College gameday goes international
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
For the first time in its 37 year history, the legendary pre game college football show, College Gameday was broadcast live from an international location. This past weekend the Gameday crew relocated from the USA to Dublin, Ireland for the season opening clash between Florida State Seminoles and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at the Aviva Stadium.
College Gameday International edition
If you have followed college football for any time at all you will know that ESPN’s live game day show, College Gameday is as much a staple of Saturday gamedays as the game being played itself. Quite simply College Gameday is the must watch start to your day for college football fans. It is iconic and legendary.
Now in its fourth decade of broadcasting, the Gameday crew have travelled North to South and coast to coast criss crossing the American continent during every week of the college football season since 1987. Much has changed since the shows debut which was not broadcast live but from the ESPN studios in Connecticut. The show first took the form that we know now when it went live on the road in 1993 visiting South Bend, Indiana for the match up between FSU and Notre Dame. Coincidence then that the first International broadcast should also involve FSU and the Irish but not quite in the same way.
The show is hugely popular in the US attracting some 30 million viewers over the span of the college football season.
But as the show embarks on its 38th season and just when you thought you had seen it all, Gameday ventured into uncharted waters, literally. As the game of football becomes increasingly global in its outreach, the demand for the college game has reached new audiences and is growing quickly outside of the US.
Pleasingly on this side of the pond anyway, we know from talking to fans and from social media just how popular the show is in the UK & Ireland. So too on Saturday’s, 2pm on this side of the Atlantic, college football fans tune in to Lee, Reece, Kirk and Desmond. And now Pat and Nick.
So in 2024 Gameday went global and broadcast its first international show from Dublin, Ireland. And to put into perspective the uniqueness of this event, ESPN were sure to warn its viewers that it was Dublin, Ireland and not Dublin, Ohio.
when irish eyes are smiling
Gameday enjoys an unusually loyal fan base each Saturday. The show has a unique set up in that it is broadcast live from a particular school campus with the fans, their flags and signs and their collective enthusiasm being the true stars of the show. And the fans turn out in their thousands on campuses around the country. This show was a groundbreaker in terms of broadcasting a live pre game show on site from where the game was being played. While others have tried to replicate and ultimately failed, College Gameday continues as strong today as it has ever been over the 37 years of its history.
Dublin added a different dimension to this staple of the Gameday ritual. Truth is, the vast majority of the shows home audience won’t travel outside of the US. However, Ireland along with Scotland, England and Wales is the ancestral home for many Americans whose families made the arduous and harrowing trip to the US some 100 years ago for a new and prosperous life. The Irish tourism board work hard to entice American football fans across for this game and are very successful in doing so. Irish media report some 30,000 FSU & Georgia Tech fans in Dublin on gameday. Last year close to 50,000 Notre Dame fans made the trip.
If Gameday was to have its first game broadcast from an International location, Dublin made perfect sense. While the NFL has camped itself in London and now Germany, the College Football Classic in Dublin has become the event where college football fans see the game played in Europe. And it is fast becoming the unofficial kick off of the college football season.
The Growth of College Football overseas
Notwithstanding this first mover advantage, there is clamour from schools to play more games internationally. BIGXII commissioner Brett Yormack is keen to tap into the Latino market and play games in Mexico. Given his ambition, it is unlikely they stop there. As with the NFL, the demand for college football internationally will soon outstrip supply and new markets will come into play. While college football may be some 20 years behind the NFL in terms of establishing a market outside of its borders, it has a winning formula from the NFL to follow. Truth is, it’s not starting from scratch in terms of a loyal and large fan base. College football is already well supported in Europe. Schools alumni are to be found in clusters all around Europe and people like you and I have already realised just how wonderful and wholly addictive college football is. The circle will only grow wider from here.
Which takes us back to the importance of College Gameday being in Dublin. This is the first true sign that the TV market recognises the importance of the international fan. Yes an estimated 30,000 US fans of both teams were in Ireland this week and 2 million viewers watched the final hour from their homes back in the US. But just as when the NFL travels overseas it was great to see the hats and jerseys of other teams appearing amongst the Dublin crowd. This fandom is growing exponentially year on year.
