Pat McAfee may have just dropped the biggest hint yet that “College GameDay” could finally be heading back to Iowa City.
ESPN’s premier college football pregame show is in Knoxville this weekend for Tennessee’s showdown with Texas, but McAfee used the visit to float a possible Week 5 trip to the Midwest. For Iowa fans, that would be a massive deal. The Hawkeyes haven’t hosted “College GameDay” since 2006.
“Iowa hasn’t had a GameDay in like 100 years,” McAfee teased during Week 4’s visit to Knoxville. “If they were to beat Michigan, next week we would certainly be traveling to Iowa City.”
That’s the scenario now sitting in front of the Hawkeyes. No.
17 Iowa has already handled Iowa State, Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa this season, but Saturday’s game against Michigan carries a different kind of weight. A win would not only add another quality result to the resume - it could also bring the GameDay crew back to Kinnick Stadium for the first time in nearly two decades.
The last time Iowa fans got that pregame spotlight was Sept. 30, 2006, when the Hawkeyes fell to No. 1 Ohio State, 38-17.
Since then, “College GameDay” has made appearances around Iowa football, but not in Iowa City. The show covered the Cy-Hawk Trophy game between Iowa and Iowa State in both 2019 and 2021, with those editions taking place in Ames. Country musician Eric Church and actor Ashton Kutcher made celebrity picks on those broadcasts.
If Iowa does get the job done Saturday, the next test would be a home matchup with the 2-1 Buckeyes, a game that would feature Heisman Trophy hopefuls Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith leading the team.
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That matters because the Hawkeyes should have a full backfield and their starting tight end available for what figures to be one of their biggest tests yet. Brown's return also gives Iowa another option on defense, adding to the sense that the group is getting the kind of late-season boost coaches love to have when the margin for error shrinks against an opponent like Michigan. [Read more 🡒]