As you all know, College Gameday is far and away the best preview show for college football (and perhaps any sport). Sure, it's far from a perfect show, but it does a great job representing the madness of the sport in a mostly lighthearted way. As much fun as it is to watch crazy fans at different locations represent their school, it's just about as fun to try to guess where the show will go in coming weeks. Luckily, one of the producers is often more than willing to encourage that anticipation. Which brings me to the tweet from yesterday:
This year, @CollegeGameDay will broadcast from a location that we've never been to before. Always fun.
— Lee Fitting (@leefitting) May 28, 2014
Before I go any further, let me say how much I love the tone of this tweet. He's privy to some information that thousands of fans would love to have, and shrugs it off with an "Always fun." Never change, Lee Fitting.
As you might guess, the goal of this post is to figure out where this new location might be. Before I make my top guesses, let me eliminate a majority of games with the help of the schedule, a list of previous Gameday sites, and my expansive knowledge of college football [citation needed].
It can only be a game from the first three weeks
If you take a look at the TV schedule I linked to, there is a pretty significant drop-off in planned TV games after week 2, and a drop-off to almost no planned games after week 3. ESPN often waits until Sunday morning to determine the location for the next week's Gameday, for the same reason that TV matchups have only been determine a couple of weeks out: They want to go to the best games possible. Since a lot can happen in the first three weeks, I am guessing that Fitting's proclamation won't go beyond that. Case in point: Gameday went to Fargo for week four last year. This wouldn't have happened if a couple of the notable games lost their luster (ND-MSU, Wiscy-ASU), and if NDSU wouldn't have notched their big upset over Kansas State.
Gameday is going to prioritize major games
Yes, Gameday likes going to smaller games, but they generally only do so when there aren't any obvious bigger games (see my example from the last section). The first three weeks give us:
Week 1:
Florida State vs. Oklahoma State in Arlington
LSU vs. Wisconsin in Houston
Clemson at Georgia
Week 2:
Michigan at Notre Dame
Michigan State at Oregon
Virginia Tech at Ohio State
USC at Stanford
Week 3:
Georgia at South Carolina
Texas vs. UCLA in Arlington
Week three doesn't give us too many marquee games, but the first two weeks are absolutely loaded. It's going to take quite the special game to beat out those games with major playoff implications.
Gameday has already been to all of the locations for those marquee games
They've actually been to most of these sites multiple times, including a surprising six visits to South Carolina. The site that is closest to being a non-visit is Reliant Stadium in Houston, but they did travel there in 2005 for a Katrina-relocated Bayou Classic. Combining the early parts of the schedule and the list of previous Gameday sites just doesn't give us a classically obvious answer.
Given all of the above, here are my top guesses for the mystery Gameday location (sorry Baylor, your schedule is too awful to merit inclusion on this list):
#4: Oregon at Washington State (Week 4)
I know I said the game would have to be in the first three weeks, but Washington State is a favorite of the Gameday program because of its dedicated fans, so I'll give this a tiny, tiny chance of being the game Fitting speaks of. Washington State is unlikely to be great (though they certainly may be good), so I doubt Gameday has this circled on their calendar. Additionally, Oregon's week 2 battle with the Spartans gives them a decent chance of coming into this game with a loss, so I doubt Gameday would commit to this game so early.
#3: Louisiana at Ole Miss (Week 3)
Here is the first game that has a fighting chance of being the one. The Grove is by far the most notable college football location that has yet to host Gameday, so I am sure they are looking for every excuse possible to make a visit (promoting the new SEC network wouldn't hurt either). As I said earlier, week 3 is the most likely week in September for a less-hyped game, so this would make a lot of sense.
#2: Penn State vs. UCF in Dubin, Ireland (Week 1)
This game makes sense on a lot of levels. There are so many big games on the first week, that choosing more of a novelty might be the best bet. Taking Gameday to foreign soil would be quite the accomplishment for the program. Plus, we would get to see how people from other nations react to Big and Rich.
All that said, I still think this game is fairly unlikely for a couple of reasons. One, while both Penn State and UCF are bound to be good teams (37th and 27th respectively in the preseason F/+ rankings), I don't necessarily think the allure of Ireland is enough to overcome the middling matchup. Two, the game begins at 7:30 eastern time, so I'm not exactly sure when Gameday would air here. I doubt they would actually start at 4:30 AM, and I severely doubt they would tape delay it. Logistical reason may doom this game from the start.
#1: Sam Houston State at Eastern Washington (Week 0)
Sorry everyone, I tricked you earlier in the post. When I said the game would have to be in the first three weeks, I am betting you didn't know there was a week zero. My bad. The two best FCS programs (non-NDSU division) square off a week before everyone else gets started. Furthermore, the game is on ESPN, and it will be played on a red field. Gameday generally has a season preview show the week before the season in a studio in Bristol. I am betting that they take this show on the road this year. This probably isn't the sexiest answer to Fitting's tweet, but I think it's pretty cool that Gameday appears to be rewarding a program that has achieved great success (they won the 2011 title) despite being in the middle of nowhere (and yet having to compete with several nearby FBS programs for recruits). Time will tell if I am right.