Boots on the ground
But while it’s exciting for those in the crowd and watching home it’s also exciting and dare I say it almost unbelievable for those in front of the cameras. Would Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard or Reece Davis have imagined a game overseas?
I had the opportunity to ask the host of College Gameday, Rece Davis about his thoughts on bringing the show to Dublin.
“prior to our original plan to come in 2020 I hadn’t really thought of it” said Davis.
“we were very excited about that trip and then we all know what happened there. So I am grateful for the opportunity to bring Gameday to an international location for the first time”
Davis continued,
“we’ve been so well received, the people are excited and we’re fired up to put on a great show and have a great game on Saturday afternoon”
In addition to Gameday, the Pat McAfee travelling circus broadcast live from a pub in Dublin City centre on Friday. This mayhemic show at the best of times scaled new heights of chaos this time with a distinctly Irish feel, It was much watch TV and has already taken on the stuff on legend which will be talked about in Ireland for years to come.
What must Coach Nick Saban have thought about all the shenanigans as he made his official debut as a member of the crew on the Gameday set in Ireland. No stranger to the madness, spectacle and noise of the SEC, Saban seemed to take it all in his stride as he was thrust amongst all of the malarkey. Truth is Saban took to his new role like a duck to water and thrived amongst the madness. Gameday is no place for the faint hearted and Saban fits right in.
On a personal note it was a shame that Coach Lee Corso did not make the trip. Understandable given the short turnaround the team have to be in College Station, Texas this week but his attendance – the undoubted star of this show – would have taken the show to a different level. And to have seen what he would have made of the Dublin crowd? I would not have been surprised if he had donned a leprechaun costume – not his first time – for the show.
perfect timing
Europe is a fresh market for ESPN, one in which they already operate in. Allied to the growing interest in college football bringing College Gameday was as much a clever and shrewd move as it was welcomed by the people and fans in Dublin.
While I could be wrong, the sheer size and scale of the College Gameday operation won’t easily lend itself to this being an annual experience. However the ESPN folks seemed pleasantly surprised by the reception and hospitality they received from the Dubliners. And the show was a spectacle attended by many thousand fans who packed College Street on Saturday afternoon. As already mentioned 2 million viewers tuned in for the last hour of the show. This is not pocket change for sports television on a Saturday morning.
This was also a good, even a. great news story at a time when College football is undertaking unprecedented change. Fans need positivity at this time. As a result the trip to Dublin was welcomed by the fans across the pond and was timely in that respect.
Thank you for coming ESPN and hurry back!
Footnote
Full disclosure, I have have been a huge fan of College Gameday for well over a decade and probably closer to 15 years now. Watching remotely, I never thought I would get the chance to see the show live. I first did in 2015 when I visited Tuscaloosa when the Ole Miss Rebels rode into town to play the Crimson Tide. On that day, Eric Church was the guest picker and Lee Corso picked Bama to win. He was wrong as Hugh Freeze’s Rebels shocked Byant Denny stadium to secure back to back victories over Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide. We arrived on campus at 7am to get a spot to watch Gameday (it was already packed out) for a game that started at 8pm. It was a very long day.
I next got to see Gameday in the flesh in 2019, again in Tuscaloosa for the “game of the century” when Ed Orgeron brought his LSU Tigers into Bryant Denny. The guest picker on that day was golfer Justin Thomas and Corso selected the Tigers. He was right. LSU marched on to become National Champions and have been crowned the greatest team in college football history. Much debated but still.
So when Gameday was confirmed for Dublin, wild horses couldn’t stop me from making the short trip from Scotland. But then something almost unbelievable happened. As a member of the sports media, the opportunity arose to visit behind the scenes at Gameday. I will never ever take the opportunities which arise for granted but Saturday was up there with some of the extreme highs I have experienced following college football. It was almost unbelievable. Except it wasn’t.
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
A GLASWEGIAN LIVING IN LONDON, GEORGE IS A COLLEGE FOOTBALL FAN WHO FOLLOWS THE ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE. HE PROVIDES CFB CONTENT FOR THE TOUCHDOWN AND IS ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST.