College Gameday’s FIRST visit to Charlottesville!

ESPN’s College Gameday coming to Charlottesville for UVA-Duke

An ESPN spokesperson has confirmed to the Washington Post that ESPN’s College Gameday will visit Charlottesville on January 31st for the showdown between the Virginia Cavaliers and Duke Blue Devils.

In the past, the College Gameday schedule was set prior to the season; but this year, ESPN made the program more like its football counterpart, announcing week-by-week to maximize flexibility.  Still, rumors started swirling last night, when Karl Ravich and Jay Williams appeared to accidentally reveal the location (though Seth Greenberg tried to cover for them).   An official announcement from ESPN and the University is unlikely until sometime this weekend.

The decision isn’t a surprise, as #2 UVA vs. #5 Duke seems to be the biggest and best game of the weekend, though UNC at Louisville had a shot as well.

Virginia has never hosted ESPN’s College Gameday for either football or basketball.  This tweet, included in the Washington Post’s report, shows that UVA has the 5th highest winning percentage among those that haven’t hosted for basketball:

The game is expected to tip at 7PM, though we are awaiting official confirmation of that.  College Gameday, which will be filmed Saturday morning in JPJ, would then air from 10 AM to noon, the first hour on ESPNU and the second on ESPN, then re-air from 5PM to 7PM with the same channel configuration (5 PM on ESPNU and 6PM on ESPN).

Before the UVA-Duke matchup, Virginia takes on Georgia Tech this Thursday at 8PM, then heads to Virginia Tech Sunday for a 1PM tip.

UPDATE (1.21) – ESPN has released details about Gameday and tip-time.  Doors to JPJ will open at 9 AM. From 10 to 11, SportsCenter will have “Live look-ins,” and College Gameday will air on ESPN from 11 to noon.  Admission is free. Gametime against Duke is set for 7PM.