‘College GameDay’ taking surprise trip to Idaho for Oregon State-Boise State

ESPN went off the board with its pick for next Saturday's College GameDay location.

The network will take its flagship college football pregame show to Boise, Idaho for a Pac-12 game between Oregon State and Boise State. The Broncos are currently in pole position to secure the automatic Group of Six spot in this year's College Football Playoff.

The trip will mark the first time GameDay has traveled to a Group of Six campus since 2023 when the show went to Harrisonburg, Virginia for a game between Appalachian State and James Madison.

Boise State advanced to 8-1 on Saturday after a blowout win over Colorado State; the Broncos' lone loss this season came in their first game of the year against Oregon. Oregon State, meanwhile, sports a middling 5-4 record but is the toughest remaining game on Boise State's schedule.

Some of Saturday's other results likely pushed the trip to Boise over the top for ESPN. Kentucky's lopsided loss to Tennessee alongside Florida's loss the Oklahoma made next weekend's Florida-Kentucky matchup much less attractive. Likewise, LSU's loss to Alabama made a return trip to Baton Rouge, where GameDay opened the season, less desirable for Texas-LSU next Saturday. Missouri-Georgia offered another sensible option for the show, but the Tigers' loss to Texas on Saturday likely knocked Mizzou firmly out of the playoff picture.

Other viable options included Utah visiting Arizona, though maybe there's still some Pat McAfee-related considerations for avoiding the Utes even after their big win against BYU on Saturday, and USC traveling to Indiana, though GameDay was just in Bloomington last weekend. Perhaps the only other possibility would've been Wake Forest-SMU. The Demon Deacons are 8-1 with their lone loss coming to Miami, while SMU is still firmly in the running for an ACC title at 7-2.

But given Saturday's results, the choice was pretty wide open for GameDay ; there was no clear-cut destination for the show to go. Those are the weeks when ESPN can make the refreshing decision to show teams outside the Power-2 some love, and the network chose to do exactly that.