Before Pirates ace Paul Skenes and national champion gymnast Livvy Dunne became MLB’s current power couple, they were LSU’s golden couple ... or geaux-lden couple.
On Saturday, Skenes and Dunne were in Baton Rouge, La., as the celebrity guest pickers on ESPN’s “College GameDay” pregame show.
Skenes said he “did his homework” in preparation to pick some winners, which led another LSU national champion, former head coach Nick Saban, to joke with the National League Rookie of the Year candidate: “Paul, is this the first homework you’ve done at LSU?”
“It’s been a while,” he responded.
GameDay host Rece Davis then chimed in: “When you throw 103 [mph], A, A, A.”
There was no homework needed for Skenes and Dunne’s pick for the marquee game of the day: No. 11 Alabama versus the 15th-ranked Tigers.
“There’s only one right answer,” Dunne said, “and it’s LSU.”
Unfortunately, their loyalty was not rewarded as Alabama rolled to a 42-13 victory.
Skenes guided the Tigers baseball team to a national title in 2023, a couple of weeks before the Pirates made him the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft. In April, Dunne and the LSU gymnastics team captured that program’s first national championship.
She was in attendance at PNC Park a few weeks later when Skenes made his MLB debut against the Cubs. He went on to have a spectacular first year in the big leagues, highlighted by a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts over 133 innings.
Skenes isn’t the only MLB star to try his hand at being an college football prognosticator lately. Two weeks ago, the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber set a high bar when he showed up to the GameDay set supporting Indiana University from head to toe and ultimately made correct picks on eight of his nine games.