ESPN College GameDay announces Texas at Alabama as Week 2 destination

It is now official. ESPN College GameDay will be in Tuscaloosa next weekend as Alabama hosts Texas in one of the biggest games of the 2023 college football season.

It has long been expected that College GameDay would be in town for the game, and the official announcement came Saturday morning.

The matchup features two of the top teams in the country. It will kickoff off at 7 p.m. next Saturday.

Alabama enters its season opener against Middle Tennessee ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll, while Texas is just outside of the top 10 at No. 11 ahead of its opener Saturday afternoon against Rice.

Both teams are considered true College Football Playoff contenders. Alabama boasts one of the top rosters in the country and is a popular pick to return to the CFP under head coach Nick Saban.

Steve Sarkisian has done an excellent job at Texas and some believe this is the year the Longhorns truly become back behind Quinn Ewers and a loaded roster.

Whoever wins the Alabama-Texas game will be in excellent shape to make the College Football Playoff. The winner will have an impressive out-of-conference win to lean back on coming Selection Sunday.

While ESPN College GameDay will be in Tuscaloosa next week, this week it is in Charlotte for the Week 1 showdown between South Carolina and North Carolina.

Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and the entire College GameDay crew are in town for the Battle of the Carolinas.

Kirk Herbstreit addresses College GameDay casting changes

While several popular faces are back with ESPN College GameDay for another year, there was some staff turnover this offseason.

David Pollack was let go by ESPN, and Chris “The Bear” Fallica is now with Fox.

Kirk Herbstreit recently spoke about the changes with Pat McAfee.

“David Pollack… I was an advocate to get him on the show from Day 1. Gene, who I love. You know, we lost Tommy Rinaldi a couple of years ago. The Bear, who came in the first year I came on. Yeah, we love those guys. But the reality is, we have to move on to 2023 with our new team,” Herbstreit said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been, and I’m not just saying this, I told you this when all this went down, I’ve never been more like, excited. Twenty-eight years, can you imagine still being excited to do something? But I’ve never been more excited about the challenge of putting on a show this year than I am right now, and having you and Des (Desmond Howard) and Rece [Davis] and whoever, Jess [Sims] to put this show on, man.

“We’re coming off our best ratings ever. It’s not like the show’s going, ‘Oh, remember when they said,’ no, no, no. Best ratings ever last year. So to me, there’s a new bar raised, and we’re going to go above that this year, and I’m fired up. You know, I can’t wait.”