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Kyle Schwarber to join ESPN’s College GameDay as guest picker

Kyle Schwarber will join ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday. (John Adams/Icon Sportswire)

Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber will be present to preview a crucial football matchup at his alma mater this weekend.

Schwarber, a former three-year collegiate baseball standout at Indiana University, will join the set of ESPN’s “College Football GameDay” ahead of this Saturday’s matchup between the No. 13 Hoosiers and Washington at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind., the program announced Thursday.

The iconic traveling pregame show will air from Indiana’s campus on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern on ESPN and ESPNU until the start of the game, which will broadcast on the Big Ten Network, at 12 p.m. “College GameDay” is hosted by Rece Davis with analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Nick Saban and reporters Jen Lada, Jess Sims and Pete Thamel.

Schwarber will serve as the guest picker during the program’s signature final segment as the analysts predict the winners of games across college football for the week.

A power-hitting catcher for the Hoosiers baseball team from 2012 to 2014, Schwarber hit 40 home runs with a career 1.044 OPS in 180 college games. He was named a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award, given to the top Division I catcher, in 2014 before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs with the fourth overall pick in that summer’s draft.

Schwarber, who moved from behind the plate pretty quickly into his major-league career, made his debut for Chicago in 2015 and played a crucial role in the Cubs’ first championship in 108 years as he returned from an ACL tear to post a standout performance in the 2016 World Series. After six years with the Cubs, he spent the 2021 season with the Washington Nationals and Boston Red Sox before signing a four-year deal in Philadelphia.

As a member of the Phillies, Schwarber has become a force in the team’s leadoff spot and cemented himself as one of the top power bats in the big leagues; the left-handed batter hit 131 home runs in his first three seasons as a Phillie.

Now a two-time All-Star in the majors, Schwarber will return to his former campus and take in the college experience as the Hoosiers football team tries build upon its 7-0 start and stay undefeated.