Rece Davis didn’t hide it: he was pulling for Iowa on Saturday, and not just because of the matchup on the field. He had College GameDay in mind.
ESPN is heading to Iowa City for Week 5 of the 2026 college football season, and Iowa’s win over Michigan helped clear the path. On Sunday’s edition of the College GameDay Podcast, Davis said he was rooting for the Hawkeyes with the show’s next stop in the back of his mind.
“I didn’t want Iowa to beat Michigan because I wanted Michigan to lose, or because I’m some big Iowa fan,” Davis said, per Awful Announcing.
“I root for the show, and it was going to be really, really good for the show if Iowa won on Saturday. They did. And now, a big showdown with Ohio State coming up next week.”
That win bumped Iowa to No. 14 in the AP Top 25, setting up a top-15 clash when the Hawkeyes host No. 5 Ohio State on Saturday.
Davis’ comments also leave plenty of room for the “what if” conversation in Starkville. If Michigan had handled Iowa, Alabama vs.
Mississippi State would have been the highest-ranked game in the AP Top 25. Alabama is No. 7 and Mississippi State sits at No. 16, with both teams unbeaten.
Even so, GameDay might have landed on Iowa City anyway. The first four shows of the 2026 season all came from SEC campuses - LSU, Texas, Ole Miss and Tennessee - and that stretch drew criticism from fans and media members who felt ESPN was leaning too hard toward the conference.
This week, Davis and the crew are headed into Big Ten country. The SEC chatter, though, isn’t going away anytime soon.
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P.J. Fleck has had plenty of respect for Michigans defense, and the matchup also puts a spotlight on two young quarterbacks who have helped shape their offenses, Bryce Underwood for the Wolverines and Drake Lindsey for the Gophers. For a Michigan team trying to steady itself before the Big Ten race tightens, this one offers an early chance to look like a contender rather than a work in progress. [Read more 🡒]