ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot Celebrates 30th Season on the Road with Opening Anthem Refresh

College Sports (Miscellaneous)

ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot Celebrates 30th Season on the Road with Opening Anthem Refresh

Photo of Julie McKay Julie McKay Follow on Twitter August 31, 2023

Big & Rich pass the mic to The Cadillac Three, Darius Rucker and Lainey Wilson after 16 years of singing ‘Comin’ to Your City’ on college football Saturdays

ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot returns for its 37th season this week and 30th anniversary of being on the road visiting college campuses across the country. To celebrate the milestone anniversary, college football’s premier pregame show will debut a refresh of its iconic ‘Comin to Your City’ opening anthem at the start of its Week 1 show in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday, Sept. 2 (9 a.m. ET, ESPN).

After voicing the opening track for the past 16 years, country music duo Big & Rich shared last week that they’re passing the torch to a new group of talented artists. The theme song, ‘Comin’ to Your City’ – written by Rich, (Big) Alphin and Paul Worley – was the title track of Big & Rich’s second studio album in 2005 and climbed to No. 21 on the U.S. radio charts. College GameDay’s version includes shout-outs to various college football teams and traditions, which do not appear in the original recording of the song.

On Monday, The Cadillac Three, Darius Rucker and Lainey Wilson revealed that they are taking the reins for the GameDay opener refresh, premiering Saturday. Wilson, Rucker and the trio of Jaren Johnston, Neil Mason and Kelby Ray will now sing and put their own spin on Big & Rich’s iconic song.

Longtime fans of the show, The Cadillac Three brought the three musical acts together to add to the legacy of GameDay and college football with their updated version of the anthem. Rucker, who will make an on-site appearance at College GameDay this weekend before his beloved South Carolina Gamecocks take the field in Charlotte, has a deep-rooted past with the pregame show, even appearing as a guest picker in 2012. Wilson is a rising country music star who was named the 2023 Female Artist of the Year.

College GameDay returns for the 2023 season with its Week 1 stop at Romare Bearden Park in Uptown Charlotte on Saturday (9 a.m., ESPN) ahead of the ‘Battle of the Carolinas’ primetime matchup between South Carolina and No. 21 North Carolina (7:30 p.m., ABC).

Additional details on GameDay’s Week 1 show are available here.

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Photo of Julie McKay Julie McKay Follow on Twitter August 31, 2023
Photo of Julie McKay

Julie McKay

I joined ESPN in 2022 as a member of the communications department working on college sports. My passion for college sports came at an early age in a divided household (Big Ten Conference-divided, that is) and followed that to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (sorry, Dad). Four years in the Athletic Communications Department, along with internships with the Big Ten Conference, Big Ten Network and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, cemented my career path. After spending some time in sports media PR in San Francisco, I’ve spent five-plus years focused in golf, with stints at the American Junior Golf Association, Augusta National and Buffalo Agency, working with the USGA, Youth on Course and Destination Kohler, among others. Despite being a proud Wisconsin native, I’ll forever betray my home state as a lifelong Chicago sports fan. My dog Rizzo knows there’s always next year and wishes his namesake would return home to the North Side.
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