Darius Rucker to feature as Week 1 guest picker on ESPN College GameDay

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J.D. Predicts North Carolina vs South Carolina

ESPN will head to Charlotte, NC on Saturday, with College GameDay featuring the highly-anticipated North Carolina–South Carolina matchup. A regional rivalry between two programs expected to have a great season, it’s one of the best games on the Week 1 schedule. College GameDay has brought out the big guns as well when it comes to a guest picker.

Country music star Darius Rucker will join the crew late in the show to give out his picks for Saturday’s slate. Rucker is connected to South Carolina, being a huge fan of the Gamecocks. He will also be a part of the new version of Coming To Your City, the iconic song associated with the beginning of College GameDay.

“Hey guys tune in at 9:00 on ESPN where me, Lainey Wilson, and Cadillac3 present the new version of Coming To Your City,” Rucker said. “And then stick around because at 11:30, I’m going to be the guest picker of ESPN College GameDay. And I’m going to go 90%.”

Saturday! Tune in at 9AM ET on @ESPN to hear @laineywilson, @thecadillac3 and I bring a new version of ‘Comin’ To Your City’ to @CollegeGameDay! Be sure to stick around and see my game picks around 11:30AM ET as the celebrity guest picker! 🏈 pic.twitter.com/3qz0bbH26O
— Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) August 31, 2023

Saturday will not be Rucker’s first appearance on ESPN College GameDay. He was a guest picker all the way back in 2012 — over a decade ago. A top-10 matchup between Georgia and South Carolina was taking place in Columbia, where the Gamecocks came out on top with a resounding win.

More importantly, Rucker had a great showing on the broadcast. Of the ten predictions he handed out, seven of them wound up being correct. Being over .500 is always a good outing on GameDay.

Rucker has higher expectations heading into this week’s edition. He wants to cross the 90% threshold and have an incredible day. Hopefully, he has been paying attention to fall camp practice reports and is ready to pick some of Week 1’s best matchups.

And when it comes time to pick between North Carolina and South Carolina, you probably have a pretty good guess on which direction Rucker will go.

We will get the chance to see Rucker at the beginning of the ESPN broadcast as well. After Rece Davis sets the scene for another college football season, Rucker will pop up along with Lainey Wilson and Cadillac3 for a brand-new opening tune.

Rucker is pretty excited to be featured on a weekly basis.

“Oh man, I’ve watched that opening so many times. I used to sit in my room and go, ‘I’ve gotta write a song so I can do the opening of GameDay,’” Rucker said in the video. “What I’m getting to do is pretty amazing.”