Does Gameday try to avoid Ann Arbor?

Submitted by trueblue262 on

I'm sure my opinion is biased a bit, but I really thought Gameday would roll into Ann Arbor for the MSU game. Now that we know they are not, brings up my question, do we get another shot for the Iowa game when we beat MSU this week? If Herbstreit has anything to do with the decision making, then probably not. It can't be a favorite place for him.

Space Coyote

October 4th, 2010 at 10:18 AM ^

Though I agree it probably doesn't have anything to do with where Herbie wants it to go.  I actually feel Herbie might like coming to AA (he's usually pretty level headed and I'm sure he likes being in Big Ten country).

Hannibal.

October 4th, 2010 at 10:14 AM ^

Yeah it doesn't make a lot of sense for them not to be in Ann Arbor this week.  UM-MSU is easily the best Disney-eligible game of the week.  Only others that are close are Stanford-USC and LSU-Florida.

StephenRKass

October 4th, 2010 at 11:30 AM ^

People just don't care that much about the game outside of the state of Michigan.

Regarding Gameday, if we win against MSU, I could see Iowa being a Gameday site. And if we win our next three, I could see Gameday coming for Illinois or Wisconsin. We just aren't ranked high enough yet, and until we win against better competition, we are still a pretender. Now, if we beat MSU, and Iowa, and PSU, the national media will take Michigan seriously again.

Chunks the Hobo

October 4th, 2010 at 12:16 PM ^

This is true; however, you would think the Denard factor complete with Heisman buzz would outweigh that.  Also two undefeated teams, rivalry of sorts, and both ranked.

It ain't like those other games have some big appeal -- Florida and LSU both look like crap, USC IS crap, and Stanford, well, is Stanford.

OTOH, the last time Gameday was here was the 2007 OSU game, the most boring, awful, one-sided crap festival this hobo has ever witnessed.

Bosch

October 4th, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

is also this weekend.  If you were an impartial sports commentator, and you had to choose between:

  1. Columbia, SC
  2. Gainesville, FL
  3. Miami, FL
  4. Palo Alto, CA
  5. Ann Arbor, MI

in the second week of October, which would you pick?

Gameday will come back to Ann Arbor when Michigan is nationally relevant again.  We may be 5-0, but no one is talking about our chances for championships.  Same with MSU.

Also, when is the last time Gameday has been to Columbia, SC?  Ever?  When there are multiple big games on tap for the weekend, Gameday does tend to pick locations that they haven't frequented. 

FYI:  Herbie has us ranked #16 in his AP vote. I don't think he is as anti-Michigan as want to believe.

great slight hope

October 4th, 2010 at 10:14 AM ^

I think the UM-MSU game doesn't hold enough national interest to entice the Gameday crew. I could see a Michigan-Iowa game bringing them in, though. They do seem to favor the SEC, but I doubt they have any aversion to coming to Ann Arbor.

Blazefire

October 4th, 2010 at 10:15 AM ^

do you care? Do you really WANT Herbie and Corso in AA making fools of themselves? (Secretly, I really like Herbie on Gameday, because he's generally very charasmatic and knows what he's talking about, but he's still a Buckeye so the only thing he should be doing in AA is getting the crap tackled out of him.)

trueblue262

October 4th, 2010 at 10:36 AM ^

Which I think would be huge to high school kids about to choose which school they go to. If the program gets more attention it will help with recruiting. Thats all, so yes I do care and thats why.

MGoRob

October 4th, 2010 at 10:17 AM ^

Not sure about this, but wasn't there an issue with them being on the golf course which was there usual place to set up.  I swear the University made them move the last time to a different local and they haven't been back since.  That or I haven't woken up yet and am still dreaming.

jwschultz

October 4th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^

Yes, they moved from the golf course to the orange/construction parking lot into which Pauline dead-ends, for OSU in '07.

Jesus, just thinking about that day makes me freezing cold and sick to my stomach... just like depressing football, freezing rain, and way too much vodka.

WolverineHistorian

October 4th, 2010 at 11:35 AM ^

They seem to move every time they come here.  Case in point, the beginning of all these videos...

In 1997 when we played Colorado, it looked like they were inside the stadium gates...

In 2002 when we played Washington, they were inside the stadium...

