FanHouse EspnGameday

There's quite a lovefest going on in the world of college football surrounding Ron Zook and the Fighting Illini. The Illini are ranked for the first time in six years, and are tied atop the Big Ten standings with Ohio State. There's legitimate talk of a conference title and trip to the Rose Bowl going on in Champaign. Even running back Rashard Mendenhall is having his name mentioned when it comes to talk of the Heisman.

It seems that Illinois is on the verge of becoming an actual football program. The only thing that could make it official would be if the Gameday crew came to town. Wait a second, what's that you said? Oh, no way!

While Zook, his staff and his players try to stay focused on this week's opponent, some university officials have no choice but to look ahead to the following game, Oct. 20 at home against Michigan.

ESPN already has contacted Illinois about the possibility of bringing its popular GameDay show to Champaign. And while nothing is certain, a visit from hosts Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard would bring a rock-show atmosphere to Memorial Stadium.

First Erin Andrews comes to town for the Wisconsin game, and now Lee Corso could be coming!? Oh what a joyous time to be alive and living in Champaign, Illinois!

This would be huge for Illinois as a program. Ron Zook and his staff are already fantastic recruiters, but now the school is going to start getting national exposure, which will only make Zook's job easier. If he can convince players like Arrelious Benn to pass up big time programs to come to a school that only won two games the previous season, just imagine what he can do with a winning program.

Upside: Hawaii. In November.

Hawaii.

Hawaii.

Downside: I'm unwilling to do the math at the moment but the show would have something like a 1 a.m. local start time. Nothing says poor execution like a visual TV show set in paradise but filmed in the pitch black of morning hours. Also, Herbie and crew might be a little sluggish working their way through the show and subsequent early-morning football. But nothing says you're living life like a 3-in-the-morning post-taping Mai Tai.

The Wariors Will Throw has circled the Nov. 23 game against Boise State. Somewhere, over the rainbow ... this will happen. But not in real life. GameDay has enough troubles making its way out west for those 6 a.m. starts, I can imagine the expenses, challenge of recreating the set and insurance issues for a trip across the Pacific Ocean into paradise weigh heavily against this. But we can dream, right?

(Via: In The Bleachers)

People have suspected it for a long time. Now it has been printed in black and white. The talking heads that host ESPN's College GameDay Show do indeed have agendas. And apparently, they don't mind you knowing.

When the final Associated Press poll was released last week, Auburn finished ninth in the poll with an 11-2 record. However, GameDay's Kirk Herbstreit voted Auburn 18th in his final poll. Chris Fowler didn't do much better, putting the Tigers 14th. How can you justify that ranking?

That's nothing more than a blatant dislike of Auburn and its program. How do you put an 11-win team with victories over the number one and number three teams in the country at the bottom of your poll? In comparison, Herbstreit ranked Notre Dame 16th in his poll, two spots ahead of Auburn. You will recall that the Irish lost to LSU 41-14 in the Sugar Bowl, a team Auburn beat in the regular season.

ESPN officials should do the right thing and fire Herbstreit and replace him with former GameDay analyst Craig James, who's now back working at the network. The Associated Press should ask Herbstreit to resign from voting in the poll. Yes, public trust is that important. He gives everyone who votes a bad name.

The Auburn-Florida game started early for this writer Saturday morning. Very early. When you have an 11 year-old daughter who's more passionate about Auburn football than you are, there's is no option to sleep in and watch ESPN College GameDay from home. By 6:00 a.m. we were up and headed to the show. A little more than 18 hours later, the day was over and we both had huge smiles on our face. I thought I'd share a few pictures with you. The quality is about like you'd expect from someone with no photograhy experience, but you'll still get a feel for the day...

Here are more pictures from Saturday's Auburn-Florida contest. Like I said in an earlier post, I've never seen Jordan-Hare Stadium anymore electric and alive than Saturday night. There's no doubt it gave the Auburn players an edge...

Rumors are circulating around internet message boards today that ESPN's College GameDay is headed to Auburn this weekend. Most had assumed that Auburn's 27-10 loss to Arkansas on Saturday all but eliminated the Tigers from consideration. Two weeks ago during the pre-game radio broadcast of the South Carolina game, GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit hinted that they were headed to Auburn Saturday.

