Who is the College GameDay guest picker at Penn State before the Oregon game?

ESPN’s renowned ‘College GameDay’ show will air live from State College on Saturday, ahead of a top-10 matchup between the visiting No. 6 Oregon Ducks and No. 2 Penn State. It marks the second consecutive season that the long-running four-hour pregame telecast will originate from the school’s University Park campus. It was also in town last November before the Lions lost to Ohio State.

This year, head coach James Franklin’s team will seek a better outcome once the broadcast goes off the air and the game is underway. It is currently a 3.5-point favorite at BetMGM to beat Dan Lanning’s team. That does not mean every member of the cast, which includes host Rece Davis and analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard, and Nick Saban will pick the Lions to win. But, it’s a safe bet that the guest picker, who is always tied to the host school, will. And, speaking of that person, the pick is now in for who it will be this weekend.

LaVar Arrington will join the aforementioned group to pick numerous top 25 games, including the Ducks-Lions outcome, in the show’s final 15 minutes or so. The former Nittany Lion linebacker was a two-time All-American in 1998-1999. He won the Bednarik and the Butkus Award as a junior before being selected second overall in the 2000 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins.

Last year’s guest picker was actor and Penn State alum Keegan-Michael Key. According to Cole’s GameDay Blog, which meticulously tracks such things, Key went 5-3 last November. We’ll see if Arrington can better the mark of the frequent GameDay guest picker.

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Penn State and Oregon are set to clash in primetime

NBC is televising the regular season rematch of last year’s Big Ten title game. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Noah Eagle (play-by-play), Penn State alum Todd Blackledge (color commentary), and Kathryn Tappen (sideline reporter) will be on the call. The sides will not meet in the regular season in 2026. But, the Lions do travel to Eugene in 2027. They will then host the Ducks again in 2028.

“[The media has] been thinking about this one for a long time, and now we finally can focus on as well,” Lanning said earlier this week. “I mean, Penn State is an extremely talented team. They do do it well in all three phases. Coach [James] Franklin runs a great organization, and they present a ton of challenges. I’ve said it before, but defensively, there are as multiple and disruptive as anybody we will play. They got great edge play. Dani Dennis-Sutton is one of the better defensive edge players in the league and in the nation. They’ve got good play in the back end as well. They do a great job overlapping, and have a lot of variety of schemes.”