We now know that the first two College GameDay locations of the 2025-26 college basketball season will be on Big 12 campuses. On Saturday, Texas Tech hosted GameDay ahead of its Top-15 match up with the Houston Cougars. And then mid-morning on Saturday it was announced that the ESPN pre-game show would go to Kansas next Saturday ahead of their game vs. BYU.
The one-hour ESPN College GameDay show will begin at 10 a.m. CT with tipoff for the KU-BYU contest slated for 3:30 p.m. CT, also on ESPN. Details for the Jan. 31 College GameDay show will be released early next week.
This will mark the 13th time that ESPN’s College GameDay will broadcast from historic Allen Fieldhouse. KU’s 13th time hosting is tied with North Carolina for second most, trailing only Duke (14). Additionally, Kansas is 10-2 when hosting ESPN College GameDay with only Syracuse (4-0), Texas (3-0), and Tennessee (3-0), having a better record as host (minimum three games).
Big 12 Basketball Dominates
The Big 12 currently finds itself with five teams who feel like they can compete for a National Championship: Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, BYU and Texas Tech. And let’s throw in Kansas to make it six, if they can get Darryn Peterson healthy and keep his production consistent. There’s not another league in the country who has that kind of depth at the top of its conference.
While ESPN’s Joe Lunardi doesn’t have the Big 12 as the league with the most bids in college basketball. In fact, his recent Bracketology had the Big 12 with fewer bids than the ACC, Big Ten and SEC, there’s no doubt the Big 12 has more National Championship contenders than any other conference. And as we roll through the second half of conference play, expect to see another Big 12 location or two added to College GameDay’s list.
ESPN College GameDay is hosted by Rece Davis and features Jay Bilas, Jay Williams, Andraya Carter, and Seth Greenberg.
In the meantime, Kansas is preparing to play K-State on Saturday night in Manhattan with tip off at 7:00 p.m. CT on FOX.
