Peyton Manning is the name hanging over ESPN’s guest picker decision for College GameDay’s trip to Knoxville, but the former Tennessee quarterback already made his lean pretty clear.
With No. 1 Texas set to visit Tennessee on Sept.
26, GameDay is headed to Ayres Hall before the noon ET kickoff on ABC. That puts Arch Manning, Peyton’s nephew and Texas’ starting quarterback, right in the middle of the weekend’s biggest storyline.
ESPN still hasn’t announced who will serve as guest picker.
Peyton, though, addressed the family angle back in June at the Manning Passing Academy in Louisiana, and he didn’t leave much room for debate.
"Look, I love my university and alma mater and pull for them unconditionally, but nothing's more important to me than my family," Peyton said. "And when you have a nephew playing, I pull very hard for him every single Saturday. So that's pretty much a no-brainer that you're pulling for your nephew to play well."
He even told a story from camp about how he sees the choice.
"One of the kids was asking me earlier who I was going to go for," he said. "I said, 'Who do you think?'
and he said that he would go for his school over his relative. I went, 'Well, you and I are different.
You and I are wired differently.'"
That family thread runs through the Manning story. Peyton’s father, Archie Manning, dealt with the same kind of split back in the 1990s. Archie starred at Ole Miss, and Peyton’s Tennessee teams beat the Rebels 41-3 in Memphis in 1996 and 31-17 in Knoxville in 1997.
Peyton has also already had a turn in the GameDay chair. He was the guest picker in October 2022, when Tennessee beat Alabama 52-49 in Knoxville. On top of that, he remains connected to ESPN through his role as host of the ManningCast on Monday Night Football.
Even so, not everyone around Knoxville expects him to show up in that spot this week. Knoxville reporter Cora Hall wrote that the show might be the last place he’d go this week, and another local writer expects the Manning family to stay out of the spotlight.
Texas actor Glen Powell, who served as guest picker for the Week 2 show in Austin, said on the GameDay set that he’s going to the game with Peyton.
ESPN has leaned on Tennessee ties for its recent Knoxville picks. WWE star Bianca Belair was the guest picker before the 2022 Florida game, and Lady Vols great Candace Parker made the pick before last season’s 44-41 overtime loss to Georgia.
Other familiar Knoxville names have also been part of the show over the years. Country singers Morgan Wallen and Kelsea Ballerini both grew up in the area.
Comedian Leanne Morgan, a Tennessee graduate, recently won an Emmy for her Netflix show "Leanne." Country star Kenny Chesney was the guest picker at Tennessee in 2012.
GameDay airs from 9 a.m. to noon ET, with the final hour inside Neyland Stadium. Tennessee is 4-8 in its 12 previous GameDay appearances in Knoxville.
In Other News...
Arch Mannings Next Media Moment Feels Different For Texas Fans
Arch Mannings latest run through the media has had a noticeably different feel for Texas fans. After his offhand comments about laughing at a fake AI-altered video of a coach slapping a reporter drew backlash, he apologized, and Holly Rowe accepted it. Since then, his public appearances have been far more restrained, with the conversation centered almost entirely on football and little else.
For a player who is under a brighter spotlight than almost anyone in the sport, that shift matters. Texas has seen Mannings name attached to plenty of outside noise already, but the tone around his press availability has changed, and not just because of one awkward moment. The next time he steps to a microphone, Longhorns fans will be watching not only what he says, but how carefully he says it. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Tech Just Got Pulled Into A Brutal SEC Debate
The early returns on the 2026 college football season have only sharpened the conversation around how the SEC stacks up against everyone else, and Texas is right in the middle of it. The league has gone 10-2 against non-conference Power Four opponents, a mark no other major conference can match, with eye-catching wins from LSU over Clemson, Texas over Ohio State and Alabama over Florida State helping drive the case.
Georgia Tech getting pulled into the debate is the latest reminder that these records are shaping more than just national chatter, because they also feed the arguments about strength of schedule and conference depth. The Big 12 has stumbled to 5-7, the ACC sits at 6-9 and the Big Ten is 4-9 against non-league Power Four opponents, leaving Texas and its league peers with a growing talking point even as the larger question of how much these results should really settle still hangs in the air. [Read more 🡒]
Arch Manning Is Already Facing A Texas Spotlight Debate
Arch Manning has spent the last few days in a very different kind of spotlight, one that has nothing to do with coverages, reads or red-zone work. The Texas quarterback was pulled into a controversy over a fake AI-generated video that showed a postgame interaction between coach Steve Sarkisian and reporter Holly Rowe, and Manning later addressed it after first laughing at the clip. It was a brief internet moment, but in Austin, even the smallest public misstep can turn into a larger conversation about a player carrying the Longhorns biggest expectations.
What has stood out since then is how much more guarded Manning has sounded in his recent media appearances, sticking almost entirely to football topics and giving short answers ahead of the Tennessee trip. Fans have noticed the shift and have already split over what it means, with some seeing a young quarterback learning how to handle the pressure and others wondering whether the controversy has changed the way he is being received. For a player who is always under a microscope, the next public turn may matter almost as much as the next snap. [Read more 🡒]