Clemson Football: When’s the last time the Tigers hosted ESPN College GameDay?

Could Clemson football host ESPN College GameDay this upcoming season? It’s been quite a while since the popular television show has been in Tiger Town.

You have to go back to 2016 to see the last time that ESPN College GameDay was in Clemson.

The Clemson football program has been a part of many feature games with ESPN College GameDay, including postseason play and road games against teams like Texas A&M, Louisville and Virginia Tech over the past few years.

However, the program hasn’t actually come to Tiger Town since October of 2016 when the Tigers took on the No. 3-rated Louisville Cardinals. Clemson won the game 42-36 in a thrilling barnburner that went down to the wire.

As the reigning National Champions, it certainly would make sense for the ESPN College GameDay team to want to make it back up to Clemson, but opportunities are few when looking at the Tigers’ home slate.

The best opportunities for the Tigers to be a feature game at home on College GameDay is against Georgia Tech on a Thursday to open the season, Texas A&M the following week, or potentially Florida State or Boston College later in the year.

The Georgia Tech game could potentially be featured on a special edition of ESPN College GameDay. Typically the show doesn’t broadcast on Thursdays, but perhaps they use the notoriety of it to push the ACC Network. That would at least get the crew into Tiger Town and be a great marketing strategy going forward for ESPN as it tries to get the ACC Network off the ground. It also would be a special way to feature Clemson as the reigning National Champions.

The following week, the Tigers will host a Texas A&M team that will likely be ranked inside the top-15, maybe even higher. Despite the fact that this game will have the eyes of the nation on it, there is little to no chance that GameDay comes for this one. First, the show was in College Station last year for the matchup. Secondly, LSU at Texas is happening that event. There’s no way the show misses out on the opportunity to preview that one.

The only other chances for Clemson football to host ESPN College GameDay would be if an ACC team found a way to reel off some wins and become a ranked team. That likely won’t happen with Florida State, but could happen with Boston College.

If the Seminoles did somehow come to life and were potentially 5-0 coming into the game, they’d probably be ranked inside the top-20, if not top-15. The game would have to compete with Georgia at Tennessee and Michigan State at Ohio State as the top games of the week.

Boston College, in my opinion, is the more likely team to reel off some wins and potentially hold a ranked spot coming into their matchup with Clemson. Perhaps the Eagles are 6-1 coming into matchup with the Tigers.

They’d likely be ranked inside the top-20 or top-15. The game would have to compete with plenty of other potentially intriguing games, though, like Washington State at Oregon and Notre Dame at Michigan.

Right now, I’d be inclined to think that Clemson football doesn’t get to host an ESPN College GameDay feature game this season. There are a few options, but it likely looks as if the Tigers will have to wait another year before the popular show returns.