, the Tigers are prepared to host their rival Tigers as Dabo Swinney brings his Clemson squad into town for the second leg of a home-and-home series between the two powers.

A year ago, LSU went into Clemson and came away with a 17-10 victory, and while a ton has changed since then, including the obvious inclusion of Kiffin into the series, Clemson will be looking for revenge and to prove early on that last year’s down season was just a one-year blip.

Without a ton of marquee games in the first week of the season this year, it seemed like a relative no-brainer where Nick Saban, Rece Davis and the ‘GameDay’ crew were going to be headed, but a game in Death Valley that already had a ton of juice just got another injection.