College football’s premier pregame show will preview Week 1’s South Carolina vs. North Carolina matchup in Duke’s Mayo Classic, live from Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte

ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot will kick off the 2023 college football season on Saturday, Sept. 2, in Charlotte, N.C., before the South Carolina Gamecocks face the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Duke’s Mayo Classic. The three-hour show (9 a.m. ET) will be live from Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte to kick off GameDay’s 37th season and 30th year of road shows, which have become synonymous with college football Saturdays over the past three decades.

One of the premier matchups of Week 1, the ‘Battle of the Carolinas’ neutral site game between SEC and ACC rivals will be played at Bank of America Stadium in primetime on ABC (7:30 p.m.). The game location is also significant with the ACC offices now headquartered in Charlotte.

This will be College GameDay’s 440th road show all-time – and the first-ever visit to a South Carolina-North Carolina game. The Gamecock’s last GameDay appearance was 2014, while the Tar Heels appeared in 2010. This is the third trip to uptown Charlotte for College GameDay in recent years. The show also originated from Romare Bearden Park before the 2017 ACC Championship Game and the 2021 Duke’s Mayo Classic when Georgia faced Clemson in a Week 1 top-five showdown.

Rece Davis hosts the three-hour College GameDay joined by analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee with college football insider Pete Thamel and reporters Jen Lada and Jess Sims.

Before this first road show of the season, College GameDay will host a two-hour preview show (10 a.m. – noon) in Week 0 from ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., studios on Saturday, August 26.

In 2022, College GameDay delivered its most-viewed college football regular season, averaging 2.1 million viewers. In all, college football’s most-watched pregame show delivered a 10% increase over the prior year and nine episodes of at least two million viewers.

ESPN’s Expanded Digital Coverage
ESPN’s social and digital pre-pregame show, Countdown to GameDay, will also return for the 2023 season ahead of Week 1’s GameDay in Charlotte with hosts Christine Williamson, Harry Douglas and Harry Lyles Jr. The show is available across Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the ESPN App at 8:30 a.m. ET weekly.

Additional details and information regarding College GameDay’s Week 1 show, including special guests, will be announced in the coming weeks. Show details will also be available on College GameDay’s Hub HERE.

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