The Oklahoma-Tennessee showdown on Saturday has been circled on college football calendars for quite some time and not just by fans and personnel of the two schools themselves.
There are plenty of story lines associated with this marquee matchup, and the contest has also caught the attention of ESPN and its "College GameDay" crew. The popular Saturday morning college football preview program will be in Norman on Saturday, and its sister network, ABC, will televise the game in primetime as its featured game of the week.
"College GameDay" is not a stranger to the Oklahoma football program. The two are well-acquainted with the popular sports program having made 40 previous appearances at an Oklahoma football game. The Sooners trail only Ohio State (59), Alabama (58) and Florida (41) in the number of "College GameDay" appearances.
Besides being one of the marquee matchups in Week No, 4 of the college football season, Saturday's game between the No. 15 Sooners and the No. 6 Volunteers takes on added significance because it is Oklahoma first SEC conference game as a member of its new conference.
It also marks the return to Norman for Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, who was the quarterback of Oklahoma's 2000 national championship team and later an assistant coach and offensive coordinator of the Sooners under Bob Stoops for nine seasons
When it was announced over the weekend that "College GameDay" was coming to Oklahoma for the Tennessee game, the attention quickly shifted to whom the guest picker might be who will join show hosts Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit on the show set.
Speculation has ranged from the sheriff of Dr. Pepper Fansville, Brian Bosworth, to Heisman winner Sam Bradford, to Patty Gasso, head coach of the four-time defending college softball national champions, to longtime Sooner fan and wrestling announcer Jim Ross. OU All-American and Heisman winner Baker Mayfield was the guest picker the last time the "GameDay" crew attended an Oklahoma football game. That was at last season's Red River Rivalry game between the Sooners and Texas Longhorns.
We'll just have to wait until Saturday to see who that might be. Might guess is Patty Gasso.