College GameDay will be in Tuscaloosa this Saturday in advance of a massive SEC matchup between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 PM ET on ABC.
GameDay brings in a celebrity guest picker toward the end of the show, usually someone who has ties to the home team, to make predictions for who will win the biggest games of the week.
Alabama has hosted GameDay 31 times since 1993, and the list of guest pickers who have come through Tuscaloosa includes Jerry Jones, Derrick Henry, Joe Namath (three times), country star Eric Church, former MLB player Jake Peavy, and comedian Nate Bargatze, among many others.
So who might it be this Saturday? Former ‘Bama coach Nick Saban already serves as a regular on GameDay this season, taking him out of the running.
There are still plenty of other celebrities who could get the call to come to Tuscaloosa on Saturday, including the following:
Channing Tatum
The actor from Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street is from Cullman, Alabama, and is a well known Alabama fan, and if his busy schedule affords him time to drop by Bryant-Denny Stadium he would make a great guest picker.
Joe Namath
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and Namath has now done this three times, back in 2014, again in 2020 and last year as well. ESPN may not want the same guest picker back to back years, but Namath will be in Tuscaloosa anyway as an honorary team captain, 60 years after he led the Crimson Tide to a national championship in 1964.
Terry Saban
Nick Saban’s wife would make for exceptionally entertaining television if she were asked to be a guest picker. Terry tells phenomenal stories about coach Saban, while coach has a history of praising his wife for her football expertise. This might be a great opportunity to put that to the test.
Jason Isbell
GameDay brings musicians on as guest pickers quite regularly, including Blake Shelton last week at Oklahoma, and Grammy-winning artist Jason Isbell makes a ton of sense as a Green Hill, Alabama native and known Crimson Tide fan. Isbell is not playing a show this weekend, so a trip to Tuscaloosa to play a few bars and pick a few college football games could be in the cards for the former Drive-By Truckers band member.