Actor and comedian Jason Sudeikis joined ESPN’s College GameDay as the celebrity guest picker on Saturday, November 7, 2026, ahead of the Week 10 college football matchup between the Miami Hurricanes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Broadcasting live from Library Lawn at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, the morning pregame show brought the Ted Lasso star to campus to highlight his deep family ties to the university while previewing one of the season's highest-stakes games.

According to ESPN Press Room, the network officially announced Sudeikis as the guest picker on Thursday, November 5, setting the stage for a three-hour broadcast window running from 9 a.m. to noon ET. While the full pregame program spanned the entire morning on television and the ESPN app, local reporting from KCTV5 noted that the dedicated guest-picker selection segment traditionally airs near the end of the broadcast, roughly between 10:45 a.m.

and 11 a.m. CT.

Why a Kansas City Native Picked in South Bend

For many casual sports viewers, Sudeikis is primarily associated with the Kansas City metropolitan area. Raised in Overland Park, Kansas, the actor is a fixture at local sporting events and an outspoken supporter of the Kansas Jayhawks. Consequently, Thursday's announcement that he would represent the Fighting Irish on national television initially sparked some confusion among college football viewers.

However, Sudeikis quickly clarified his lifelong connection to the South Bend institution during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show ahead of the weekend broadcast. The actor explained that while he grew up in Kansas, his parents hail from the Chicago area—with his mother growing up on the South Side—and Notre Dame football was a foundational part of his upbringing.

"Big in my family growing up," Sudeikis told McAfee, as quoted by KCTV5.

"My folks are from Chicago; my mom is from the South side. Her father, my grandfather, was a graduate from Notre Dame. I have another uncle, my Uncle Jim; he’s a graduate from Notre Dame in 1975."

While secondary coverage from Detroit Free Press broadly referred to Sudeikis's father as an alumnus, the clearest directly quoted accounts from KCTV5 and NorthJersey.com specify that it was his maternal grandfather and his Uncle Jim who graduated from the university. Sudeikis also shared a comedic piece of family lore regarding another famous maternal relative: his late uncle, actor George Wendt, best known for playing Norm Peterson on the classic sitcom Cheers.

According to Sudeikis, Wendt also enrolled at Notre Dame before his acting career took off, though his academic tenure in South Bend was cut short. "Dropped out after his junior year because he skipped all his finals," Sudeikis explained.

Beyond his family tree, Sudeikis established his own personal ties to the campus during his youth.

As reported by Awful Announcing, Sudeikis attended a Notre Dame basketball camp when he was in the sixth grade. Even more fittingly for Saturday's specific broadcast, his first live Notre Dame football experience was the famous October 15, 1988 showdown between the Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes. According to NorthJersey.com, a 13-year-old Sudeikis attended that 1988 game alongside his father, uncles, and grandfather—a historic rivalry contest that later inspired ESPN's acclaimed 30 for 30 documentary Catholics vs. Convicts. Reflecting on his return to campus for the 2026 rematch, Sudeikis called the guest picker role "the pinnacle of my Notre Dame fandom."

Ted Lasso, Roy Kent, and Week 10 Fan Signs

A signature tradition of every College GameDay broadcast is the sea of homemade poster boards waving behind the main desk, and the Library Lawn crowd delivered plenty of pop-culture and football banter for Week 10.

With Sudeikis on the dais, students naturally leaned into his Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series, Ted Lasso.

According to a Week 10 sign roundup by Yahoo Sports and The Big Lead, one of the morning's standout posters featured a hand-drawn illustration of gruff fictional midfielder Roy Kent. Playing on the character's famous profanity-laced soccer chant from the show, the sign read, "He’s here, he’s there, he hates everywhere," substituting the Miami Hurricanes logo and orange-and-green imagery into the punchline.

Beyond the Ted Lasso tributes, Notre Dame students targeted the visiting Hurricanes from multiple angles:

  • Pop Culture Jabs: With anticipation building for the upcoming release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI, one fan sign accused the city of Miami of only being culturally relevant because it served as the inspiration for the fictional setting of Vice City.
  • Meteorological Banter: Another sign took a literal approach to the visitors' mascot, noting that science proves hurricanes fall apart by the time they travel inland to Indiana.
  • Sideline Icons and Papal Humor: Additional posters mocked former Miami star Michael Irvin's habit of wielding a championship belt on the Hurricanes' sideline, while another featured an edited image of Pope Leo flashing an upside-down "U" hand gesture.

High Stakes in South Bend and the Week 10 Slate

While the morning broadcast provided plenty of comedic relief, the underlying football implications in South Bend were massive. The matchup arrived with slightly different framing depending on the polling metric used. While the official ESPN schedule and College Football Playoff rankings billed the game as No. 1 Miami visiting No. 11 Notre Dame, Yahoo Sports pointed out that the Coaches Poll framed the contest as No. 1 versus No. 6, and the Associated Press Poll listed it as No. 1 versus No. 4.

Regardless of the specific polling numbers, the two squads entered Saturday with a combined single loss on the season, with the winner gaining an inside track toward a first-round postseason bye.

According to Bleacher Report, the game also served as a direct rematch of a consequential Week 1 game from the previous season, in which a three-point loss to Miami ultimately helped keep Notre Dame out of the College Football Playoff.

Despite Miami holding the top overall ranking, Notre Dame entered Saturday's contest as a 7.5-point favorite, a betting line heavily influenced by an ankle injury to playmaking Miami wide receiver Malachi Toney. On the field, analysts pointed to a clash of top-10 rushing defenses—with Miami boasting the nation's top-ranked run stop unit—meaning the Irish would need quarterback Carr to connect on deep passes while their defense worked to contain Miami's Heisman Trophy front-runner, Mensah.

In addition to the headliner in South Bend, Sudeikis was tasked with making predictions across a loaded Week 10 slate.

As noted by KCTV5, the Saturday schedule featured seven matchups between ranked opponents, including No. 3 Utah versus No. 9 BYU, No. 7 Texas at No. 18 Missouri, No. 5 Alabama at No. 14 LSU, No. 2 Georgia at No. 10 Ole Miss, No. 23 Oregon versus No. 12 Ohio State, and No. 6 Kentucky at No. 13 Tennessee.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Jason Sudeikis connected to the University of Notre Dame?

Although Sudeikis grew up in the Kansas City area, his mother's side of the family has deep roots in Chicago and at Notre Dame. His maternal grandfather graduated from the university, and his Uncle Jim graduated from Notre Dame in 1975. His uncle, late Cheers actor George Wendt, also attended the school through his junior year. Additionally, Sudeikis attended a Notre Dame basketball camp in sixth grade.

What was the 1988 Notre Dame vs. Miami game that Sudeikis attended?

At age 13, Sudeikis attended his first Notre Dame football game on October 15, 1988, alongside his father, grandfather, and uncles. That game pitted the Fighting Irish against the Miami Hurricanes in one of college football's most famous regular-season games, which later became the subject of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary Catholics vs. Convicts.

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