ESPN College GameDay is headed to USC for the Trojans’ game against Nebraska on Saturday. This pretty much confirms the theory voiced by my friend Nick over the weekend, that GameDay this season is going to heavily favor ABC’s Saturday-night games. If ESPN was objectively assessing the “biggest” game of the weekend, I think it’s fairly clear that #2 Notre Dame vs. #11 Michigan or #3 Auburn vs. #6 LSU would be more logical choices than #4 USC vs. #19 Nebraska. You could also make a case for #7 Florida vs. #13 Tennessee, though that case got somewhat weaker when the Vols almost lost to Air Force on Saturday. (I think the lyrics were changed for one week to: “Good old Rocky Top… Whew!… Rocky Top, Tennessee!”)
Anyway, it’s cool that the show is going to USC; this is, what, the fourth* time now since 2004, after never going there before? And, don’t get me wrong, it definitely has the potential to be a good game — but it’s disappointing that GameDay’s location of choice is now apparently going to become so predictable, and not necessarily tied to what’s the biggest, most hyped, most anticipated game of the week, which Trojans-Huskers definitely isn’t (outside of Lincoln and L.A., anyway). It was such a fun parlor game to guess where Kirk, Corso & co. would be going; now, not so much. Oh well.
That said, in terms of picking a game next Saturday, you really can’t lose, as ESPN’s College Football Final points out:
The most fun part of this season…might be watching other teams [in addition to Ohio State] try to remain unscathed, as Notre Dame and the major-conference powers slug it out over the next 12 weeks. And that fun begins this coming Saturday with six games between undefeated, ranked teams. On paper, it looks like the most exciting weekend of the season.
Personally, I think that if USC and Notre Dame are both undefeated on November 25, that game will single-handedly make Thanksgiving weekend the most exciting of the season. :) But anyway, here’s the schedule for what ESPN is already calling “Showdown Saturday.”
*I was there for the first visit ever (photos here), against Cal in ‘04; visit #2 was against ND in ‘04; visit #3 was against UCLA last year.
P.S. Incidentally, the new polls are out, and the Top 5 looks just as I predicted: OSU-ND-Auburn-USC-WVU in the AP poll, OSU-USC-ND-Auburn-WVU in the coaches poll. Texas drops to #8. Penn State, previously #19, drops to #25 in the AP poll and #26 (i.e., first in the “others receiving votes”) in the coaches’ poll.
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Categories: College Football
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September 11th, 2006 at 1:13:11 pm
Just a silly FYI,
Jim and I were at USC yesterday.
We went into Heritage Hall to look at the Heismann trophies and we seemed to be the only ones in the building.
We wandered around and found the team meeting room and left some fun graffiti on the white board.
I wrote “Bootylicious”
and Jim wrote “BEAT the Huskers”
We actually were staying at the Radisson Hotel which is on Campus and they lease the building to Radisson and found out the 3,4 and 5th floors are actually student housing.
The gift shop there is 100% USC stuff, I got a key change that plays the fight on song and a new USC sticker for our car.
Any way it is always great to be at USC, what a beautiful campus.
September 11th, 2006 at 1:56:59 pm
Man, those AP people are fucktards.
September 11th, 2006 at 2:44:27 pm
USC will lose by 14 points.
September 11th, 2006 at 2:50:01 pm
Wow… thats a wet dream
September 11th, 2006 at 3:55:21 pm
So much for “East Coast Bias”…
September 11th, 2006 at 3:57:02 pm
Ok, so University of Buff-a-snow won’t be going to the Rose Bowl after a triple overtime defeat !! We’ll just have to settle for the Peach Bowl - peaches are just as sweet - SMELL THE PEACHES !!
September 11th, 2006 at 8:23:05 pm
Brendan, it’s pretty simple: Auburn-LSU and Florida-Tennessee are going to be on CBS; Notre Dame-Michigan will be on NBC; USC-Nebraska and Oklahoma-Oregon will be on ABC. It’s a no-brainer for ESPN (”Thanks for tuning in, now go watch … CBS!”).
September 12th, 2006 at 6:04:01 am
This is going to be a rough weekend but I at least hope my boys can keep it close and entertaining and show the world that Nebraska football is climbing it’s way out of the darkness!
GO BIG RED!!!
September 12th, 2006 at 2:00:56 pm
What, you don’t think the Oklahoma-Oregon game is more worthy than the USC-Nebraska game Andrew ;-)