With popular pregame show “College GameDay” making its way back to the Eugene campus of the University of Oregon this weekend, Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu will serve as the celebrity guest picker before the Ducks face Indiana University in a crucial Big Ten clash. Ionescu’s visit will set the stage for the current Ducks, ranked third in the nation in the latest Associated Press pool, and their afternoon tilt against No. 7 Indiana.
It’ll be Ionescu’s second appearance on the program, as she previously partook in an October 2022 edition when Oregon took down UCLA, the alma mater of future Liberty teammate Kennedy Burke, by a 45-30 final behind five touchdown passes from Denver Bronco-to-be Bo Nix.
Ionescu’s appearance will make history, as she becomes the first woman to make multiple appearances in the guest picker’s seat. Charles Barkley holds the record with six such showings while others to land the honor include Ionescu’s fellow New York sports legends Joe Namath and Alex Rodriguez.
Prior to making her Liberty debut as the top pick of the 2020 draft, Ionescu made a name for herself on the courts of Eugene, guiding the Ducks women’s basketball program to unprecedented heights. Working alongside fellow future WNBAers like Ruthy Hebard, Satou Sabally and current Liberty teammate Nyara Sabally, Ionescu also became NCAA basketball’s all-time leader in triple-doubles, pacing both genders at 26 over four seasons.
The Oregon football holds a special place in Ionescu’s personal life, as her husband Hroniss Grasu repped the program for five years as an offensive lineman before the Chicago Bears drafted him in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Grasu earned All-American honors in his final two seasons and partook in two Rose Bowl victories, the latter guiding the Ducks to the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship Game in 2014.
Throughout her Liberty career, Ionescu has routinely paid thanks and tribute to UO and that love was returned fortyfold before New York tipped off this past season: she and Nyara Sabally were feted in a homecoming celebration that culminated in an exhibition game between the Liberty and the Toyota Antelopes, a Japanese club, on the Ducks’ floor at Matthew Knight Arena.
Airing on Saturdays from the site of a high-impact showdown, “College GameDay” has routinely ended with its panel of experts, currently consisting of Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, Nick Saban and host Rece Davis, predicting winners from the top games of the day.
The segment, which ends with the game that the crew is on-site for, became well-known for the antics of former mainstay Lee Corso, who would don the headgear of the mascot of the school he was choosing to win. Corso retired from the program after this season’s premiere, successfully choosing Ohio State over Texas when the year kicked off in full.
Ionescu went 6-5 in her first showing, partly done in by trying to keep Liberty fans happy through a Syracuse upset over Clemson. She chose Oregon “by a million” in the closing segment and Corso concurred, donning the cranium of the Oregon Duck (sometimes referred to as “Puddles”) much to the Liberty sharpshooter’s delight.
