Will NC State vs. Clemson be ESPN’s College GameDay feature? Or is a conspiracy theory in the works?

#19 NC State heads south next weekend to face off against the #4 ranked Clemson Tigers.

With NC State and Clemson both one of the 11 teams that remain undefeated a lot of people are wondering if this game warrants being ESPN’s College GameDay feature next weekend. RubbingTheRock.com (a Clemson site) recently published an article on that very topic.

There are basically three choices for the popular show in Week 8: NC State at Clemson; Colorado at Washington; and Mississippi State at LSU.

All three of those games are battles of top-25 teams and I’d imagine that all three get some play from the show that weekend.

If the game was in a prime-time slot, I would say that it would be a guarantee that ESPN College GameDay will be coming to Clemson.(RTR)

Looking at the week’s schedule, I believe those are definitely the 3 most marquee matchups, but I’d bet, based on fanbase size and TV markets, that it’s really down to NC State vs. Clemson and Mississippi State vs LSU.

Now, Mississippi State has a bye this weekend, so nothing is going to change with them before the LSU game. LSU, however, takes on #2 Georgia this weekend.

If LSU wins, then you can go ahead and guarantee that GameDay will be in Baton Rouge on October 20th. But if they lose, is ESPN really going to promote a 1-2 team vs. a team that’s 2-2 in the SEC?  By doing that they’d be passing up a battle of undefeateds for first place in the ACC.

Rubbing the Rock doesn’t think it matters either way. They believe that no matter what happens this week, the SEC will end up getting College GameDay.

Right now, if you had to ask me where the show was going, I would probably say LSU. I understand that the ACC is down this year and I think ESPN wants to not only push the narrative that the conference is weak, but also that the SEC is great. It’s all about pushing a narrative and that may be the case going forward (RTR).

Is that a conspiracy theory I smell? Is ESPN really trying to push the ‘ACC is weak’ narrative? I’m not going to hate on that theory because money makes people companies do some crazy things and the SEC is the top dog when it comes to college football revenue. However, I’m not just going to buy it. I need a little time to research just how much money difference we might be talking about.

In the meantime, I guess if things play out the way the Clemson guys predict, it may just add a little fuel to that fire.