Is College GameDay coming to Penn State-Oregon? ESPN's Week 5 pick is in

Penn State football is preparing to host Oregon for a top-10 matchup on Sept. 27 at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions return to the practice field on Sunday following a bye week while the Ducks played a rivalry game with Oregon State on Saturday afternoon. Now, both programs are looking ahead to next Saturday along with the rest of the college football world. And that has many people wondering a simple question: Will ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ broadcast live from State College next weekend?

The answer is yes. The news was announced on the program’s social media pages. As of the time of this post’s publication, it was unclear what FOX’s plan was for its ‘Big Noon Kickoff Show’ next weekend. But, it would be surprising if the Big Ten’s main television partner does not bring its pregame studio set to Penn State. This post will be updated if and when more information becomes available.

As for GameDay, many wondered if ESPN would skip State College in favor of attending an SEC game, given that the network is the main television partner of that conference. Options included No. 3 LSU at Ole Miss, No. 22 Auburn at Texas A&M, and No. 14 Alabama at No. 5 Georgia.

The popular and long-running pregame show was last at Penn State back in November of last year before losing to Ohio State. It has hosted the show 10 times, has played in 27 games at a venue where the show was broadcast from, and is 10-17 in those contests.

NBC will air Penn State-Oregon. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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PSU redshirt report after Week 3

Blue-White Illustrated will be tracking how many games each Penn State freshman plays this fall en route to either keeping a year of eligibility or preserving one. Again, for emphasis, players can suit up in four or fewer regular season games and as many postseason games as possible without burning their redshirt. Once a player suits up in five regular season games, he does burn it.

Against the Wildcats, only receiver Koby Howard and offensive lineman Eagan Boyer played, per PFF. Each saw just four snaps. The latter made his debut while the former played for the second time this season.

More: Trimmings: Which non-green light Penn State freshmen are making progress?

On defense, Dixson had a Class of 2025 high 29 snaps on the day. He turned them into three tackles. Coleman and Kemajou were in for 25 and 24 plays, respectively. Both netted just one tackle. Linebacker Alex Tatsch made his Penn State debut. He finished with three tackles (one for loss) over 21 snaps. Joseph’s pick six came on one of his 19 defensive snaps. Defensive linemen Cortez Harris and Randy Adirika also saw time. The former had 13 snaps to the latter’s 12. Neither hit the stat sheet, however.

Here is the Penn State Class of 2025 breakdown:

Three games:

DE Chaz Coleman

DE Yvan Keamjou

CB Daryus Dixson

Two games:

WR Koby Howard

DT Randy Adirika

CB Jahmir Joseph

One game:

OL Owen Aliciene

K Matthew Parker

LB Alex Tatsch

DE Cortez Harris

Zero games:

OL Malachi Goodman

TE Andrew Olesh

LB LaVar Arrington II

WR Matthew Outten

TE Matt Henderson

WR Jeff Exinor

RB Jabree Wallace-Coleman

DE Dayshaun Burnett

LB Cam Smith

DE Daniel Jennings

RB Tikey Hayes

WR Lyrick Samuel

TE Brian Kortovich

CB Xxavier Thomas

OL Brady O’Hara

CB Braz Thomas

QB Bekkem Kritza

OL Michael Troutman

CB Josh Johnson