Following the end of another thrilling weekend of college football, ESPN’s College GameDay provided some fun, excitement, and anticipation for the sport’s fandom by announcing that the show is taking its operation to Boone, North Carolina — home of Appalachian State University — for Week 3.
Yes, GameDay‘s theme is “Comin’ to Your City” and that presumably means that the show could visit anywhere in the country where college football is a story. So maybe there should be no surprise that producers decided by Saturday night to roll into Boone.
Appalachian State is undoubtedly one of college football’s top stories early in the 2022 season. The Mountaineers lost a 63-61 thriller at home to North Carolina after scoring 40 points in the fourth quarter to make the game suspenseful. (And it was already a big deal for the state’s most acclaimed school and athletics program to visit Boone and Kidd Brewer Stadium. To nearly win that game — rallying from a 20-point deficit — almost made it legendary.)
But Coach Shawn Clark’s squad didn’t carry a letdown over that loss into their second game of the season. The Mountaineers rebounded with a major overachievement, upsetting No. 6 Texas A&M at College Station with a 17-14 victory.
Armed with the top recruiting class in the nation, according to 247Sports, Jimbo Fisher’s Aggies were viewed as a serious contender in the SEC and a possible College Football Playoff team. Instead, Texas A&M became the second-most significant upset in the history of Appalachian State football following the shocker over Michigan in 2007.
That result is why College GameDay will be in Boone on Saturday. Had Texas A&M won, it’s possible that ESPN would’ve taken the show to College Station in anticipation of this weekend’s game versus No. 13 Miami (Florida). Another option would have been going to Auburn for the Tigers’ clash with No. 22 Penn State.
Yet instead of promoting games with SEC teams playing vaunted ACC and Big Ten opponents, GameDay is featuring Appalachian State’s Sun Belt conference match-up against Troy. And with that, ESPN’s college football pregame show is telling two compelling stories that have developed thus far.
The Mountaineers might be the flashiest story in the sport after defeating Texas A&M. But their victory was part of a larger tale for the Sun Belt, which enjoyed two additional upset wins this past weekend. Marshall beat No. 8 Notre Dame (who clearly carried the letdown of losing to Ohio State into that game), 26-21. And Georgia Southern defeated Nebraska, a result that ended the tortured five-year coaching tenure of Scott Frost in Lincoln.
By drawing attention to the surprise and emergence of Appalachian State and the Sun Belt, College GameDay demonstrates what it can do better than rival pregame programs such as Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. Someone dropping in on the 2022 college football season might wonder why GameDay is in Boone, North Carolina on Saturday. The show’s presence on a small-town campus, touting a much lesser-known football program creates curiosity for the benefit of the entire sport.
To be fair, Fox’s college football pregame show is only in its fourth season. As BSM’s Arky Shea pointed out, ESPN has 30 years of tradition and viewing habits for Fox to overcome. But Fox is building up what it has in rights agreements with the Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-12. During some weeks in which those conferences don’t have a marquee match-up, that might be somewhat limiting.
However, having the Big 12 worked out extremely well this past Saturday with Texas hosting No. 1 Alabama on Fox. And Big Noon Kickoff broadcast from Austin, resulting from a smart decision to take the show on campus this season rather than be in the studio. The setting is so important in college football and a pregame show should reflect that.
Along the way, Big Noon Kickoff can also indulge in some storytelling with its choice of location. The show will be in Lincoln, Nebraska for the Cornhuskers’ game with Oklahoma. That match-up is already appealing with two former Big 12 rivals opposing each other. But as mentioned above, Nebraska is one of college football’s top newsmakers because the program just fired its coach. Who the Huskers pursue will be one of the season’s most prevalent storylines.
Additionally, Nebraska’s choice for its interim coach through the remainder of the season is a story in itself. Mickey Joseph is the school’s first Black coach in any sport. Athletic director Trev Alberts told reporters that he believes Joseph is a legitimate candidate to earn the full-time position, though the program will conduct a national search for a new football coach. That is an obvious storyline for Big Noon Kickoff to follow during its visit to Lincoln.
Will the show’s studio crew tease Urban Meyer about being mentioned as a moonshot candidate for the job? Meyer will surely deflect any such talk or possible interest, but some good-natured ribbing from his colleagues is the sort of thing that makes any studio show entertaining. That’s in addition to the substantive analysis that Meyer provides, contrasting with ESPN’s personality-driven commentary.
College GameDay and Big Noon Kickoff are both playing to their strengths, making each show appealing to different audiences. One might provide serious, granular football analysis focused on a particular match-up, while the other emulates the feel of a tailgate gathering before a big game. Sometimes, we get both.
But if the preference for a pregame show is to learn the story of a college football season week-by-week, GameDay‘s willingness to travel to more remote, unusual locations accomplishes that objective.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
