[Utah] is one of America’s best-kept secrets. – ESPN analyst George Whitfield
SALT LAKE CITY — At the west end of Presidents Circle, on the University of Utah campus, sits Gardner Hall. It houses the music department and has an elegant concert chamber. Next to it is Kingsbury Hall, which has hosted such musicians as Harry Belafonte, Judy Collins and Carol Channing.
Across the street, in the parkway, there’s another kind of music going on this week. Strike up the marching band. ESPN's "College GameDay" is in town for Saturday’s Utah-California football game. But wait. Isn't GameDay two words?
Take it up with the word police.
For two days, the network giant is commandeering the campus, bringing its own brand of grammar. Get ready for an overload of physicality, cover twos, nickel packages and other sports jargon. For the first time since 2010, ESPN’s monster pregame program is back in Utah. If you don’t know what "GameDay" is, you’ve been stuck in one of the Kingsbury Hall broom closets since it opened in 1930.
Seven semi-trucks were parked in the circle on Friday. Twenty portable bathrooms lined the parkway. A stage was erected for the on-air personalities, flanked by a big screen, speakers and grandstands. As of noon, 25 tents also had been set up by students hoping to land some airtime. One tent included a sign saying, “Camp Corso,” in honor of venerable ESPN personality Lee Corso.
Marc Lodmell, a student at Utah, began staking his tent about 9 p.m. Thursday.
“You don’t get to do this that often,” he said.
Would you want to?
“We’ll find out tomorrow,” he said.
"GameDay" is beyond an ordinary pregame program; it's a cultural phenomenon. Sometimes it’s bigger than the actual contest. Take for example the 2013 and 2014 stops in Fargo, N.D. The idea is to excite fans by previewing and reviewing national games from a campus setting. The fact No. 5 Utah and No. 23 California are meeting was enough to convince the ESPN cast and crew — numbering 100-125 — to visit Salt Lake.
Viewership for "GameDay" broadcasts are typically around 2 million.
Salt Lake and the university had on their best faces Friday, thanks to a bright autumn afternoon. The crown of the administration building was wrapped in a banner proclaiming, “Welcome to Salt Lake City.”
No, it wasn’t for the Peter Cole poetry reading.
Things will really pick up Saturday when the actual "GameDay" show airs, beginning at 7 a.m.
“[Utah] is one of America’s best-kept secrets,” said network quarterback analyst George Whitfield.
Analyst David Pollack added that Saturday’s "GameDay" at Utah “is setting up as a place to be absolutely stupid,” meaning ridiculously successful.
“It’s going to be awesome,” he said.
It certainly got off to a stupidly successful start Friday. Fans brought signs ranging from the predictable “This is the place” to “The original BCS Busters are all grown up” to a political statement. Alongside the initials FCS, which stand for Football Championship Subdivision, one sign spelled out the words “Fund Basic Science.”
Samantha Ponder, Desmond Howard and Pollack handled Friday’s duties on set, reviewing Thursday’s USC-Washington game and dropping an occasional reference to Utah’s high ranking.
“I don’t think it’s a fluke,” Pollack told a media gathering afterward. “I’d be lying if I told you I think Utah will run the table. But right now, with what it’s done so far at this point, whose resume is really better? There’s a lot of parity."
Saturday’s "GameDay" will include regulars Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Corso, Ponder and Howard. Corso will don a mascot mask of the team he thinks will win. The bulk of the show is a warm-up session for the actual game. Gimme an E! Gimme an S! Gimme a P! Gimme an N! What’s that spell?
Exposure, that’s what.
This isn’t Salt Lake’s first "GameDay" appearance. But now that the Utes are in a power conference, it’s easier to get ESPN’s attention. "GameDay" first appeared in Utah in 2004 for the Ute-BYU game. In 2010 Utah lost 47-7 to TCU, when the Utes were ranked No. 5 and TCU No. 3.
BYU hosted the event in 2009, a 38-7 loss to TCU.
In some ways it’s all just pregame prattle. But it’s also a nationwide advertisement for both the teams and the universities involved.
Luanjing Guo, a Chinese national student teaching at Utah, said she came to Presidents Circle to see the spectacle. Though she doesn’t watch all the Ute games, she said she always checks the scores.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, we won! We won big!’” she said.
She must have seen the Oregon game.
Guo added that while sports are important in other countries, American college football has a unique flavor.
“I think they make it more …” she began, searching for a word.
One of several buses drove by, shrouded in a "GameDay" vehicle wrap.
“Extravagant,” she concluded.
Plenty of schools sell T's and sweatshirts that say, “Every day is game day.”
But not every day is "GameDay."
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