By james art 
LSU Football has a long history with College Gameday, hosting the show 14 times in Baton Rouge and appearing 35 times in both home and away games. The Tigers boast the 5th best record in Gameday appearances among all NCAA teams with a 22-13 overall record and a win this season at South Carolina with Gameday on campus. Part of the entertainment value of College Gameday is the guest selection representing the host school, which is a surprise announced on the live broadcast each week. Here are some educated guesses as to who could be the featured guest for this week’s show in Baton Rouge.
Joe Burrow and Ja’Mar Chase would be an exciting picker combo! Burrow won the Heisman Trophy while at LSU in 2019 and along with Chase led them to an undefeated season to win the National Championship in 2019. They also played in the Super Bowl together as teammates for the Cincinnati Bengals and remain extremely popular in Louisiana and beloved by LSU fans. The Bengals play Thursday Night Football, which will allow Burrow and Chase to be available for Saturday night’s game in Baton Rouge.
Women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey was a Louisiana legend and prominent LSU fan even before she became head coach in 2020 and led the Tigers to their first national championship in 2023. Her team has a PMAC home game Friday night. which would allow her to be in Baton Rouge for a Gameday appearance, which her son Kramer Robertson, a former LSU baseball star, lobbied X for.
Shaq is a frequent presence at LSU for many sports, most recently manning the t-shirt cannon in the football team’s last home game against Ole Miss. He played at LSU from 1989-1992 and then became an NBA Hall of Famer and an integral part of TNT’s Inside the NBA cast on postgame days. Shaq will be part of TNT’s NBA telecast on Tuesday, but has no publicly scheduled television appearances for the rest of the week. May be available to be in Baton Rouge for Gameday.
Could former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron be asked to pick the guests for this important game for LSU? Fans online certainly think so. Coach O helped successfully transition the Tigers to a more modern offensive philosophy after the Les Miles era, culminating in a National Championship in 2019. Although he struggled in subsequent seasons and was fired in 2021, Coach O remains a beloved figure in Louisiana for his contributions to LSU. He is not currently a coach and could be available to be a College Day selector if he wishes.
Any number of notable LSU alumni and fans can be invited to pick guests for College Gameday this Saturday. LSU will look to take the momentum from the campus atmosphere and the magic of a night game at Tiger Stadium to defeat the rival Crimson Tide and regain control of the SEC race. The game begins Saturday night at 6:30 PM CST on ABC.