It would kind of have to be Notre Dame and BC. Sign me up,” Pete Thamel said. Well, who else? You can’t make this up. Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame and Bill O’Brien’s Boston College are the two most iconic Catholic football programs in the nation. That’s Holy War turned Holy Ground in the Frank Leahy Memorial Bowl.
Rece Davis and Pete Thamel engaged in a spitball on the May 14 episode of ESPN College Football. The conversation kicked off with a viral social media photo of the crowd gathered outside the Vatican, with someone calling it “a college GameDay crowd.” And naturally, the curious question popped up — “What if they had College GameDay at the Vatican?” Rece Davis was hyped up about the distant possibility, saying, “Obviously, Notre Dame would play it. Would it be anyone other than Notre Dame and BC?” Even his media partner joined in the bet
Would Marcus Freeman see Pope Leo XVI at Notre Dame vs BC?
ESPN has shown they’re not afraid to take the GameDay circus on the road if the game’s big enough. Sure, the SEC owns the map most Saturdays, but they’ve also gone to Ann Arbor, South Beach, and even Cal. The 2025 calendar has Marcus Freeman’s squad hosting Texas A&M in Week 3, and they’ll be riding high with a high ranking if preseason projections hold. Boston College is on the slate on November 1 in Chestnut Hill. The question is, can ESPN pull a Notre Dame vs BC edition with the Pope? Or a special kickoff overseas?
Yeah, it’s wild. It’s borderline insane. But the most powerful Catholic figure on earth is from Chicago, loves football, and could bring global eyeballs to a sport that usually lives between Athens and Tuscaloosa. And even if College GameDay can’t travel to Rome? “He’s an American Pope,” Thamel added. “He’d come to America. I imagine the Pope watched GameDay at some point, right? Like I hope so, I guess. He’d be a great picker.” And honestly, that moment would break the internet.
