College GameDay

As expected, ESPN College GameDay will kick off the season in Arlington for the Cowboy Classic between Michigan and Alabama.

Full "story" here: Link

Sitting in front of my TV, Gameday on (including Lou Holtz sticking to his "ND is going to win out" line) and just cacked a Kalamazoo Stout left over from two weeks ago. Who does everyone have in the marquee games today? What about around the Big Ten? Iowa, Nebraska, OSU and MSU all play good teams.

For the record, I think Oklahoma rolls, Iowa loses, Nebraska kills Washington, OSU-Miami will be vacated on both sides, and I've yet to decide who I want to lose more between MSU/ND.

(HT: The Only Colors, THE quality MSU blog)

My god this is amazing intro. It's crazy to think how far GameDay has come and how long the cast has been together.

Completely hypothetical situation here, but assuming both us and Little Brother are undefeated (a huge assumption, considering Sparty faces a dangerous Wisconsin team the week before us) when the Battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy takes place, what do you think the odds are that College Gameday comes to Ann Arbor?

Both teams would easily be Top 20 in the country, with Sparty potentially being Top 10 if they knock off a top 10 team in Wisconsin (EDIT: okay.. they won't be top 10. Ranked High though.)

The answer is.. probably not. Other games on the slate that weekend:

Alabama (Currently #1) at South Carolina (#12)

LSU (#15) at Florida (#9)

Oregon State (#24) at Arizona (#14)

So could a Big Ten rivalry game between two Top 20 teams with a good history potentially bring the Gameday Crew to Ann Arbor? Potentially. Keep in mind:

The GD Crew already visited an LSU game (Week One, UNC vs. LSU) and an Alabama game (Week Two, Alabama vs. Penn State), and it's pretty rare for them to re-visit teams.

What do you think the odds are? Of course this is all speculative, and assuming either us or Michigan State is 5-0 on October 9th is a big leap, but it's always fun to speculate.

What do you think?

Many of us bemoaned the lack of coverage of Brock's story and walk on ABC's broadcast of the UConn game.  Now the BTN is rectifyng that to some degree with its own 8-min feature that will air before the Michigan - UMass game on Saturday, 18 Sep. 

In addition, as has been discussed on the MGoBoard, Erin Andrews was in town this week to interview DRob and others for a College Gameday feature on the new CFB It Player. 

Details for both features are available in the official release from MGoBlue.com which is lifted in its entirety below.

Brock Mealer Story to Air Saturday on Big Ten Network

Sept. 17, 2010

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The Big Ten Network will air its feature on Brock Mealer this Saturday (Sept. 18) prior to its broadcast of the University of Michigan football team's game against Massachusetts. The eight-minute feature chronicles the path that Mealer took to lead the Wolverines down the tunnel in the season opener against Connecticut on Sept. 4.

Mealer, given less than a one percent chance to walk again after a tragic car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, worked with the Michigan football strength and conditioning staff over the last nine months.

The Big Ten Football Saturday Pregame Show airs from 10:30 a.m. until noon EDT.

Denard Robinson Feature:
ESPN will broadcast a feature on Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson at 11 a.m. EDT on its College Football Game Day show.

Media Contact: David Ablauf (734) 763-4423

Because people tend to love knowing such things...

Herbstreit, Desmond and Corso all picked UM. Defense appears to be the focus and Howard did a great job of showing missed assignments on UConn dropped balls. Interview with Denard revealed that he didn't know he had ran so many times, nor that he "had done that well," not to mention the record. Weather appears to be drizzly but nothing outrageous. Should Robinson lead UM to victory, it will be the first time a first year starter for Michigan has been able to pull off the feat in South Bend. Apparently Kelly has been using a 5th year senior Gallup to simulate Denard but "there's no way to simulate 4.3/4.4 speed." As they mentioned, running backs may be the deciding factor because Shaw and Smith will have to pick up some blitzes and run great games to take the pressure off the qb.

Go Blue, Beat Notre Dame

edit: Bowden also selects UM, "team speed" considered by Gameday to be UM's advantage