ESPN College GameDay Week 7 location announced, breaks 17-year hiatus
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ESPN’s College GameDay is heading to Provo, Utah, for Week 7, bringing the flagship pregame show to BYU for the first time in 17 years for a matchup between two unbeaten College Football Playoff contenders.
The show announced Saturday night that it will broadcast from campus before No. 3 Notre Dame visits No. 8 BYU on Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. GameDay’s only previous trip to Provo came on Oct. 24, 2009, when TCU beat BYU 38-7.
“Cougar fans, it’s been awhile,” the show’s official account posted shortly after 7 p.m. ET, confirming the crew is “headed to Provo for the first time since 2009 for Notre Dame-BYU.”
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Why did College GameDay pick Provo?
ESPN host Rece Davis floated BYU as the likely destination on the Sept. 28 episode of the College GameDay podcast, though he made clear the network hadn’t settled on a site.
“I’m not trying to give away secrets, no decision has been made, but there’s a really good chance we’ll be at BYU,” Davis said.
Davis added that the matchup “might be the best game of the weekend.” Provo won out over a crowded Oct. 17 slate that includes Ohio State at Indiana, a rematch of last season’s Big Ten title game, along with Florida at Texas and Alabama at Tennessee.
The kickoff also lands in ABC’s prime-time window. Notre Dame’s home games air exclusively on NBC, so a trip to Provo gives ESPN a full Saturday of coverage built around the Irish. The visit comes one week after GameDay set up inside Coleman Coliseum for Georgia at Alabama.
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Notre Dame, BYU enter unbeaten
The Irish moved to 6-0 with a 58-7 rout of Stanford on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman’s team led 37-0 at halftime.
BYU improved to 5-0, 3-0 in Big 12 play, with a 24-10 win over Iowa State on Friday night. Sophomore quarterback Bear Bachmeier threw for a season-high 329 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a career-high 109 yards. The Cougars are 5-0 for a third straight season, a first in program history.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake’s defense held the Cyclones to 200 total yards and 2 of 13 on third down. Still, the Cougars will face the Irish without running back LJ Martin, the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, who is reportedly out 4-6 weeks with an ankle injury.
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Notre Dame-BYU history in Provo
Notre Dame leads the all-time series 7-2, but the Irish lost their last visit to Provo, a 20-17 BYU win in 2004. The teams last met in 2022, when Notre Dame beat BYU 28-20 in Las Vegas.
The Oct. 17 game is on track to become the first meeting of two top-10 teams in LaVell Edwards Stadium history. Both programs were the top two at-large teams left out of last season’s 12-team Playoff field, and the home-and-home series replaced Notre Dame’s annual game against USC. BYU returns to South Bend in 2027.
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