'SEC Nation' headed to Arkansas for Cincinnati's Week 1 showdown against Razorbacks

Keith Jenkins, Cincinnati Enquirer
·2 min read
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After hosting ESPN's "College GameDay" last season, the University of Cincinnati football team again will be on one of ESPN's college football pregame stages for its 2022 season-opener.

"SEC Nation," the college football pregame show of SEC Network, a network owned by ESPN, is going to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for Cincinnati's Week 1 game against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sept. 3, network host Laura Rutledge announced Wednesday.

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Arkansas coach Sam Pittman joined "SEC Now" Wednesday at the 2022 SEC Media Days. Rutledge, the host of "SEC Now," told Pittman the network would broadcast its pregame show live from Fayetteville before Pittman's Razorbacks took on the Bearcats.

In previous years, "SEC Nation" has aired from 10 a.m. to noon ET on SEC Network. Rutledge hosted the program last season, while Paul Finebaum, Roman Harper, Jordan Rodgers and Tim Tebow served as analysts on the show.

Host Laura Rutledge and analysts Roman Harper, Tim Tebow, Jordan Rodgers and Paul Finebaum talk college football during the filming of the "SEC Nation" college football show, at the Plaza of the Americas on the University of Florida campus, in Gainesville, Florida, on Sept. 18, 2021.
Host Laura Rutledge and analysts Roman Harper, Tim Tebow, Jordan Rodgers and Paul Finebaum talk college football during the filming of the "SEC Nation" college football show, at the Plaza of the Americas on the University of Florida campus, in Gainesville, Florida, on Sept. 18, 2021.

ESPN broadcasted its "College GameDay" show on the University of Cincinnati campus for the first time Nov. 6, 2021, ahead of the Bearcats' homecoming game against Tulsa. Cincinnati defeated the Golden Hurricane 28-20 en route to a 13-1 season, winning its second straight American Athletic Conference championship and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.

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Cincinnati is scheduled to face Arkansas at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 3. The game is set to be broadcast on ESPN.

It will be the Bearcats' first-ever matchup against Arkansas and its first regular-season game against a SEC opponent since traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2011 to face the Tennessee Volunteers.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'SEC Nation' headed to Arkansas for UC's season-opener vs. Razorbacks