Will College GameDay Break Mold Again or Go Back to the SEC Next Week?

Remember when College GameDay used to represent all of college football and not just be a mouthpiece for the SEC?

Kids today will probably never understand how special those days were. Sure, the show went to Big 12 country Saturday as it featured Texas Tech and BYU in a top 10 affair, the second straight week it opted for a Big 12 game.

Could the show possibly stay away from the SEC another week and visit where Notre Dame will be instead?

Notre Dame improved to 7-2 Saturday with a dominating 49-10 win over Navy in South Bend and has its most challenging remaining test next week at Pittsburgh. Could the long-time rivalry game get special treatment from ESPN and play host to College GameDay as the Panthers checked in No. 24 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings?

Notre Dame Travels to Pittsburgh for Rivalry Renewal

Notre Dame has not just College Football Playoff hopes but also national championship dreams as we head towards mid-November. It will take on a Pittsburgh team that's in the middle of an ACC Championship chase and sits at 7-2 overall this season.

It's one of four matchups next week that are between two teams ranked in the initial College Football Playoff rankings. Now, those are certain to change after a variety of upsets this week, but the four games are as follows (with this past week's CFP rankings used for reference):

No. 10 Notre Dame (7-2) at No. 24 Pittsburgh (7-2) - Noon p.m. ET. ACC Network
No. 12 Oklahoma (7-2) at No. 4 Alabama (8-1) - 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC
No. 20 Iowa (6-3) at No. 19 USC (7-2) - 3:30 p.m. ET, Fox
No. 11 Texas (7-2) at No. 5 Georgia (8-1) - 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC

Why College GameDay Should Go to Notre Dame at Pittsburgh

Believe it or not, and to some this will be difficult to do, but there is college football outside of the SEC. No matter the levels of marketing and PR the conference has with ESPN, there are championship level teams outside of it.

College GameDay could go to the Oklahoma vs. Alabama or Texas vs. Georgia battles next week, but why should it?

GameDay was at Alabama a few short weeks ago when Vanderbilt was in town, and it was at Georgia when Ole Miss visited. It's not that these games aren't important, as they serve essentially as CFP elimination games this week, but I'm not much of one for return trips in the same season, unless its a downright can't-miss option.

Is Georgia hosting a Texas team that got beat up by Florida (who just got annihilated by Kentucky), worthy of that?

Is Alabama and Oklahoma worthy of another trip to Tuscaloosa?

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway:

If I had to guess, GameDay will again be at an SEC game. Do we really think it'll be three-straight weeks without SEC overlove by the show?

Would SEC commissioner Greg Sankey allow that?

Whether it's Notre Dame and Pittsburgh or a lesser-known rivalry at a different level, I think I speak for much of the nation in hoping its something unique again like Texas Tech and Utah were the last two weeks instead of another SEC PR push by the show.