Tennessee basketball to host ESPN's College GameDay on Saturday, before facing Texas
Tennessee basketball will host ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday, before the ninth-ranked Vols take on No. 7 Texas inside a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. The pregame show airs live on ESPN from 11 a.m. to Noon Eastern Time
Fans can begin lining up to be part of the live audience for the show at 7 a.m. ET Saturday. Tennessee students will line up at the student gate while general fans will enter at Gate D. Both gates open at 9:30 a.m.
Tickets to the game are not required to get into the arena to be part of the show’s audience. Free parking is available in the G10 garage, but vehicles must clear the garage by 1 p.m. ET, with digital parking permits required for re-entry.
Vols hosting ESPN’s College GameDay for third time
“We can’t wait for Vol Nation to show up and show out for College GameDay,” Tennessee senior wing Josiah-Jordan James said in a press release. “We already know Tennessee has the best fanbase on the planet. Saturday is going to be an awesome opportunity to showcase that.”
The arena will be cleared when the College GameDay show is over. Tennessee and Texas are scheduled for a 6:05 p.m. ET tipoff on ESPN, with Dave O’Brien, Dick Vitale and Kris Budden calling the game.
The women’s basketball version of College GameDay will broadcast live from Thompson-Boling Arena on Thursday, when the Lady Vols host UConn in an 8 p.m. ET game on ESPN.
Tennessee, according to a press release, is the only school to host College GameDay in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. The Tennessee football program hosted College GameDay twice this season, before wins over Florida and Alabama.
Football has hosted GameDay 11 times, basketball has hosted three times and the Lady Vols will have hosted twice.
Up Next: No. 9 Tennessee at LSU, Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN
Tennessee basketball previously hosted GameDay before a win over Florida in 2009 and a win over Vanderbilt in 2011. The Vols are 3-3 with GameDay on site, including four road games at Memphis, at Kentucky twice and at Kansas.
The Vols play at LSU on Saturday, a 4 p.m. ET start on ESPN at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge. They return home Wednesday to host Georgia at Thompson-Boling Arena, 7 p.m. ET start on SEC Network.
Texas comes to Tennessee for the Big 12-SEC Challenge game after the Vols lost 52-51 to the Longhorns last season in Austin. Tennessee is 4-0 in the challenge, beating Kansas (2021), West Virginia (2019) and Kansas State (2014, 2017). The Vols won away form home in the Big 12-SEC Challenge at Iowa State (2018) and lost at Kansas (2020) and TCU (2016), along with the loss at Texas.
The new SEC-ACC Challenge will replace the Big 12-SEC Challenge next season.
