Alabama-Wisconsin kicks off ESPN College GameDay

The games themselves have plenty of individual story lines – Alabama’s QB battle, Wisconsin ushering in the Paul Chryst Era, Ohio State kicking of a road to repeat without suspended Joey Bosa, Virginia Tech trying to right the ship in what could be Frank Beamer’s last season – but the real intrigue of the weekend lies at the feet of College GameDay.

The Gameday crew will feature one major change in 2015, Chris Fowler has been replaced by Rece Davis.

Alabama was the top seed in the College Football Playoff and favored to play for a national title at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, but wound up losing to Ohio State in the semifinal game in New Orleans.

The opening weekend GameDay telecast will be Corso’s 258th headgear selection, holding a 10-6 all-time week one record (5-1 in last six years). The Tide are ranked third in the preseason Coaches Poll, and Wisconsin begins the season at No. 18.

Obviously the best College Gamedays are the ones that are on a campus, but in this case I think we can make an exception for Jerry World and a Dallas crowd that’s probably going to be pretty pro Alabama. Both games, naturally, will air on ESPN networks (Alabama-Wisconsin on ABC, Ohio State-Virginia Tech on ESPN). It will also mark the Crimson Tide’s 24th appearance under head coach Nick Saban (17-6), five more than Oregon for the most GameDay appearances since the 2007 season. The show runs from 8 to 11 a.m. That’s right, the Worldwide Leader’s college football tentpole will be pulling double-duty to open the season.