ESPN’s College GameDay announces “Classic” decision

ESPN’s College GameDay announced its destination for Week 5 of the college football season, and it wasn’t where the preseason prognosticators predicted.

The iconic college pregame show is coming to Athens, GA to be on-site for the nobody-could-have-expected Top 10 matchup between the Georgia Bulldogs and Arkansas Razorbacks.

Which headgear will Lee Corso choose for Dawgs-Hogs? Coach Corso donned the Hairy Dawg headgear prior to Georgia’s season-opening Duke’s Mayo Classic matchup with Clemson.

This will be College GameDay’s sixth trip to the Classic City. Notably, this will be the third straight season the “Built by The Home Depot” set will be erected in Athens.

Georgia football will look to extend its winning streak to four when College GameDay is in attendance.

GameDay’s first five trips to Georgia’s campus provided these game results:

October 10, 1998: #5 Tennessee vs. #3 Georgia – Tee Martin and the Vols came Between the Hedges and dominated the Dawgs, walking out of Athens with a convincing 22-3 win en route to winning a national title.

September 27, 2009: #8 Alabama vs. #3 Georgia – The Blackout that wasn’t, Alabama came out and punched the Dawgs in the mouth, racing to a 31-0 halftime lead and showing that the highly-anticipated 2008 season would lack the magic of 2007. The 41-30 final was more a cosmetic, than representative, result.

September 28, 2013: #6 LSU vs. #9 Georgia – Murray vs. Mettenberger. One of the louder days in Sanford Stadium’s storied history. A whoever has the ball last will win offensive rollercoaster, Aaron Murray found Justin Scott-Wesley for the game-clinching touchdown with less than two minutes left in the 4th quarter.

September 21, 2019: #7 Notre Dame vs. #3 Georgia – A picture-perfect day in Athens to host Notre Dame fans in the Classic City and return the favor for a once-in-a-lifetime weekend for Dawgs fans in South Bend two seasons prior, Jake Fromm and Lawrence Cager sealed the win for Georgia late. It was also the debut of the celebrated red lights at Sanford to add to the already electric Light Up Sanford tradition at the close of the third quarter.

October 3, 2020: #7 Auburn vs. #3 Georgia  – Stetson Bennett and Georgia’s defense led the Dawgs to a 27-6 win over the Tigers in last year’s rendition of The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Gameday was held inside Sanford Stadium with no fans present due to COVID-19 restrictions.

College GameDay will set up in Myers Quad and Georgia fans are encouraged to arrive early. The gathered crowd was blissfully delirious during the show’s previous stop there for the Notre Dame game in 2019.