ESPN College GameDay needs a guest picker with Duke ties. Who should get the nod?
As ESPN brings its popular College GameDay football pregame show to Duke for this first time this week, the question many wonder about is the identity of the guest picker.
Each week, the show selects someone, from inside or outside the sports world, to appear during the show and pick games along with regular panelists Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso.
Last Saturday at Notre Dame, actor Vince Vaughn was the guest picker. Vaughn appeared the 1990s football movie, “Rudy,” which is based on a walk-on football player at Notre Dame.
When GameDay televised from Charlotte ahead of the season-opening game between North Carolina and South Carolina, musician, one-time USC student and Gamecock fan Darius Rucker appeared as the guest picker.
Who would be the best guest picker at Duke?
The network has plenty of choices with Duke ties.
The question is, will ESPN go with an easy choice, like retired Blue Devils basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski? Others from the basketball realm could include Grant Hill, JJ Redick, Kyrie Irving or Paolo Banchero.
Or will it go the entertainment route, where there are plenty of choices of parents who’ve had children attend Duke? In recent years, John Mellencamp, Rob Lowe and Bruce Springsteen have seen their offspring graduate from Duke. Jerry Seinfeld’s daughter, Sascha, graduated from Duke last May and his son, Julian, is currently attending Duke.
Possible choices from the football world include Hall of Fame coach Steve Spurrier, who coached at Duke on two different occasions in the 1980s — first as an assistant and later for three seasons as head coach. New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who played at Duke from 2015-18, might be the choice.
Another, who crosses three areas as a celebrity with Duke and football ties is Michael Strahan. A former defensive end with the New York Giants who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Strahan has co-hosted ABC’s “Good Morning America” as well as “Live with Kelly and Michael” as a post-retirement career. Plus, Disney owns both ABC and ESPN. And one of Strahan’s daughters, Sophia, began school at Duke in August.
Actor and comedian Ken Jeong, who grew up in Greensboro, is an avid Duke fan, having graduated from the school in 1990 before going to medical school at UNC-Chapel Hill.
We put our top choices in the survey below. Tell us who you think is the best guest picker. (You can only vote for one person, but you can vote as often as you like.)
