College GameDay is coming back to South Florida for Miami-Florida State next Saturday
The Miami Hurricanes are becoming one of the marquee draws in this strange college football season and now College GameDay is coming back to Miami.
The Hurricanes’ meeting with the No. 18 Louisville Cardinals was the site of College GameDay on Saturday and Miami will be part of GameDay’s showcase next weekend, too. The popular ESPN pregame show is coming to South Florida next Saturday when the No. 17 Hurricanes host the rival Florida State Seminoles.
ESPN color analyst Kirk Herbstreit mentioned this was the plan in the first quarter of Miami’s game in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday. A few minutes later, the Hurricanes’ official Twitter account confirmed the news.
This will be the first time College GameDay has come to Miami since 2017, when the Hurricanes blew out the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on their way to an Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal division title and Orange Bowl berth. Undoubtedly, this upcoming trip will look significantly different.
In 2017, ESPN set up its stage on Miami’s scenic Coral Gables campus, with Lake Osceola as the backdrop for thousands of fans cheering, holding signs and wearing makeshift turnover chains. Guest picker Alex Rodriguez joined Kirk Herbstreit and fellow ESPN personalities Lee Corso, Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, Maria Taylor and Chris Fallica.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced GameDay to change its operations this year. ESPN has hosted a remote version of the show and has mostly used a hybrid model. On Saturday, Herbstreit, Davis, Howard and ESPN analyst David Pollack hosted the show from Cardinal Stadium, while reporters presented stories remotely, fans popped in to cheer on their teams via video chats and Corso made picks from an elaborate simulated stage at home, complete with cardboard cutouts of his co-hosts.
ESPN has not announced whether GameDay will operate from Coral Gables, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens or somewhere else in the Miami metropolitan area.
