ESPN's College GameDay announces Week 2 location in Austin for Ohio State-Texas

ESPN’s College GameDay unveiled its first two appearances of the 2026 college football season on Tuesday, including its Week 2 destination in Austin for Ohio State‘s much-anticipated trip to Texas on Sept. 12. This is the return game following last season’s epic 14-7 victory for the Buckeyes in Columbus, where GameDay kicked off the 2025 season.

College GameDay also confirmed On3’s report earlier Tuesday that college football’s premier Saturday pregame show will begin the 2026 season in Baton Rouge for the Week 1 showdown between Clemson and host LSU. That coincides with Lane Kiffin‘s debut appearance as the Tigers’ head coach.

Both games are rematches from their 2025 editions in two of the most highly anticipated early-season matchups of last season, with both Week 1 games featuring preseason Top 10 matchups. This season, the Ohio State-Texas game is once again expected to be a preseason top five matchup, with both programs returning explosive offenses led by second-year starting quarterbacks Julian Sayin and Arch Manning, respectively.

ESPN also announced the game will kick off in primetime at 7:30 p.m. ET and be televised on ABC. Last year’s contest averaged 16.6 million viewers, the ninth most-watched game of the season and the second-highest viewership of the regular season (Ohio State-Michigan, 18.4 million, FOX).

The Week 1 setback was the first in a somewhat disappointing 2025 for Texas, which finished 10-3 overall but failed to make the College Football Playoff after midseason losses at Florida and Georgia doomed the Longhorns’ postseason dreams. Things are looking up for Texas, though, ahead of the upcoming season after ‘Horns head coach Steve Sarkisian went all-in on the transfer portal with several key additions, including former Auburn wideout Cam Coleman, the No. 1 transfer receiver in the portal this offseason.

While the Buckeyes edged out the visiting Longhorns in Columbus, No. 9 LSU pulled off the rare road upset of No. 4 Clemson, 17-10, in what was billed as the Battle of Death Valleys. Of course, after a 4-0 start following that Clemson win, LSU’s 2025 season went off the rails, leading to the midseason firing of former head coach Brian Kelly. That ultimately resulted in the Tigers winning a contentious bidding war for Lane Kiffin’s services in late November. Meanwhile, Clemson finished 7-6 (4-4) and failed to hit the eight-win mark under head coach Dabo Swinney for the first time since 2010.

— On3’s Brian Jones contributed to this report.