Timothée Chalamet Surprises Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit & Entire CFB World With His Elite Ball Knowledge

One of the best traditions ESPN’s College GameDay show has created over its nearly four-decade run is the celebrity guest picker. They started it 20 years ago in 2004, when Charles Barkley graced the panel. There have been dozens of other celebs since then, some of whom were memorable, and some of whom disappointing. Timothée Chalamet, the most recent guest picker who appeared on the show for Conference Championship Saturday, maybe the most surprising and impressive guest they’ve ever had.

Chalamet casually dropped into Atlanta via a Wheels Up private flight, but there was nothing casual about his performance when the cameras started rolling on Saturday afternoon. He started with the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game between Jackson State and Southern. It was clear he had done his homework right from the get-go.

“I’m going Jackson State, eight wins in a row, 11 All-Conference players, this should be a comfortable, easy win for them.”

The guys on the panel—Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee in particular—were extremely impressed with that short but informative take on the SWAC Championship game.

Similarly, fans too were pleasantly surprised. There were a few, however, who saw through what they deemed a facade. They theorized that Chalamet was merely reading lines from a script rather than coming up with the analysis himself. Whatever the case, he was delivering those stats like he knew what he was talking about.

Timothée Chalamet picked six games, finishing with the two biggest showdowns of the day. In the Big Ten Championship, the No. 1 Oregon Ducks (12-0) take on the No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions (11-1). Chalamet wasn’t messing around, saying he wanted to ensure a “6-0” day before taking the nation’s No. 1 team.

“I wanna go 6-0, I’m going Oregon. No. 1 team in the country for a reason, strong defense—not as sharp as 2023, at times. But, great showing this year.”

The final game to pick was the SEC Championship. It will pit the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs (10-2) and the No. 2 Texas Longhorns (11-1) against each other. Considering the fact that the show was on location in Atlanta for the game, Chalamet went out on a limb when he selected the Longhorns in the face of all the Bulldogs fans on hand. But once again, his choice was well-informed, even if slightly impacted by a former movie co-star.

“You know, it’s hard to beat the same team twice, adjustments are made. It’s like a game of chess. Coach Saban knows this better than anyone on this dais. Listen, I gotta go with my movie dad [Matthew] McConaughey here, I’m sorry to everybody here. This is a Longhorns victory.”

There were four other games on the docket for Chalamet.

In the MAC Championship, the American-French actor went with the underdog Bobcats, citing QB Parker Navarro as the reason for the upset pick. Chalamet took Louisiana in the Sun Belt Championship because he believed in the star power of their defense, and he liked Arizona State in the Big 12 Championship on the strength of star RB Cam Skattebo. When he took SMU to win the ACC Championship, he said, “It smells like the 1980s, folks.”

Script or not, we foresee another celebrity guest picker invite coming Timothée Chalamet’s way from College GameDay in the near future.