'College GameDay' heads to Oxford for marquee Week 3 matchup
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One of the most anticipated reunions on the 2026 college football schedule will get the full ESPN spotlight. ESPN’s “College GameDay” is headed to Oxford, Mississippi, for Week 3, where the No. 9 Ole Miss Rebels will host the No. 11 LSU Tigers on Sept. 19.
The network officially announced the destination Friday, setting up the show’s third stop of the season at The Grove ahead of the evening matchup at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
The storyline surrounding the game made Oxford a natural candidate. LSU coach Lane Kiffin will return to Ole Miss for the first time as an opposing head coach after spending six seasons leading the Rebels before departing for LSU following the 2025 regular season. The matchup will also serve as the SEC opener for both programs.
GameDay will begin from The Grove Stage at 9 a.m. ET, with Rece Davis hosting alongside Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, Nick Saban and “Stanford Steve” Coughlin. LSU and Ole Miss will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. It will mark just the third time the show has originated from Ole Miss.
The selection also takes another marquee matchup off the board during a significant weekend for Florida State.
The Seminoles will travel to No. 13 Alabama on Sept. 19, with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Florida State defeated the Crimson Tide 31-17 in Tallahassee to open the 2025 season and will head to Tuscaloosa looking for a second consecutive victory in the series.
ESPN now has its first three GameDay destinations locked in. The show will open its 40th season in Baton Rouge for Clemson-LSU on Sept. 5, travel to Austin for Ohio State-Texas in Week 2 and then head to Oxford. According to ESPN, it will be the first time since 2002 that GameDay’s opening three shows have come from the campuses of three different preseason AP top-15 teams.
For Florida State, that means its trip to Alabama will have to share the Week 3 spotlight with a matchup carrying one of the offseason’s most prominent storylines: Kiffin’s return to Oxford.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: 'College GameDay' heads to Oxford for marquee Week 3 matchup
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