ESPN has already announced where their first edition of College GameDay will be next year, they will travel with Notre Dame and Army to Dublin, Ireland for their August 29th, 2020 contest in Aviva Stadium. This will be GameDay’s first ever broadcast outside of the United States. The Irish have a long history of playing games outside the country, dating back to October of 1954 when they played Eastern New Mexico in Canada, with games against Miami in Japan in 1979, and this coming season will mark the 3rd time the Irish have played in Dublin.
Brad Crawford of 247Sports predicted where College GameDay would make their other stops for next year, and Irish fans will be happy to see Crawford predicting at least two more contests where ESPN’s pregame show will be present.
Crawford projects the second visit for GameDay to see the Irish in their week 5 matchup against Wisconsin at historic Lambeau Field. This game makes plenty of sense for GameDay to attend, a potential top 10 matchup in an NFL stadium. The only other game I see that has a possibility for GameDay to attend is Baylor visiting Oklahoma, but Edwards projects them visiting Oklahoma the week after, so Wisconsin against the Irish makes the most sense.
The third potential trip for GameDay featuring the Irish would be the contest against Clemson in South Bend in week 10. This game is a toss-up with the Alabama vs LSU contest, but it remains to be seen how this year’s champions will recover from the mass exodus of talent to the NFL including presumed #1 overall pick QB Joe Burrow. If both Notre Dame and Clemson are undefeated, it will be an easy choice, but if all four teams are unscathed that late into the season, GameDay will have a major choice on their hands.
The Irish have a schedule that sets them up for a potential run at a College Football Playoff spot and having marquee games on the schedule, as long as they win them, will be important to getting a top 4 ranking to qualify for a chance to compete for a National Championship.