Why Is Gameday Going To Boston?
Monday, September 28, 2009
ESPN is sending College Gameday to Boston for the officially dull, and unranked, matchup of Florida State and Boston College. Obviously there has to be a reason, and while some might think it's to promote the launch of ESPNBoston.com, that's actually not the case. ESPN is heading to BC in part to discuss the story of Mark Herzlich, who was the Eagles' star linebacker who was 2008's ACC Defensive POY, and diagnosed with cancer this past March. Via The Sporting Blog....
ESPN's College GameDay has been all over the country since they took their show on the road, literally, in 1993. Until this coming weekend, though, the show had only been in Boston once, parachuting into Chestnut Hill in 2005 for Boston College's first ACC game.I personally think where Gameday goes, isn't really important, and there's not a chance that ESPN would send the crew to hype a CBS game airing that day. Sure there's Cal-USC, and Oklahoma-Miami, but why not raise awareness for Cancer research whenever you can.
The reasoning for going to a matchup of two unranked teams in a town where college football may be the fourth or fifth passion? Well, at least on its surface, it likely has something to do with the story of Mark Herzlich, the BC linebacker who was 2008's ACC Defensive Player of the Year and diagnosed with cancer in March.
However, at the risk of sounding crass: Does this really require moving the entire production to Boston? ESPN's offices, it is impossible to forget, are in Bristol, Connecticut, and their crews are more than capable of driving to Chestnut Hill or Pennsylvania, where Herzlich may be with his family, and putting together a moving piece with or without GameDay in town.
Why College GameDay Is Coming to Your City, If You Live in Boston (The Sporting Blog)
11 Comments:
Couldn't they have just done a piece on the LB as opposed to sending the entire damn set there?
ESPN is seriously irking me with their locations this year. Unless that guy is going to be on the air for the entire 2 hours - which he won't - just do a piece on him. This is getting ridiculous.
who cares? i don't know why the site of a pregame broadcast matters. it's the same stuff every week anyway. anyone watching two hours of fill and then a game might need a hobby (life) anyway.
What a terrible and irresponsible decision by ESPN to take Gameday to Chestnut Hill. College Gameday is supposed to go to the best game of the day. Just because you're doing something related to cancer doesn't give you carte blanche to do whatever you want. College Gameday was created to capture the buzz and excitement on campus of the marquee college football game of the week. Gameday has started to betray this mission and a few times over the past few years they have picked games with ulterior motives in mind. I realize that this week's slate of games does not have an obvious location for Gameday to go, but FSU-BC is certainly not the game of the week.
a town where college football may be the fourth or fifth passion?
Or sixth, behind the Red Sawks, the Patriots, the Bruins, the Celtics, and College Hockey (Beanpot anyone?), in no particular order.
I know it's not realistic, but it would have been cool for them to come to Minnesota. Gophers vs Wisconsin (longest running rivalry in FBS) in the brand new stadium for Homecoming.
It is very difficult and expensive for them to come to the West Coast. If Cal had done their damn jobs last week, I would have bet anything they would have gone to Beserkeley, as they had not been before.
This is officially the dullest CFB opening month ever. And it still beats any other sport!
I recall Kirk saying on Saturday something to the effect of Cal beating Oregon and then heading undefeated into the USC matchup with Gameday broadcasting from Berkeley. Wonder if the Bears getting blasted had anything to do with it...
Actually College sports are 7th or 8th on the Boston sports radar. Maybe just ahead of the New England Revolution Soccer Team!
ESPNBoston.com everyone. Gimme a break on the cancer shit. That is clearly not the reason.
They have often taken GameDay to sites where CBS covers the game...I recall many LSU/UF or UF/Tennessee games they brought GameDay to.