In 2003 when we played Notre Dame, they were moved to the golf course...

oakapple

October 4th, 2010 at 10:19 AM ^

I doubt that they wait till Sunday morning to decide where they will be the following Saturday. There are a ton of logistics involved with bringing Gameday to a particular city, and I don’t think they do it on 6 days’ notice.

With Michigan and MSU both undefeated, this Saturday’s game clearly takes on more national importance than it seemed to have a month ago. But nobody expected both teams to be at 5-0. I don’t think even Michigan and MSU fans expected that.

kvnryn

October 4th, 2010 at 10:53 AM ^

I don't have any inside knowledge, but I believe they do actually make the decisons on a week-by-week basis, for the most part. Just take this past saturday with Stanford at Oregon. If Stanford didn't smack around Notre Dame the week before, there's no way they choose that game.

Plus, it's announced via their twitter account every Sunday. Not that that precludes any higher-ups from planning and making decisons before that, but generally I'm led to believe it's not all planned in advance.

rtyler

October 4th, 2010 at 2:15 PM ^

They plan in advance, but things change.  During the Oregon-Stanford game, Musburger was joke-whining to Herbie how "some members" of the crew had already booked rooms in LA for the Stanford-USC game, but seeing as how Oregon was thrashing Stanford at the moment, he assumed they'd hear "early [Sunday] morning" where they'd be headed next.

STW P. Brabbs

October 4th, 2010 at 10:19 AM ^

Gameday came to Ann Arbor, and had their booth inside the stadium gates.

After the game, in which Corso predicted a Michigan loss, the booth was surrounded by students chanting FUCK YOU COR-SO!

They have been back since - once, I think.  But now they set up shop outside the stadium. 

This has nothing to do with your question, really.  I don't think Gameday intentionally avoids AA, and I bet you can find a thread similar to this on almost any teams' message boards.

jcgary

October 4th, 2010 at 10:28 AM ^

Honestly I don't remember Gameday ever setting up in Ann Arbor in the same place.  They have been inside the stadium gates, they have been on AAGO, they have been in the lot to the north of the stadium & I don't remember but they might have even been in the Crisler lot once.  Either way the surroundings of Michigan Stadium and the difficulty to find a spot for them to set up I am sure causes them to hesitate to come here. 

I have also heard the University is not the easiest to work with when it comes to getting Gameday here. 

Anyway as long as Michigan keeps on winning then I don't really care if Gameday comes to AA or not.

Hannibal.

October 4th, 2010 at 10:28 AM ^

I was watching the ND-BC game Saturday night, and Sean McDonough and Matt Millen declared that they would be announcing the game this weekend.  I don't know if ESPN will change that.  I have given up trying to analyze what ESPN/Disney does.  The whole conglomerate is just a big pile of shit.

Hannibal.

October 4th, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^

Don't get me wrong, I really like the pair.  I was just saying, it sounded Saturday night like ESPN had already made their decision about where they were going to go.  To me, having the Gameday gang in Ann Arbor this weekend should be a no-brainer.  Alabama-USC will probably be the CBS game of the week and LSU-Florida doesn't have a lot of luster.  No other game that I can think of features two BCS conference ranked unbeatens.  Add on top of that we have the Heisman candidate who is leading the pack by about a mile now.

Hannibal.

October 4th, 2010 at 1:56 PM ^

Herbie and Musburger almost always call the Gameday game now.  It has to be that way unless they want to stick Herbie on an airplane real fast so that he can arrive at the game before kickoff.  I think that they may have done that once or twice.  That's why they are almost never on Notre Dame's campus or on an SEC campus for a CBS game anymore.  Have you noticed that the quality of the games featured on Gameday has declined considerably since Herbie became a regular color guy with Brent?  This is precisely the reason why.

UMICH1606

October 4th, 2010 at 10:38 AM ^

The last couple of times the WWL was here for Gameday, the Univsersity did not bow down to every whim and request of said WWL like the other schools do, and it pissed them off. So it was not really all that surprising that they did not come up. Herbie and Musberger call the night game 11 out of 13 weeks anymore, so that probably has a lot to do with it now too.

rb4kb8

October 4th, 2010 at 11:00 AM ^

That they're in Happy Valley for the game with PSU... I know PSU has two losses already... so that probably kills that... but it is a night game with Disney coverage.

I only care b/c I'm going.