ESPN College GameDay Headed to Massive LSU-Alabama Matchup for Week 10

After a couple of lean weeks for big games, ESPN's College GameDay is headed to one of the meatiest matchups of the entire 2015 season for Week 10—the SEC West slugfest between LSU and Alabama.

GameDay announced the not-so-surprising decision that it was headed back to Tuscaloosa on Saturday night.

Next Saturday will mark the second time this season the popular pregame show has been in Tuscaloosa and the third time it has featured a Crimson Tide game. The show was at Alabama's Week 3 home matchup with Ole Miss and its neutral-site opener against Wisconsin in Texas.

GameDay's decision to head to Tuscaloosa for the massive game between Alabama and LSU has been a common one for the show in the last few years.

As Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com noted, the show has been on-site for this matchup three out of the last four times it has been at Alabama (2005, 2007, 2011 and 2013). 

While GameDay will be on ESPN from 9 a.m. to noon ET, the spotlight game will be televised at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

LSU is the SEC's lone undefeated team as the calendar flips to November. The Tigers, who are led by Heisman front-runner Leonard Fournette at running back, are 7-0 this season with a 4-0 record in SEC play.

Les Miles' team has only played two true road games so far this season—trips to Mississippi State and Syracuse—as its Week 6 game against South Carolina had to be moved to Tiger Stadium due to heavy flooding in the Gamecocks' home state.

Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

Now Fournette and his offensive line will have to face one of the nation's best defensive fronts on the road after playing four straight games at home. 

"Matchup-wise, when you talk about physical ability, big on big, good on good, LSU’s offensive line is probably best suited to try and block Alabama’s defensive line," SEC Network analyst Marcus Spears told Bleacher Report's Christopher Walsh.

Like LSU, 7-1 Alabama, whose only loss came in a high-scoring thriller against Ole Miss, can boast a star running back in Derrick Henry to go along with its elite defense. Both teams are also coming off a bye week.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban will look for his fifth straight win against his former team, but building that streak hasn't been easy. LSU took Alabama to overtime last season and lost by just four points in the 2012 matchup.

The Crimson Tide haven't lost to LSU since 2011's game in Tuscaloosa, a 9-6 defensive war that entered with the pregame billing of "The Game of the Century." 

Saturday's game won't have quite the same amount of buzz as the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in 2011, but it will still play a huge role in determining who stays alive in the race for a College Football Playoff spot. 

"It’s huge. It’s always a fun game. It’s been for the West pretty much for the past few years," former Alabama offensive lineman Barrett Jones told Walsh. "It’s always the game you’re the most sore after."

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.