How Penn State’s College GameDay Streak Compares To Other Schools
ESPN’s College GameDay will return to Happy Valley for the third consecutive year this weekend after not coming to town since 2009.
This 2017-2019 stretch marks the first time College GameDay has come to University Park in consecutive years, making Penn State the 10th school to host GameDay three years in a row, and currently one of two schools with an active streak of three or more consecutive seasons.
The first school to three-peat GameDay was Notre Dame from 1993-95, during the first three years of GameDay shooting on location at the site of the week’s biggest game. No. 2 Notre Dame’s 1993 clash against No. 1 Florida State was the first time GameDay shot on location and the only time the team did so that season before starting to go on the road every week in 1994.
The next school to three-peat was Alabama, which finished a three-peat a year after Notre Dame, in 1996. Although these three games took place off-campus in Bama’s then home, Birmingham Stadium, GameDay went on to four-peat in Tuscaloosa from 2013-16, appearing twice during both the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
The next school to three-peat GameDay was, *deep sigh*, Ohio State, which three-peated 1996-98 and 2008-10. The Buckeyes have hosted GameDay during each of the last four seasons and if they host this season, it’ll be a FIVE-peat of the show hitting Columbus. Lee Corso, I know GameDay destinations are most likely out of your control, but, please don’t let this happen.
Ohio State is the fifth school to four-peat and would be the second school to five-peat after Oregon hosted GameDay a record SIX times from 2009-2014.
Other schools to three-peat GameDay hosting duties include Florida from 2001-03, South Carolina from 2004-06, and LSU from 2007-09. LSU was actually scheduled to three-peat in 2005 until its game against Tennessee was postponed due to the approach of Hurricane Rita.
Florida State became the first school to four-peat from 2000-2003 and is the only school to four-peat twice, from 2011-2014.
USC four-peated from 2010-2013, losing the first three of those games. The Trojans also three-peated during the Matt Leinart/Reggie Bush years from 2004-2006.
Michigan has hosted GameDay 12 times, including three times in two years, but
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