Which game is the best bet for Virginia to host College GameDay?

The Virginia Football season gets underway in 17 days, and there are some good games taking place in Charlottesville this year. College GameDay announced August 13 that their inaugural show of the 2019 season will take place at Disney World before Miami and Florida square off at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on August 24.

Per Chris Fallica, “the Bear” from College GameDay, Virginia is one of 11 “Power 5” (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12) schools that have not yet hosted the Saturday pregame show.

There haven’t been many great opportunities for Charlottesville to play host over the past...oh...decade as the Hoos haven’t been a particularly exciting matchup for awhile. On top of that, you’re competing with other sites each week (duh).

This season, the media voted Virginia as the favorite to win the Coastal Division, and excitement is as high in The Hook as it has been in recent memory. So which games could be candidates to host in 2019? As far as criteria goes, it has to be at home, on a Saturday, one of the “best” games of the day, and usually a night game. Oh, and it has to be on one of the ESPN channels (not quite sure how ACC Network will fit in).

Not Eligible: @ Pitt (away), William and Mary (Friday), @ Notre Dame (away, NBC), @ Miami (away, Friday), @ Louisville (away), @ UNC (away), Virginia Tech (Friday)

5. Liberty (Saturday, November 23)

It’s unlikely that this game earns a broadcast on ESPN or that there’s much interest nationally in this matchup.

4. Old Dominion (Saturday, September 21)

While Virginia is certainly hoping to avoid what happened to Virginia Tech against the Monarchs last season, this game probably doesn’t have the glitz and glamour needed to attract Rece and the gang to Charlottesville. There are also games like Tennessee at Florida, Notre Dame at Georgia, and Oregon at Stanford to contend with.

3. Duke (Saturday, October 19)

This could easily switch with the No. 2 spot, but this game fell to No. 3 because of going head-to-head with games like Michigan-Penn State, Oregon-Washington, and Iowa State-Texas Tech (or really any other Big-12 shootout game). Duke vs. Virginia won’t really move the needle much nationally, especially since Duke is supposed to have a bit of a down year.

2. Georgia Tech (Saturday, November 9)

While Georgia Tech probably won’t be very good in its first season without former head coach Paul Johnson, this is a weekend that will have a lot of buzz around Charlottesville as it’s (hopefully) a big deciding game late in the season for the Coastal. Additionally, the men’s basketball team has its first home game since winning the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP the next day...but that’s probably only something Virginia fans will get stoked for.

The biggest knock against Virginia hosting this week is that LSU is playing in Tuscaloosa that weekend in what will likely be a top-10 matchup between the Tigers and the Crimson Tide.

1. Florida State (Saturday, September 14)

Woooooweee this is going to be a fun weekend on Grounds. The aforementioned NATIONAL CHAMPION basketball team is doing the ceremonial banner raising the night before the game, giving ESPN a chance for plenty of B-roll footage of rings and banners and whatnot. Additionally, we already know this is a night game (7:30 kick off) and that it’ll be on an ESPN affiliate network (ACC Network).

It’s a big name program coming into town, and when the Seminoles play night games in Charlottesville, weird stuff happens. Like in 1995:

And who could forget 10 years later in 2005:

This is one of the few Week 3 conference games, but the Hoos could get stiff competition from Syracuse (also on that never-visited by GameDay list) as the Orange host ACC favorite Clemson.

What say you, fans? Will we see GameDay in the Hook this season?