ESPN College GameDay coming back to Charlotte, will set up in iconic city spot
If there’s anywhere in Charlotte to go for an intimate look at the uptown skyline, it’s Romare Bearden Park. On Saturday, Sept. 4, nearly 2 million viewers will turn their TV sets to ESPN and see the uptown landmark behind some of the most famous sports faces in the country.
For the first week of the 2021 college football season — and for the third time in history — ESPN’s College GameDay will broadcast live from Charlotte. The Romare Bearden Park location, in the heart of uptown, provides a perfect backdrop of the city skyline.
The Saturday morning college football preview show, hosted by Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack, is coming to the Queen City in anticipation of the Duke’s Mayo Classic between Clemson and Georgia. The game will be played at Bank of America Stadium at 7:30 p.m. that Saturday, to be broadcast on ABC as part of their ABC Saturday Night Football.
It will mark College GameDay’s first visit to Charlotte for a game that wasn’t the ACC Championship.
In 2017, the program came to Romare Bearden Park around Christmastime the same day No. 1 Clemson went on to demolish No. 7 Miami 38-3 for the ACC title. This past season, College GameDay returned in December when the Tigers clobbered Notre Dame 34-10.
Clemson has been the main attraction at every edition of College GameDay hosted in the Queen City. This September will mark Clemson’s third appearance on the Charlotte version of the program and the Tigers’ 21st overall appearance on the show since the 2015 season — the most of any team.
Last year’s ACC Championship was also the second time that season College GameDay was in North Carolina, and the third time that year in the Carolinas overall.
On Sept. 12, 2020, the program was in Winston-Salem covering a Clemson beatdown of Wake Forest, 37-13. On Oct. 10, the show went to the Tigers’ home in the Upstate of South Carolina as they torched the Hurricanes 42-17.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 3:09 PM with the headline "ESPN College GameDay coming back to Charlotte, will set up in iconic city spot."