College Gameday at NDSU?

Submitted by btjabrone on

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/9/14/4727338/north-dakota-state-college-gameday-espn

 

Next week College Gameday will be at Delaware State @ NDSU, a game that is only being shown on ESPN3.  Does anyone know why this would be?  It seems like a strange selection to me.  It doesn't look like there are many big matchups next week, but there is Utah @ BYU, Tennessee @ Florida, and MSU @ ND.

Wolverines Dominate

September 14th, 2013 at 11:49 PM ^

This is odd indeed, but it's good for the two schools involved. I think it's because one of their coaches has a chance to set a win record or something. That is what one of my friends told me. Whether or not it's true is unknown to me.

MGoBlue96

September 15th, 2013 at 1:40 AM ^

Those games you mentioned certainly aren't marque for various reasons. Utah and BYU both aren't very good teams. Tenessee and Florida are both coming off losses. Gameday would also want to avoid doing a ND game twice in three weeks.

Wolverine Devotee

September 14th, 2013 at 11:53 PM ^

They went to some other weird places before too.

BGSU-NIU in 2003

The only non-FBS game was in 2007 with Division III. The Amherst Lord Jeffs vs Williams Ephs.

stephenrjking

September 14th, 2013 at 11:54 PM ^

Chris Fowler tweeted about an "unusual" location early this week, so this has been in the works for a while. It makes sense given the weak lineup of games. I would think they're just giving a cup of coffee to lower-division football and found this to be a good excuse to do it.

I like it. College football is a rich, deep game that has many levels throughout the country. It's great to see other slices of it.

LSAClassOf2000

September 14th, 2013 at 11:57 PM ^

ESPN has done this on occasion. I know that about five years ago, they visited Florida A&M, and about a decade ago, they visited Penn. I believe they even went further off the beaten path and went to a Division III school once. The Fargo papers seem to be playing this as the best thing to happen to Fargo ever, so the excitement is definitely genuine. 

Yeoman

September 14th, 2013 at 11:59 PM ^

They're two-time defending national champions, they're unanimous #1 again this year and they haven't lost to an FBS team in four years. What's wrong with giving them a little recognition?

It's not a marquee game by any stretch--Delaware State is atrocious--but I'm happy to see them give Bohl's program some props they richly deserve.

Double Wolverine

September 15th, 2013 at 1:36 PM ^

Exactly. NDSU deserves some props and this is a great way to recognize them. Back-to-back championships is tough at any level. NDSU was the FCS team that knocked of reigning Big12 champ Kansas St. to open the season as well, so they can play.

Bando Calrissian

September 15th, 2013 at 12:00 AM ^

There was an article on Gameday in the NYT on Friday with a great quote from a producer about how they weren't looking forward to this week because the schedule of games sucked and there wasn't an obvious pick. Glad they're doing something fun and unusual, it really is amazing how this tent village and TV set just descends upon a campus.

goblue81

September 15th, 2013 at 12:04 AM ^

Yeah the line up next week is pretty vanilla.  I'm a college football fan first and foremost.  I bleed maize and blue, but beyond UM's games, I still cherish Saturdays and all of the great matchups. I think its pretty awesome that ESPN is going to NDSU rather than defaulting to the SEC game of the week.  

To me, college football is much more than the best Top 25 match up of the week.  I have a bucket list of college games and venues I want to see in my lifetime and  Im sure most of them wouldn't be Gameday worthy.  Kudos to NDSU, Delaware St and ESPN!

rob f

September 15th, 2013 at 3:20 AM ^

to see that.

I like the choice of venue, though.  I'm all in favor of ESPN tossing a change-of-pace in there from time-to-time, instead of going with big-name locations all the time.

Out of curiosity, I just looked up the weather data for mid-September for that part of the country, thinking that those folks are preparing for winter by this late into summer.  High temps range from the low 40's to upper 90's, with no recent history of snow, not as bad as I feared. 

BlueinLansing

September 15th, 2013 at 12:31 AM ^

a single Top 25 matchup next weekend.

 

Couple of "name games" where one school is down and rebuilding vs a power

 

Tennessee at Florida

Auburn at LSU

 

otherwise maybe Arizona State at Stanford.

 

Really a bad, bad week in schedule.

 

Team 101

September 15th, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^

Game Day has never been to North Dakota before.  Before they can say they've been to all 50, they still need to hit Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming.  Some of these are to be expected but I was surprised at a few of them such as Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi and Washington.  You can cross off Connecticut if you count the shows done in the studio.

Hair Raid Offense

September 16th, 2013 at 1:32 AM ^

I personally love the idea. I'm so sick of hearing about Manziel, Lane Kiffin/USC, Jadaveon Clowney, NCAA Invetigations...etc. I like the idea of getting back to the root of college football and focusing on a team that plays football with passion and for the love of the game; like how college football was in the 80's and 70's. Forget paying players and draft stock, NDSU is gonna line it up and play hard nosed football, the way it was meant to be played. All heart and sacrifice, forget all the ESPN glory, this game is about passion and pride!!