College Gameday Is Going To Clemson For Week 1

Sep 1, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; A general view of the set of ESPN College Gameday before the game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Michigan Wolverines at Cowboys Stadium. From left Desmond Howard , Chris Fowler , Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

ESPN’s football Saturday flagship program, College Gameday, is headed to Clemson for Week 1. The program’s official Twitter account shared the announcement on Tuesday.

This is the show’s first visit to Death Valley since Oct. 21, 2006, per ESPN public relations.

Clemson hosts Georgia in a top 10 clash, which will be the ABC primetime broadcast of Week 1.

ESPN has a four-hour broadcast planned, beginning at 9 a.m. ET. The final hour of College Gameday will run opposite several games, including ESPN networks broadcasts of Buffalo at Ohio State and Purdue at Cincinnati. The primary ESPN broadcast, slated for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff upon Gameday‘s conclusion, pits Rice against Texas A&M.

Last year, College Gameday opened the year at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas for Michigan vs. Alabama. As a personal aside, I wholeheartedly endorse the decision to broadcast from a campus. This year’s Cowboys Classic pitting TCU and LSU, and the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff of Virginia Tech vs. Alabama in Atlanta are the other two high profile Week 1 games.

For those keeping track, puts SaturdayBlitz.com at 1-for-1 on its predictions — though this one wasn’t difficult to tab. ESPN’s David Pollack slipped up in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.