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July 14, 2008

ESPN Gameday in Athens for the Bama Game?

Last week, Quentin Grant of DawgPost.com wrote an article called "Road Trip 2008." In the article he pondered, "if travel and money weren't an issue" what games would you attend across the country next year. He wrote:
Week 5 – September 27, 2008
Alabama vs. Georgia at Sanford Stadium

There isn’t a lot to choose from on this weekend, so I’m going with the best game in the best conference which is Alabama/Georgia. If Nick Saban can bring the Tide into week five without a loss and Mark Richt’s Dawgs are also undefeated, then you could get something magical. (Emphasis added).
That got me thinking. My original half-assed predictions for the first few weeks of ESPN Gameday sites had Corso, Fowler and the Pro-Big 10 Douche Herbie in Nebraska for the Virginia Tech game. I based that on the theory that they would take an ABC game over a CBS game.

As we know now, ESPN used a priority pick to take the Alabama at Georgia game. They haven't announced an official time for our game, and I guess it could still end up as ESPN2 at 6:00 pm if UGA and Bama both wet the bed leading into the game. But more than likely this game is kicking off on ESPN's flagship time slot of roughly 7:45 pm.

The only other quality games nationally that weekend are:
  • Virginia Tech at Nebraska - VT is starting the season off around 17th to 20th, and Nebraska is likely unranked. VT and Nebraska should both be undefeated at that point, and both ranked around 14th-25th.

  • Tennessee at Auburn - This should be an excellent game, but it'll be on CBS. ESPN tends to prefer to promote its own network.

  • Illinois at Penn State - Illinois will start the season around 18th-21st, and Penn State will start the season somewhere around 23rd-unranked. If Illinois can get past Missouri in Week 1, they'll enter the PSU game undefeated. Penn State's only "challenge" before this is a home game against Oregon State. If both are undefeated, it's probably #14 or so vs. #20. This is also likely the ABC Primetime Game.

  • Colorado at Florida State (Jacksonville) - It's unlikely that this game will have much national sizzle given that both could have losses before this one rolls around.

  • Wisconsin at Michigan - ESPN loves 'em some Big 10, but this won't exactly be an anticipated game nationally given Michigan's rebuilding this year. Even if they beat Utah and Notre Dame, it's still an off the radar game for the most part.

  • Alabama at Georgia - It's really up to Georgia. If we take care of business in Columbia and Tempe, I'd say this is a near lock. Personally, I think Bama splits the Arkansas and Clemson games, and we face them with the Gameday crew watching from the sideline. Even if Georgia drops a game to ASU or SC, we're still a Top 10 team playing on ESPN's prime spot.
The only negative working against Georgia for the Alabama weekend could be the back-to-back issue. Gameday is a near 100% lock to be in Tempe the week before. However, they last two years, they've had two cases each seasons in which they televised the same team back to back home and away.


Now, whether or not you want them here is another issue. I'm just saying...I think they're coming.

As for the comment Fowler made *roughly 9 years ago* about our frat boys being over served and over dressed, I don't think that matters. There has only been one game since their last appearance in 1998 in which they should've been in Athens and choose to go elsewhere. That was the 2007 Auburn game in which the show chose to be in Williamstown, Mass. The Gameday Crew all but apologized on air for not being in Athens.

So what do you think? Do you care? Do you want them here? Do you think they are coming?

PWD

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dont think it will go so well if they come to athens. They might have to take a few signs away. Im still pissed that they snubbed us last year against auburn. Besides, they wont have any good place to set up until the tate center expansion is done.

Unknown said...

They can set up on North Campus. They don't have to be right outside of the stadium. At Tuscaloosa, they set up near the Chimes.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Mikey can put them in his family friendly tailgate areas....

always seems to be a lot of room there.

Anonymous said...

Instead of North Campus, I prefer they set up on North Ave. or in the middle of I-75/85. Please, just stay away.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if having them come is a great idea. No one in Athens likes Fowler. Then there's the 2007 Auburn snub - apologies or no apologies. And no one has yet to forget what Herbie the Hypocrite did to us last year.

Personally, if I was CMR, I probably wouldn't allow the Gameday crew access to my facilities, players or staff. After all, like cowards, they waited to respond to him until after he was off the line after CMR pointed the finger at the "politicking" that Herbie & Co. did to get UGA voted down. But then again, he's a lot more forgiving than I am.

