Rece Davis says College GameDay doesn’t root for teams, but he’d make an exception for North Dakota State.

On the College GameDay Podcast, Davis floated the possibility of bringing ESPN’s flagship pregame show to Albuquerque for New Mexico’s Oct. 24 home game against the Bison. GameDay has never set up shop in New Mexico, and by Davis’ account, only a couple more wins from each team stand between the show and Albuquerque.

“I need North Dakota State to win this game,” Davis said. “We don’t root. We don’t root for teams. Pete [Thamel] says this often. We root for the story. They got a game in New Mexico in a couple of weeks. That could be really, really attractive.”

This isn’t the first time Davis has rooted for a result with GameDay’s travel plans in mind. On the show’s podcast late last month, he admitted he wanted Iowa to beat Michigan, stressing that it had nothing to do with wanting the Wolverines to lose or with any fondness for the Hawkeyes. He simply roots for the show. Iowa delivered, as quarterback Hank Brown hit Reece Vander Zee on a back-shoulder throw on the final play for a 20-19 win. That set up a top-15 showdown with Ohio State and sent GameDay to Kinnick Stadium for the first time since 2006, ending a four-week run of SEC campus visits.

College GameDay drew 2.9 million viewers from Iowa City on Saturday, with the final hour climbing to 3.7 million. Ohio State then pulled away for a 31-14 win in a game that averaged nearly 6 million viewers. That gave CBS, not ESPN, its first college football weekend ratings win since 2023.

Davis would like to see that happen again.

“I’m not saying GameDay is going there, but I’m not saying it’s not,” he said. “So I need North Dakota State to win this game. Need New Mexico to keep winning.”

New Mexico’s Jason Eck, meanwhile, is in no hurry to join the lobbying effort, even with his program within reach of the biggest pregame spotlight in college football. Asked at his weekly press conference whether he planned to cut “wrestling style promos” to lure the show to town, the second-year coach, who spent six seasons as an assistant at North Dakota State’s archrival, South Dakota State, kept his attention on the Lobos’ upcoming trip to Hawaii.

“I appreciate you guys doing that behind the scenes, but I want to make sure myself, our staff, and our players stay focused on Hawaii, because I know the quickest way to make sure that doesn’t happen would be for us to go lose to Hawaii,” said Eck, sporting his best Tony Soprano look. “So we’re going to stay focused on the task at hand, but I encourage you guys to, you know, write Kirk Herbstreit a letter or whatever.”

“We’re gonna stay focused on the task at hand, but I encourage you guys to write Kirk Herbstreit a letter or whatever.”

(📹 via @UNMLOBOS) https://t.co/hbJgNN0srQ

— Sean Reider (@lenaweereider) October 7, 2026

Sean Reider of the Albuquerque Journal, who posted the clip, said he won’t be writing Herbstreit a letter.