The ESPN College Gameday crew will be making their 2nd ever trip to the City of Brotherly love this weekend for one of the most surprising showdowns of ranked teams in recent Notre Dame football history. The Irish are traveling to Philadelphia this weekend as well to face off as the 21st ranked Temple Owls.

If anyone would have told me that by the end of October Temple would be ranked higher than Georgia Tech, Texas, and USC; I would have said they were crazy. Who wouldn’t have? None the less, the Owls are off to an undefeated 7-0 start to the 2015 season and will be hosting the 9th ranked Irish this weekend for their first ever matchup featuring two ranked teams.

Notre Dame versus Temple is also the only game featuring two ranked teams this weekend. Add all of those firsts and unpredictable scenarios and it was enough to get Reece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso to hit the road for Philadelphia.

Since Temple plays its home games at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, securing a site for Gameday posed a challenge and resulted in a delayed announcement in this week’s location. Instead of setting up shop outside the “Linc”, ESPN will broadcast live from historic Independence Mall – the home of some of America’s most iconic historical landmark.s

Despite being ranked 21st, the Owls were an early 9.5 point underdog to the visiting Irish this weekend. Notre Dame fresh off a bye week and a 10 point victory over USC the weekend before, will arrive in Philadelphia rested and ready for the stretch run of the season.

ESPN has previously visiting Philadelphia once before in 2002 for the Penn – Harvard game. Temple meanwhile has never been apart of College Gameday home or away. For Notre Dame, the hosts of the first ever ESPN road show in 1993, it will be the second time this season alone they will be on the road at the site of College Gameday. Earlier this month Notre Dame lost a heartbreaker on the road to Clemson with ESPN in attendance. Obviously the Irish are hoping for a better outcome this time around.