“We’re coming to your city, well we flew through Oklahoma, Alabama and through Georgia, Time to get on down to Florida for the game. And then we loaded up our tailgate, Joined a convoy on the freeway, Headed north to see them Buckeyes and Notre Dame….”
Anyone else singing the tune with Big and Rich ever since it was announced Notre Dame was hosting the first College GameDay of the 2018 season? For all us college football fans, not only do we hear the tune of Big and Rich, I personally hear the tune of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year….” in my head as I think about the season starting in less than two weeks!
Games begin as early as August 25th, with bigger games beginning Thursday, August 30th and will continue throughout Labor Day. One marquee match up over the weekend includes 14th ranked Michigan traveling to 11th ranked Notre Dame. The Wolverines and Fighting Irish are set to kick off at 7:30 PM EST and host the first College GameDay of the season.
College GameDay has grown tremendously from the time it started in 1993, in fact it’s first location was at Notre Dame on November 13th between number one ranked Florida State and number two Notre Dame. It was the only showing of GameDay that season and fans were forced to wait until the following September for the next game. GameDay did not become a regular Saturday tailgate until the 2000 season.
While Notre Dame was the first campus to have GameDay, it is Ohio State who has hosted GameDay more than anyone with 16 games, Alabama comes in a close second with 13 games. However, though Ohio State has the most visits from GameDay, it is Alabama who has appeared in the most games with 42, Ohio State comes in second with 40 games. Rounding out the top 3 campuses for both hosting and appearances is Florida with 12 GameDay visits and 37 appearances.
College GameDay has become the biggest tailgate on TV. The home school brings their cheerleaders, their mascot and thousands of fans! Those fans camp out in the early hours of the day in hopes of their signs making it on national television. The signs have become just a part of GameDay as Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard. However, no fan or sign gets more attention than Lee Corso and his weekly headgear picks. Often times if I cannot watch all three hours of GameDay, I am sure to look up what charade Corso did when choosing his winner. He is right more than he isn’t. I could not find an “official” stat on his picks, I did find the “Officially Unofficial” GamedayCole.com archive where it is stated Corso has a mascot headgear winning percentage of 64.67% with a record of 205-112. I do know his very first headgear pick was made on October 5, 1996 when he wore the head of Brutus with his pick of Ohio State over Penn State and he was correct.
So, who do you think Corso will pick come September 1? Chances are he will be right.