Anonymous said...

They'll just patronize Georgia fans and SEC fans in general.
Let em' go cover the Big 10.

Watson said...

I don't like them either guys, but you can;t argue with the national exposure UGA can get from this.

With that said, I agree with Mitch. I walk past the Tate Center expansion every day going to class and it sounds like a war zone with all the equipment and noise. Logistically, I'm not sure how it would work but if they want to come, I'm not going to stop them, even though I don't like them too much either

Anonymous said...

It'll never happen. just being honest. Between Fowler hating our guts and watching ESPN take a D-1A game over the Blackout game, I just don't see it happening. Kirk and Lee love Athens, but douchebag Chris Fowler hates it, and the rest of the crew supposedly hates it because they have to set up on top of the Tate canter and its hard to get their semis in there.

Anonymous said...

I met Fowler at the 2004 Heisman Trophy dinner and the dude truly does dislike Athens and UGA.

I noticed at that dinner that they had alma mater banners for the trophy winners up in the rafters. They seem to have every school but two - UGA and Texas. I asked Fowler why and not only did he ignore the question but he pointed out that Colorado's banner was up, it was his alma mater, and Boulder was a better college town than Athens anyway.

Anonymous said...

Penn State already has the Illinois game listed as a night game on their website. The network isn't set, but it says either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

http://gopsusports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/psu-m-footbl-sched.html

Anonymous said...

Whoever was talking about exposure, don't you worry about it... We won't need extra from Fat Face Lee, hypocrite Herbie, or F*cking Fowler. When the season comes, we should have plenty of press where we don't need these clowns to come in. After they basically sold us down the river last year, I say screw 'em. (Anyone remember 2 years ago when Herbie was lobbying for an OSU vs Michigan rematch.. damn hypocrite.)

dawgnotdog said...

espn chose the Tate Center in 98, so they are the only ones to blame.

It has also been told to me that they won't set up there again due to structural issues, and that was before the construction

Mackie said...

I think it'd be great, my wife went to Bama and told me they have a "shart-tacular" record when Gameday shows up.

Unknown said...

While the middle of 75/85 does sound like a good location for Gameday, I'm hoping they set up somewhere between Vine Street, Nellie B, and Gressom. Then we'll never have to worry about hearing from them again. Fowler certainly wouldn't be complaining about the Athens crowd being over served anymore. I can see it now:

Corso [to Herbie and Fowler]: You kids taking in all this plight?
[Shot fired followed by a scream]
Corso: Roll em up.

Anonymous said...

What did Fowler say exactly? I was a frat boy back in '98, and I was nicely dressed and very drunk...

Anonymous said...

I think we should let them set up over at the waffle house on oconee. Maybe let corso man the waffle griddle...

Anonymous said...

If Richt is smart, he'll OF COURSE grant them access. This is ESPN Gameday. It's college football at it's best.

UGA needs all the help it can get since it's almost assured at least one loss in this f'brutal schedule.

Maybe instead of being pissed off about it, we can take it as a chance to show these guys what UGA is all about --- class and hot chicks.

Watson said...

can someone tell me what it is that Fowler REALLY hates about Athens so much that it's his mission in life to avoid us?

Cowherd came the day before the blackout game for ESPN Radio and couldn't shut up about how much he loved Athens.

IMO, Gameday should be Cowherd and Van Pelt all day, every day.

PS- Paul, why are your word verifications so hard? It's like a 1942 German code cipher....

Evan said...

What game did the "corso is a penis" picture happen at?

my fav thing that i've seen from gameday thusfar was a cutout poster of sean connery's head. Underneath it, it said "youre the man now dog". it was an obvious attempt to acheive fame on ytmnd.com but nothing more was ever said about it.

Unknown said...

Watson - Learn Navajo!

Every time I loosen up the verification stuff the off shore spammers attack the place. Plus, once every 6 months some LUNATIC posts an 18,000 word essay about the overthrow of society.

The verification stuff helps keep out the riff raff.

Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Fowler ranked LSU ahead of Georgia in his final 2004 AP poll.

LSU ahead of Georgia.

LSU. Ahead of Georgia.

Can someone remind me what happened when LSU played Georgia that year? I don't remember. Anyone? Anyone remember what happened?

Anonymous said...

