With NC State being a potential location for ESPN's College GameDay I've decided to take a look at the weekly match-ups to see how likely it is that ESPN will end up in Raleigh. This lead me down a rabbit-hole so I'm going to take some guesses at where ESPN will end up the rest of the year.
Since the folks here at SCACCHoops.com are uber stat nerds, I've uncovered some mildly interest stats regarding ESPN GameDay appearances since 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locations_of_College_GameDay_(football)
Teams Appearing 5x in one year: LSU 2011
Teams Appearing 4x in one year: Ohio St 2006, Oklahoma 2008, Bama 2008, Oregon 2010, Bama 2012, Notre Dame 2012
Very Rarely are teams outside the top 10 on GameDay
Only 1 unranked Host each year since 2007
Week 5
Let's go ahead and assume that ESPN brings the GameDay crew to Raleigh this week for FSU's 3rd appearance of the year, you can likely count them out for any future locations unless they reach the College Football Playoff.
Week 6 Options (ranked in order from most likely to least likely)
#3 Alabama @ #10 Ole Miss
#8 LSU @ #5 Auburn
#15 Az St @ #17 USC - Not likely after USC's dismantling at the hands of BC in week 3
#24 Nebraska @ #11 Mich. St
Week 7
#2 Oregon @ #12 UCLA
#10 Ole Miss @ #6 TAMU
TCU @ #7 Baylor - both teams have some tough match-ups before this week.
* not a whole lot of interesting match-ups this week.
Week 8
#20 K State @ #4 Oklahoma
#16 Stanford @ #15 Az St - ASU has to run a gauntlet of games to get to this game undefeated but they could be top 10 team if they do so.
#6 TAMU @ #3 Bama
#9 Notre Dame @ #1 FSU
NC State @ Louisville - Just seeing if you are paying attention.
Week 9
Another SEC heavy week
#3 Bama at Tenn - not a very good match-up but a big rivalry that ESPN loves
#14 USCe at #5 Auburn
#10 Ole Miss at #8 LSU
#23 Ohio St at Penn St
Mich at #11 Mich St
Week 10
On paper this is probably the worst week for match-ups currently. Things will change with the rankings but right now, ugh.
#16 Stanford at #2 Oregon
Florida vs #13 UGA
#5 Auburn at #10 Ole Miss
#25 Ok St at #20 K-State
Week 11
This is almost certainly Alabama vs LSU which has been featured every eyar since 20011
#3 Bama at #8 LSU
#7 Baylor at #4 Oklahoma
#6 TAMU at #5 Auburn
#9 Notre Dame at #15 Az St
#23 Ohio St at #11 Mich St
Week 12
Another week of not very sexy match-ups using the current rankings. Which makes me think we will see a non-SEC team here.
#24 Nebraska at #19 Wisc
#5 Auburn at #13 UGA - certainly these rankings will change by week 12
#18 Mizzou at #6 TAMU
Week 13
This is the SEC's mid-season cupcake week as they have match-ups with Western Carolina, Samford, Charleston So, So. Alabama, Tenn, Eastern Kentucky, Vandy
Louisville at #9 Notre Dame - I think we will see the Cardinals back in the polls and that makes this match-up more exciting. It is an NBC game so I'm not sure how that affects things.
#25 Ok St at #7 Baylor
#17 USC at #12 UCLA
Week 14
Possibly the best week of college football match-ups for the fans. Some great games on Thurs (LSU vs Tamu) and Fri (Stanford vs UCLA) among others. Saturday's games are full of traditional GameDay locations with the Civil War, Iron Bowl, Egg Bowl and other good match-ups.
#9 Notre Dame at #17 USC
#5 Auburn at #2 Bama
Florida at #1 Florida St
#2 Oregon at Oregon St
#11 Mich St at Penn St
#14 USC at #22 Clemson
Michigan at #23 Ohio St
NC State at UNC
Week 15
If UCF at ECU wasn't on a Thursday night, both of their schedules set that one up to be an important battle of ranked teams. Such as it is, GameDay will either be in studio or at one of 2 games:
#25 Ok St at #4 Oklahoma
#20 K State at #7 Baylor
