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ESPN Announces 'College GameDay' Celebrity Picker for Oklahoma-Tennessee Game

Country music star and competition TV sensation Blake Shelton, an Ada native, will join the "GameDay" crew Saturday morning to make his college football picks.

John E. Hoover

Blake Shelton performs for his Back To the Honky Tonk Tour on Saturday February 24, 2024 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis.
Blake Shelton performs for his Back To the Honky Tonk Tour on Saturday February 24, 2024 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis. / Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
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Lee Corso has probably never picked against anyone from Ada, OK, before.

But he will this week.

Country music star and TV sensation Blake Shelton, an Ada native, was announced Thursday as the celebrity guest picker for Saturday’s Oklahoma-Tennessee pregame show.

ESPN’s “College GameDay” has become woven into the fabric of college football nationwide, and the show’s celebrity picker segment remains one of its most popular bits.

Shelton, a nine-time Grammy winner and co-star of NBC’s “The Voice,” will be on set Saturday morning to make his picks against Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, Nick Saban and host Rece Davis.

Shelton, 46, didn’t play football but graduated from Ada High School in 1994, at the beginning of the Cougars’ run of four consecutive state championships. That run was fueled by legendary quarterback Brandon Daniels, who went on to play for Bob Stoops at OU from 1996-99. Ada’s 19 state championships remains an Oklahoma record.

Shelton has sold more than 10 million records, has nearly 2 billion downloads/streams and has 19 million followers on Twitter/X. Once married to country star Miranda Lambert, Shelton began dating "The Voice" co-star Gwen Stefani in 2015, and in 2017, he was named "People" magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive," Shelton and Stefani married in July 2021.

WATCH: Blake Shelton wishes Ada High football team good luck in state title game

This week’s show is the first to originate from Norman since 2020, and will be the first at which fans can attend since 2012.

Oklahoma is tied with Michigan for the fourth-most “College GameDay” appearances, with 40. (Ohio State has 59, Alabama has 58 and Florida has 42.) OU is 27-13 all-time at games where “College GameDay” has originated, and the Sooners’ 27 wins ranks third all-time behind the Buckeyes (40-19) and Alabama (37-21).

This will mark College GameDay’s ninth appearance at an OU home contest (Oklahoma is 6-2). The last was in 2020, a 41-13 Sooners win over No. 14 Oklahoma State when fans were not permitted to be at College GameDay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. OU’s other wins when hosting College GameDay came in 2000 (31-14 vs. No. 1 Nebraska), 2001 (38-37 vs. No. 11 Kansas State), 2003 (52-9 vs. No. 14 Oklahoma State), 2007 (41-31 vs. No. 11 Missouri) and 2008 (65-21 vs. No. 2 Texas Tech). The two losses came in 1995 (38-17 to No. 4 Colorado) and 2012 (30-13 to No. 5 Notre Dame).

The rest of the “College GameDay” cast consists of college football insider Pete Thamel, college football betting analyst “Stanford Steve” Coughlin and reporters Jen Lada and Jess Sims.

This season’s celebrity guest pickers so far include WWE wrestler Sheamus, Texas A&M Heisman winner Johnny Manziel, 23-time gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps and women’s basketball legend Dawn Staley.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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