ESPN's College GameDay unveils Week 8 destination

College GameDay, ESPN’s flagship college football show, announced its Week 8 location on Sunday afternoon, tweeting that it will travel to Los Angeles, California for the UCLA Bruins’ home matchup with the Oregon Ducks.

🌴 CALI BOUND 🌴

We're headed to @oregonfootball 🆚 @UCLAFootball! pic.twitter.com/vsMphhpZAh

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) October 17, 2021

College GameDay is “Cali Bound,” as the tweet says, something that has become a bit of a rarity in recent months. College GameDay has not traveled out west for a single show this season, and the Pac-12 is the only remaining Power Five conference that has not yet hosted the live show. The last time College Gameday went to California was on Jan. 1, 2020 (the 2019 postseason), when it traveled to Pasadena for a Rose Bowl matchup between No. 6 Oregon and No. 8 Wisconsin; the last time it went out west for a regular-season Pac-12 game was Sept. 22, 2018 for No. 7 Stanford at No. 20 Oregon.

Last week, College GameDay traveled to Athens for the Georgia Bulldogs’ top-15 showdown with the Kentucky Wildcats, a game that featured two undefeated SEC teams. It was the second time this season that GameDay made the trip to Georgia, and in Week 7, it was accompanied by its SEC Network counterpart, SEC Nation.

College GameDay goes west, Oregon fights for Pac-12 dominance

College GameDay’s matchup features Oregon and UCLA, two Pac-12 programs whose seasons have gone in similar directions.

Oregon in Week 2 went on the road and defeated a then-No. 3 Ohio State team in Columbus, then went on to win two more against Stony Brook and Arizona. Thanks to a 4-0 record, head coach Mario Cristobal had brought the Ducks to a No. 3 ranking — but then, they were upset in shocking fashion. Oregon in Week 5 lost to Stanford, 31-24, in overtime, spoiling its perfect season, dropping the Ducks out of the top five and most likely ruining their College Football Playoff hopes.

UCLA, on the other hand, started its season with dominant wins against Hawaii and then-No. 16 ranked LSU, the latter being head coach Chip Kelly’s first-ever win over a conference opponent in his fourth year at the helm. After vaulting up to a No. 13 ranking, UCLA — like Oregon — was upset, only the Bruins’ loss wasn’t a conference game; rather, they lost 40-37 to unranked Fresno State in Week 3. UCLA’s pain didn’t stop there, though. After a win over Stanford, the Bruins in Week 5 lost again to the underdog Arizona State Sun Devils at home.

Oregon, led by its defense and potential first-overall pick Kayvon Thibodeaux, will look to lay claim once again over the Pac-12, and UCLA could very well be one of the toughest obstacles standing in its way. The Ducks haven’t lost a Pac-12 game this season, and they appear poised to make another run at the Pac-12 Championship.