NFL quarterback legend Brett Favre was a no-show for ESPN’s College GameDay in Tallahassee , Fla.

Host Chris Fowler said Favre was unable to make the trip to Florida State, where the Seminoles will host Notre Dame on ABC tonight at 8 p.m. (ET) in a battle of unbeatens, due to a mechanical problem with his flight.

That left Ken Griffey as the sole guest picker, and while he lacked the freewheeling style of Katy Perry on Oct. 4 at The Grove in Oxford, Miss., the future MLB Hall of Famer was more sympatico with GameDay doyen, Lee Corso.

For the record, Griffey matched Corso’s selections on seven of nine games, including two that favored geography. Most notably, The Kid, an Orlando resident, played it Sunshine State smart, picking Florida over Missouri and the Seminoles over the Fighting Irish.

On Saturday Corso, noting that his first live rroad show selection (pictured) for ESPN dated to FSU-ND undefeated matchup on Nov. 13, 1993, donned a wig redolent of the black Seminole hairdress and a red baseball cap, signifying his belief in Jumbo Fisher and his beleaguered quarterback, 2013 Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston.

Corso, a FSU football and baseball player and pigskin coach back in the day, didn't mention that he missed with his Seminole nod as the Irish prevailed 31-24, in South Bend that day.

Griffey, who was in Tallahassee because his son Trey's Arizona Wildcats are on bye week, recused himself from making a call on the game involving Zona's Pac-12 compatriots and rivals, Stanford and Arizona State, saying he wished there was a way that they played long enough, so both “could lose.”

Neither has the current appeal or perkiness of Katy Perry, but ESPN has reached out to a pair of sports legends as its guest pickers for College GameDay.

Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard and crew are encamped in Tallahassee, where they will be joined by NFL ironman QB Brett Favre and The Kid, MLB icon Ken Griffey, Jr.

The duo will be asked to weigh in on their picks in the battle of unbeatens: No. 2 Florida State and No. 5 Notre Dame. ABC will televise the action on Oct. 18 at 8 p.m.

Favre, who beat FSU as a member of Southern Mississippi in 1989 and created headlines for sexting former Seminoles student Jenn Sterger when both were New York Jets employees in 2008, and Griffey follow Jonathan Papelbon to the GameDay stage. Last week, the Mississippi State alum was resplendent in his Mississippi State red suit and bulldog in Starkville, a far cry from the lack of decorum he displayed late in the 2014 MLB season.

As ESPN raised the parlor game concerning whom will become the latest addition to GameDay’s guest picker roster, it will be hard-pressed to find the combination of pretty, sass and fun Perry displayed at The Grove on Oct. 4. Among other Perry pearls, her message to fans of the LSU Tigers: let them eat corndogs.

ESPN’s coverage of the Connecticut women’s basketball team completing a perfect season to win an NCAA record ninth title by drubbing previously unbeaten Notre Dame scored the sixth-best audience since the worldwide leader began televising the tourney in 1996.

The April 8 telecast netted a 2.8 U.S. household rating and 4.27 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. The rating for the unprecedented title game battle of unbeatens – it was the first such matchup in men’s or women’s college basketball history – was the best for the sport since a 3.5 in 2004, when UConn topped Tennessee for the title.  

Unfortunately, the contest didn’t match its pursuit of perfection hype – the Huskies, who finished at 40-0, led by seven at the half and outscored the Irish 18-4 immediately after intermission en route to a 79-58 rout – curtailing any hopes for a stronger Nielsen performance.

Still, the ratings tally represented a 40% increase over the 2.0 for UConn’s dismantling of Louisville in last year’s final, and a 33% edge over its 3.2 million viewers.

In addition, nearly 100,000 fans turned to WatchESPN for the traditional telecast and the special ESPN3 Surround production of the matchup.  Those users accounted for 3.8 million minutes, both all-time highs for a women’s college basketball game.  Additionally, the contest generated the most minutes viewed for an ESPN3 Surround production, which affords users a live streaming companion feed giving viewers alternate camera angles and in-stadium audio, to date.

A lot of numbers will be in play in Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday night, when Notre Dame takes on UConn to wear the women’s basketball’s crown.

For Muffet McGraw’s Irish, it's two and 38 : She is seeking the program’s second national title that would end with its 38 straight win.

Geno Auriemma’s Huskies prefer nine and 40: a record-setting ninth championship that would push UConn and its coach past Tennessee and his former nemesis Pat Summit. A win would cap a fifth undefeated campaign, and match Baylor’s 40-0 mark in 2012, the last victory at the expense of the Irish.

And from the perspective of this piece, it’s 3.5 – the top rating ever for a NCAA women's basketball title tilt with UConn’s win over Tennessee in 2004 – and 5.7 million – the record audience for the Diana Taurasi/Sue Bird/Swin Cash Huskies’ triumph over the Oklahoma Sooners and the telegenic Stacey Dales in 2002.

Yes, the stakes couldn’t be higher as ESPN and Watch ESPN bring the pursuit for perfection, tipping at 8:30 p.m. (ET), to a close. For the first time, two undefeated college basketball teams – women’s or men’s – will square off with the NCAA championship on the line. New Nielsen marks could be the byproduct of this dream March Madness matchup. Interest should be heightened by the possibility of a bookend double title-- both the UConn men and women cut down the nets in 2004, and with Shabazz Napier leading the way past Kentucky on Monday night, the Lady Huskies can make Storrs the undisputed capital of the college basketball capital world for the second time in a decade.

No longer Big East rivals – ND is in the ACC, UConn in Mike Aresco’s American Atlhletic Conference – the teams have quite the history. The Irish have owned the rivalry in recent years, winning seven of the last nine encounters, but the Huskies crushed ND in last year’s Final Four behind Breanna Stewart’s coming out party. A win for ND would mean they cuffed Connecticut for the third time in the last four Final Fours. Meanwhile, the Muffet-Geno mutual disdain has ascended to animus, approaching the warm feelings Auriemma reserved for Summit back in the day, before her early onset dementia.

Gauged by the last two games, Notre Dame appears to be playing better, mauling Maryland in the Final Four after ending Odyssey Simms career at Baylor. UConn, by its exalted standard, struggled against BYU and 6'7 center Jennifer Hamson and Stanford on Sunday in the semifinal, trailing in both contests for what must have seemed like interminable stretches, during a season in which they have been behind for less than an hour combined.

Doris Burke, as good as it gets among hoops’ commentators, rightfully said the Huskies never panicked as their shots didn't fall early against the Cardinal. But with another slow start on Tuesday, UConn might find itself down double-digits against the Irish’s top-ranked tournament offense  However, ND’s prospects took a major blow when 6’3 Natalie Achonwa tore her ACL in the Elite Eight matchup versus Baylor.

The injury to ND's top rebounder and third-leading scorer is critical considering UConn’s frontcourt sports the 6-5 All American and sudden rock star Stefanie Dolson and national player of the year Stewart, who has been misfiring after recent hosannas annointed her as the distaff version of Kevin Durant.

The game could be decided in the backcourt where ND’s Kayla McBride and Jewell Loyd are explosive and hold the size advantage over All-American Bria Hartley and her ball-handling running mate Moriah Jefferson.  

Connecticut’s versatile, sharp-shooter Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis can make any game her own, and that’s a good thing for Auriemma, who has only been using one sub, Kiah Stokes, following the benching of the Huskies’ top recruit, Ossining’s own Saniyah Chong. Foul trouble could prove catastrophic to Connecticut, while the Irish’s rotation runs deeper.

A tigfht contest should push ESPN’s audience for the women’s title game beyond the viewership mark that has stood for over a decade.