The pick is in. ESPN has announced Longhorns "superfan" Glen Powell will serve as the guest picker for ESPN College GameDay in Austin this Saturday prior to the Texas vs. Ohio State game. This will be the second time Powell has had the honor.
Powell attended UT back 2007 after graduating from Westwood High School in Austin. The actor only attended for one year, calling it "the greatest year of [his] entire life." He has since re-enrolled at University of Texas at Austin as a Radio-Television-Film student in the Moody College of Communication and is expected to graduate in May 2027.
Powell is very public with love for UT and Longhorns football, calling himself a "superfan." He stars in the TV show Chad Powers, the second season of which debuted
on Hulu/Disney+ last week. The show is based on a character co-created by Texas quarterback Arch Manning's uncle Eli Manning.
Austin's own @glenpowell is coming to GameDay to be this weekend's celebrity guest picker! 🤘 pic.twitter.com/NZ7g0ubtls
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 10, 2026
It isn't a hard rule, but GameDay generally doesn't use a guest picker twice. Powell was the guest picker in 2022 when GameDay was in Austin for the Alabama game. Texas lost that game after Quinn Ewers was injured. That said, Powell is much bigger than he was in 2022 and he's definitely been getting more involved in the UT Football team.
The choice of Powell, beyond his Longhorns fandom, most likely related to the fact Chad Powers airs on a Disney owned platform. ESPN is also owned by Disney.
Powers got his start in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, a movie by Austin-based director Richard Linklater. Powell has been in several Linklater movies, including Everybody Wants Some and Hit Man. Linklater is also the director that discovered Matthew McConaughey, who he famously cast in Dazed and Confused.
Powell was a making a good living as a working actor, featuring in such films as The Expendables 3, Hidden Figures and Ride Along 2. He also had a main role in the first season of the television show Scream Queens and a recurring role in the second season.
Guest picker locked in 🤘@glenpowell x @CollegeGameDay pic.twitter.com/AkZBeY25HQ
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 10, 2026
His big break came when he stared with Tom Cruise as "Hangman" in Top Gun: Maverick. Since the success of the popular sequel to Top Gun, Powell has emerged as a rising star, quickly becoming one of the hottest leading men in Hollywood.
Powell's lead roles include Twisters, Running Man, How to Make a Killing and he voiced Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
In 2017, Powell won a Screen Actors Guild award as part of the ensemble for Hidden Figures. He has been nominated for two Golden Globes, for Hit Man and Chad Powers Season 1. In 2025, Powell was honored as "Star of the Year" by CinemaCon.
In 2024, he relocated from Los Angeles back to his hometown of Austin, Texas. He attends several Longhorns football games every year.
ESPN College GameDay from Austin will air Saturday, Sept. 12, from 8 a.m. CT to 11 a.m. CT on ESPN, ESPNU, Disney+ and the ESPN App. Texas will host College GameDay for the 11th time, carrying a 5-5 record in previous hosting appearances — including a Week 2 matchup in 2006 against No. 1 Ohio State, a game the Buckeyes won 24-7.
The last time College GameDay was in Austin was for the 2024 game against Georgia. PGA golfer Scottie Scheffler served as the guest picker for that event. Texas would lose to the Bulldogs 30-15.
Other guest pickers with Longhorns ties have included McConaughey (2019), cyclist Lance Armstrong (2009) and Jordan Spieth (2022).
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This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Longhorns fan Glen Powell named ESPN College GameDay guest picker
