CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – For the first time in the history of ESPN’s flagship college football pregame show, ESPN’s College Gameday Built by The Home Depot will air outside of the United States in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday, August 24, at 9 a.m. ET to kick off the 2024 college football season.
ESPN announced on Saturday, December 9, 2023, that ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot would broadcast live for the first time from Dublin, Ireland, for the Week 0 Aer Lingus College Football Classic featuring ACC rivals Florida State and Georgia Tech at Aviva Stadium.
GameDay, a weekly, three-hour traveling television program that sets up shop at college campuses for marquee matchups, first aired in 1987 as an in-studio show with host Tim Brando and analysts Lee Corso and Beano Cook. GameDay ventured out of the television studio and began incorporating live broadcasts in different locations in 1993.
Florida State was part of the first live broadcast on campus, as the No. 1 nationally ranked Seminoles faced No. 2 Notre Dame on November 13, 1993, in South Bend, Indiana.
The season opener in Dublin will mark Florida State’s 36th appearance on GameDay, the eighth-most in the country and the most of any ACC school. Georgia Tech will make its sixth appearance on the show, and first since 2019. This will be only the second time GameDay has been at the site of this ACC rivalry matchup with the lone previous meeting in 1998. GameDay was scheduled to be part of the ACC matchup on September 15, 2001, but the game was postponed due to the September 11 attacks.
This is the first international game in Florida State program history, while Georgia Tech beat Boston College, 17-14, in Ireland in the season opener in 2016.
Since the 2020 season, Gameday has been on the site of a game involving at least one ACC school 12 times, including on-campus broadcasts at seven schools in Clemson (twice), Duke, Louisville, Miami, Notre Dame (2020), Pitt and Wake Forest.
The Gameday show, which features live musical performances, fan contests, celebrity guests and other fun features centered on weekly matchups, will once again be anchored by Rece Davis, who will be joined by analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Steve Coughlin, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Nick Saban. Pete Thamel, Jen Lada and Jess Sims will also contribute reporting.
ACC Football Notes
- Four ACC teams were ranked in the Preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll and the Preseason US LBM Coaches Poll.
- Florida State came in at No. 10, ahead of Clemson at No. 14 and Miami at No. 19, while NC State was ranked No. 24 in the preseason AP poll.
- Florida State came in at No. 10, ahead of Clemson at No. 14 and Miami at No. 19, while NC State was ranked No. 22 in the preseason coaches poll.
- Florida State was favored to repeat in the 2024 ACC Football Preseason Poll.
- Florida State led all teams with 2,708 points, while Clemson was second with 2,657 points. Miami placed third with 2,344 points, and NC State captured fourth with 2,318 points.
- The ACC is the Conference of Quarterbacks, with the return of full-time starters Thomas Castellanos at Boston College, Cade Klubnik at Clemson, Haynes King at Georgia Tech, Preston Stone at SMU, and Kyron Drones at Virginia Tech, and transfers DJ Uiagalelei at Florida State, Maalik Murphy at Duke, Tyler Shough at Louisville, Cam Ward at Miami, Grayson McCall at NC State, and Kyle McCord at Syracuse among others.
- ACC had 13 quarterbacks named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award preseason watch list, the most of any conference.
- ACC had 10 quarterbacks named to the Maxwell Award preseason watch list, no other conference had more.
- ACC had eight quarterbacks named to the Davey O’Brien Award preseason watch list, no other conference had more.
- ACC has the top-ranked group of quarterback transfers in 2024 by CBS Sports.
- 13 QBs in the league enter the 2024 season with over 20 career touchdown passes and 3,500 career passing yards.
- Eight quarterbacks from ACC schools are projected to start Week 1 in the 2024 NFL season — 25 percent of NFL teams.
- Since 2018, the ACC has had at least one quarterback drafted in the first round in five different drafts — the only conference to do that.
- The ACC’s non-conference schedule continues to be the most challenging in the country.
- 27 games against Power 4 opponents, including Notre Dame, the most of any conference.
- Nine non-conference games against teams ranked in the final 2023 Associated Press Top 25 Poll, the most of any conference.
- 10 non-conference games against teams in ESPN’s 2024 Way-Too-Early Top 25, the most of any conference.
- ACC Features Elite Coaching Leadership
- Six ACC head coaches were named to the 2024 Dodd Trophy Preseason Watch List, as announced by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and the Peach Bowl, no other conference had more.
- Two of the three active coaches who have won national titles reside in the ACC – Dabo Swinney led Clemson to national titles in 2016 and 2018. North Carolina’s Mack Brown won a national title at Texas in 2005.
- The 20th ACC Football Championship Game will kick off in primetime at 8 p.m. ET on ABC on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.