Utah to host ESPN's College GameDay for ranked matchup vs. Cincinnati

ESPN's premier college football pregame crew will showcase the first-ever meeting between the Utes and Bearcats

The ESPN College Gameday crew broadcasts from the field prior to the NCAA football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Penn State Nittany Lions at Ohio Stadium. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

College GameDay is coming to Salt Lake City.

Utah will host ESPN's premier college football pregame show next Saturday for its top-25 showdown against Cincinnati, the sports programming network announced Sunday, as both teams came off victories in Week 9.

Coming off a dominant win over Colorado, the No. 24 Utes (6-2, 3-2 Big 12) will welcome the No. 17 Bearcats (7-1, 5-0 Big 12) to Rice-Eccles Stadium for a pivotal clash between two of the league's top scoring offenses.

Utah, ranking second in the Big 12 at 38.9 points per game, looks to remain in the conference title hunt following a 53-7 win over Colorado on Saturday. A win over a Cincinnati squad that averages 38.3 points per game — third-best in the Big 12 — would certainly help the Utes keep pace in a competitive Big 12 title race while knocking off one of the league's last unbeaten teams in conference play.

Oct 25, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; The Utah Utes celebrate a moment of loudness between the third and fourth quarters of a game against the Colorado Buffaloes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

College GameDay — featuring Rece Davis and panelists Kirk Herbstreit, Nick Saban, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee — will go live from President's Circle on the campus of the University of Utah from 7-10 a.m. MDT Saturday to break down all the key storylines surrounding the first meeting between the Utes and Bearcats.

It'll be the second time this season that a major network brought its pregame college football show to Salt Lake City; Fox's Big Noon Kickoff was in town for Utah's Big 12 opener against Texas Tech on Sept. 20. Utah last hosted College GameDay for a bout against Oregon on Oct. 28, 2023.

After making several stops throughout SEC and Big Ten country, College GameDay will highlight a Big 12 matchup for the first time this season on Saturday. In fact, the crew's trip out to Coral Gables, Florida, on Sept. 20 for an in-state battle between Miami and Florida was the only other visit that didn't completely revolve around the SEC or Big Ten.

The last time a game pitting two Big 12 teams against one another was put in College GameDay's spotlight was the 2022 conference championship game between Kansas State and TCU in Arlington, Texas, which came less than a month after the pregame show was in Austin, Texas, to promote a Texas-TCU showdown on Nov. 12.

ESPN, which entered a 10-year, $3 billion media rights deal with the SEC beginning in the 2024-25 season, has sent College GameDay to an SEC town in six of its nine on-campus visits this season. It notably passed up an opportunity to showcase the latest Holy War rivalry game, opting to go to Athens, Georgia, for a top-10 affair between Georgia and Ole Miss instead.

Kickoff between the Utes and Bearcats has been set for 8:15 p.m. MT on ESPN.