Pretty sad state of affairs if ESPN Gameday is "college football at its best." I mean, I guess it's the best if you enjoy a force-feeding of the ESPN/ABC agenda. Otherwise, it's pretty brutal.

Anonymous said...

Forgive me for asking what may be a stupid qestion, but what exactly did Fowler say in 1998? I've never liked him anyways, but I was only 10 years old and didn't hear anything about it.

Unknown said...

In an online chat after his visit he said something along the lines of we had a bunch of overserved, overdressed frat boys, and he wasn't impressed.

10 years ago.

And PS -- we do have over served and over dressed frat boys everywhere. So what?

Anonymous said...

Not to derail the ESPN hate train, but...

I don't think the College Gameday location is exclusively decided by a smoke-filled roundtable room of Fowler, Herbie, and Corso which ends with a sinister Fowler sliding a black ball over the UGA-Bama game. I'm sure there are a lot of producers/coordinators making these logisitical decisions. While it's fun to demonize the personal bias of Gameday, let's look at the facts:
If UGA-Bama is the best game on the ABC family of networks, it will get picked up (the only exception being the snub for the cutesy D2 game over the Blackout Game).

I also can't get behind the "to hell with em" attitude. Until someone does it better, ESPN has the most viewed live college football show. Hype and publicity is almost as important as performance nowadays in winning the National Championship. If it takes playing along with the ESPN flip-flopping to get UGA the maximum amount of exposure, then I welcome ESPN to Athens with open arms.

With the being said, I wish we played on CBS all the time.

Paul said...

Could not care less

Unknown said...

Let's say Gameday does decide to come here...I honestly don't see how they could have it near the stadium. Just too much construction going on.

I've always said the ideal place to put it would be on the DW Brooks mall on South Campus. Plenty of room there, and not nearly as many tailgaters there as there are on the prime quads of North Campus.

Anonymous said...

Fowler also commented on ESPN radio that he did not understand how a guy drunk on tequila thinks he is classy because he is wearing a bow tie. The fact that he thinks we drink anything but bourbon on gameday shows what a misguided fool he is.

BTW, the sign did not say Corso is a penis, it said "Holtz is a penith". It is a joke about his lisp.

Anonymous said...

"Could not care less"

Seconded.

They need us more than we need them.

82 said...

First let me preface with I don’t watch their show any more than the next guy downing bourbon on north campus at 11am on Saturdays; but for those of you who say we don’t need them or their attention on their network or program let me remind you: they have HEAVY influence on the outcome of the polls. College football is a sport that unfortunately gets decided by the media not on the field and the people making those decisions watch their shows and hear every opinion they have, right or wrong, and it rings clear with voters. They most definitely have an influence on the outcome of the season, its media biased to the heaviest degree. Or at least that's just how I see it.

Anonymous said...

I think the sign that I saw on gameday that said Tim Tebow Hearts

Coach
Urban
Myer

and of course the C,U,M was in bold.

But what was funny about it was that ESPN showed it twice close up before realizing anything about it. Might have been LSU v UF game.

Hassan said...

I believe the Corso is a Penis sign was from the '05 cocktail party. There was another sign that was Corso hearts (drawing of) penis. All good stuff.

I think if they can help it, they (Fowler, Corso, Herbie) will choose another game. But I've heard rumblings that since ABC bought ESPN, more and more of those decisions have been made by the producers/execs and NOT by the broadcasting crew. So if they do come to Athens, they will do it begrudgingly and with a chip on their shoulder...which should make for some more good anti-UGA banter from those clowns.

Anonymous said...

I hope everyone chants...

FOW-LER, FOW-LER, FOW-LER the whole time the cameras are rolling. Nothing derogatory like some people do at gameday. I just want something to get under his skin a bit.

BTW - It's not just SEC fans that are getting tired of these guys. I hear folks from all over the country complaining about them. To many people are taking fun out of college football and it's turning into mini nfl. Fowler seems to be right in the mix.

Anonymous said...

Best Game Day sign ever:

"Lou Holtz is a penith" by some Auburn fans a couple of years ago.

Anonymous said...

To hell with GameDay and ESPN- Herbie, Corso, Fowler, May, et al. Will never forgive the backtracking and politicking that occurred after Pitt beat WVU last year.
Run the table and we won't need their HEAVY influence on the polls. And there's nothing wrong with bourbon.

Anonymous said...

myers quad wouldnt be a bad place

 
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