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College GameDay will be setting up shop in Berkley for the first time in the program’s history ahead of Cal’s showdown with Miami, and guest picker Marshawn Lynch is doing what he can to make sure there’s a sizeable crowd assembled for a show that will kick off before sunrise.
Prior to the start of the 2024 season, there were six P4 schools—Cal, Illinois, Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Virginia—that had never earned the right to serve as the host of an episode of College GameDay. However, that number will officially drop to five on Saturday when the gang heads out west to visit the home of the Golden Bears.
It was a fairly curious decision when you consider Cal fell to 3-1 last weekend while losing to an abysmal Florida State team that managed to get its first win of the season. With that said, ESPN still decided to acknowledge the impact the “Calgorithm” has had this year while also having an excuse to devote plenty of attention to a No. 8 Miami team that heads into the ACC matchup as a 13.5-point favorite.
Cal isn’t exactly known for pumping out guys who end up taking the NFL by storm, but the program has produced a number of notable names including Aaron Rodgers, Tony Gonzales, and Jared Goff.
However, there was one alum who was the obvious choice to serve as the guest picker, and College GameDay correctly tapped Marshawn Lynch to step into that role.
Cal students who want to take advantage of the festivities are in for a long day, as the College GameDay fan section will start admitting people at 3;30 in the morning ahead of a show that starts at 6 A.M. in honor of a game that won’t get underway until 7:30 at night.
As a result, Lynch went out of his way to rally the troops ahead of what is slated to be a bit of a marathon experience for plenty of people in Berkley in a post where he encouraged students to eschew sleep and come straight from the bars and parties the night before to make sure Memorial Glade is rocking.
YesLawd. Pull up early on ya boi at Memorial Glade… And when I say early this time, I mean hella early!!! Pit opens at 3:30am, yeah AM. Show is live at 6am, so we on team no sleep, straight from yo night out, right to campus ready to get it in. https://t.co/zKuKd4MPpX
— Marshawn Lynch (@MoneyLynch) October 3, 2024
If Marshawn Lynch tells you to do something, you should probably listen.