For 16 years, country duo Big & Rich’s hit “Comin’ to Your City” served as the theme for ESPN’s popular Saturday morning college football pregame show College GameDay. On Saturday, the network premiered a new version of the theme song, to very mixed reviews.
Darius Rucker, Lainey Wilson and The Cadillac Three recorded a new version of the song which was played at today’s show in Charlotte, ahead of a big nonconference rivalry clash between North Carolina and Rucker’s beloved South Carolina.
Of course, change is uncomfortable for many. Although a change in the performers of the GameDay theme doesn’t quite stack up to, say, USC bolting for the Big Ten or Stanford defecting to the ACC, many fans did not like the new theme, even with a bona fide college football fanatic such as Rucker involved.
Here is a sample of some of the rough reactions online:
The new college gameday intro song STINKS pic.twitter.com/UevFG2Gjx4
— Hawkeye Historian (@Hawk_Historian) September 2, 2023
They should just go back to the mid to late 90s classic theme song....because whatever this is aint it. https://t.co/ibgnSBTKAA
— Roy Bellamy (@roybelly) September 2, 2023
We were once a proper society https://t.co/7vSRKFxpli https://t.co/YrMt2LGDMZ
— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) September 2, 2023
Old Gameday song >>>>>> new one. Not even close
— the dawgs are back🐶 (@hbtfdawg) September 2, 2023
I love Hootie but the new gameday song STINKS
— Tony Roundtree (@Tonywithyy) September 2, 2023
When I heard the new College Gameday song pic.twitter.com/ln0szzVY7n
— AURowski (@AURowski) September 2, 2023
ESPN really should've just done a whole new song for College Gameday. Not overly impressed with this revamped "Coming To Your City."
— Adam Drake (@TheAdamDrake) September 1, 2023
Of course, not everyone believes the change is a big deal.
Everyone's over here saying they love the new Gameday song or they hate the new Gameday song and I'm over here like pic.twitter.com/q06Ry41b70
— Megan Fitzgerald (@MsMeganFitz) September 2, 2023
the college gameday theme song can be whatever you want, mute the TV and play a song from youtube and voila we're starting the college football day with Smooth Operator
— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) September 2, 2023
New GameDay song is going to take some getting used to but gosh dangit we’re BACK!
— J.D. PicKell (@jdpickell) September 2, 2023
After a few weeks, fans may get used to the new version—or ESPN may have to see if Big & Rich are interested in coming out of retirement next fall.
