Once the winds of August start blowing in, that means the College Football season is about to kick off. Alongside the start of the College Football season is the return of ESPN’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” (BNK) If College GameDay or BNK comes to your campus, it means you’re hosting a pretty big game on the College Football docket that week.

The key difference between the two shows is BNK typically goes to PAC 12, BIG 12, or BIG 10 games that they air on their network, whereas College GameDay will go to any game regardless of what network it’s on. For example, they went to the Week 2 showdown between the-then No. 3 Texas Longhorns and No. 10 Michigan Wolverines even though the game was on FOX. BNK was also in Ann Arbor, MI, for that matchup between the Longhorns and Wolverines. Last season, College Gameday was in South Bend, IN, for a Top 10 matchup between No. 6 Ohio State and No. 9 Notre Dame even though the game aired on NBC.

So far this season, FOX’s BNK  has been to the following locations:

1. Morgantown, WV, for Penn State at West Virginia
2. Ann Arbor, MI, for Texas at Michigan
3. Madison, WI, for Alabama at Wisconsin  
4. Columbus, OH, for Marshall at Ohio State
5. Orlando, FL, for Colorado at UCF
6. Happy Valley, PA, for UCLA at Penn State
7. Provo, UT, for Arizona at BYU

ESPN’s College GameDay has been to the following locations:

1. College Station, TX, for Notre Dame at Texas A&M
2. Ann Arbor, MI, for Texas at Michigan
3. Columbia, SC, for LSU at South Carolina  
4. Norman, OK, for Oklahoma’s SEC debut against Tennessee
5. Tuscaloosa, AL, for a Top 5 showdown between No. 2 Georgia and No. 5 Alabama
6. Berkeley, CA, for No. 8 Miami at California
7. Eugene, OR, for a Top 5 showdown between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Oregon

FOX’s BNK features the likes of Brady Quinn, Mark Ingram, Matt Leinart, and Urban Myer, alongside host Rob Stone. Myer coached the Florida Gators to a BCS Championship against the Ohio State Buckeyes, and then Myer turned around and led OSU to a National Championship in 2014 in the inaugural year of the College Football Playoff against Oregon. Ingram won the Heisman Trophy as a running back at Alabama, and he won a couple national championships. Leinart and Quinn were both quarterbacks at USC and Notre Dame, respectively.

Meanwhile, ESPN’s College GameDay features the likes of Desmond Howard, who won the Heisman Trophy while at Michigan in 1991, Pat McAfee, who is a WWE commentator and he hosts the “Pat McAfee Show,” Nick Saban, who won multiple National Championships while at Alabama and LSU, Kirk Herbstreit, a quarterback at Ohio State from 1989 to 1993, and Lee Corso, who played at Florida State from 1953 to 1956, alongside host Reese Davis.

In my opinion, what gives College GameDay a leg up over BNK is the involvement of  the fans, especially since McAfee joined the show. While he’s at the desk with the rest of the crew, McAfee will engage with the fans by prompting the crowd to do various cheers of the host team, a field goal kicking competition, and trolling the fans during game picks.

I believe the cherry on top of the College GameDay ice cream sundae is the moment that everyone waits for at the end of the show: Which headgear is coach Corso going to put on? Both College Gameday and BNK ate great in their own respective ways. However, this season, College GameDay has the upper hand by a wide margin.