Despite losing last weekend, Saturday's game is still a matchup of two Top 10 teams. Last week, the show was in Gainsville for the Florida-LSU contest. ESPN has come under fire in recent weeks for its choice of game sites and for not showing up at any SEC games. It looks like the network is correcting that problem. We'll keep you updated once we hear more. Auburn University has still not confirmed the report.

Update: Auburn University has confirmed that ESPN GameDay will be doing its show from Auburn on Saturday morning. FSITS got confirmation a few minutes ago. It will begin at 9:00 CST. We'll have more information as it becomes available.

ESPN announced Friday that it will televise second-ranked Auburn's October 14th game with Florida. The Gators are currently ranked fifth nationally and take on Alabama Saturday afternoon in the Swamp.

The match-up between the Tigers and Gators kicks off at 6:45 p.m. CST from Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium. There is still no word on whether ESPN College Game Day will be in Auburn that weekend.

However, on Thursday, ESPN personality Kirk Herbstreit commented that the network may be coming to Auburn for the Florida contest. A lot will depend on the outcome of Auburn and Florida's next opponents. The Tigers take on Arkansas next Saturday and Florida battles LSU. If both win, you can almost be assured that GameDay will be coming to Auburn.

Here's the official announcement from Auburn University:

Sept. 29, 2006

AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn's football game against Florida on Oct. 14 will start at 6:45 p.m. CT at Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium and will be televised by ESPN.

It will mark the Tigers' sixth televised game this season and second by ESPN. ESPN aired Auburn's 24-17 victory at South Carolina.

Auburn is currently ranked No. 2 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, while Florida is ranked fifth.

It will be Florida's first visit to Jordan-Hare Stadium since the Tigers knocked off No. 1 Florida, 23-20, in 2001.

Auburn (5-0, 3-0 SEC) will host Arkansas (3-1, 2-0 SEC) next Saturday, Oct. 7, at 11:00 a.m. CT. The game will be televised live by CBS.

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio ESPN GameDay? Things have not been going well at the World Wide Leader lately. At least not when it comes to college football. From a change in scheduling philosophy to a change in announcers, ESPN has really fumbled this year.

First came the announcement (sort of) by ESPN that it was reevaluating how it chose where to send its College GameDay crew on Saturday mornings. That's code word for we're tired of promoting CBS and NBC games and now we're concentrating on ABC - excuse me, I mean, ESPN on ABC.

As a result, "Separation Saturday" as they deemed this past weekend, found Chris, Lee and Kirk in Southern California instead of Auburn, Knoxville or South Bend. Never-mind, that USC was playing an under matched, over-hyped Nebraska team.

It's only Monday and this weekend's showdown with LSU already feels enormous. I can only imagine what things will be like on Friday. I'm glad I graduated years ago. I probably wouldn't be in class much this week... Our article, Auburn Turns Attention To Bayou Trash, was named the Headline of the Week by Sports Illustrated. That's a cool honor. Be sure to check it out...

I still can't believe CBS Sports has chosen the Florida-Tennessee game as its primetime telecast. I guess Auburn's number three ranking and LSU's number six ranking wasn't good enough. Some argue that the ratings are higher for the 3:30 afternoon game, but that's a load of crap. Saturday night ratings are always higher...

While on the subject of television, it appears that ESPN GameDay will be headed to Los Angeles for this weekend's game with USC and Nebraska. Yawn! Apparently ESPN has decided to follow ABC's Saturday Night Football telecast and go to the location of that game. They've done now for each of the first three week's of the season. It appears that the SEC is finished with GameDay. ABC does not have a contract to carry SEC games in the regular season...

Auburn senior offensive guard Ben Grubbs has been named the SEC's Offensive Lineman of the Week. Grubbs graded out at 94%. The Tigers will need another performance like this on Saturday if Auburn is to win... I would love to be in the mind of Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. He hasn't been away from Baton Rouge long and that should help the Tigers defense on Saturday. LSU has a new coaching staff, but the key players on the defensive side of the ball were recruited by Muschamp. He should know their tendencies well...

Don't forget that former Tiger assistant Jimbo Fisher is still at LSU. He continues to serve as the team's offensive coordinator. You might remember that Fisher served on Terry Bowden's staff. At the time he was a young, bright, up and coming coach. Now he is one of the best minds in college football... Until tomorrow... War Eagle!

Link: Football Saturday In The South