ESPN Front Row: College GameDay goes from Happy Valley, PA to Brookings, SD in a Few “Easy” Steps

College GameDay Built by the Home Depot is heading to Brookings, S.D., for the first time ever this Saturday, as No. 3 South Dakota State hosts No. 1 North Dakota State (according to FCS rankings). The three-hour pregame show (9 a.m. – noon ET), will be live from College Green on South Dakota State’s campus.

College GameDay will air on ESPN and ESPNU as it does each Saturday throughout the season. Countdown to GameDay Live sponsored by Coca-Cola and Samsung QLED, will also be live on-site on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the ESPN App, featuring Jason Fitz, David Pollack, Mike Golic Jr., and a number of college football analysts and reporters.

The show precedes a full slate of action across ESPN networks, beginning at noon ET. North Dakota State faces South Dakota State at 3 p.m. on ESPN+. ABC Saturday Night Football will feature No. 8 Notre Dame at No. 19 Michigan. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Maria Taylor will be on the call, with coverage beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Show Highlights

• Casey at the Snap – Minnesota junior walk-on placeholder Casey O’Brien is a four-time cancer survivor who hadn’t played a down of football since high school. But all that changed last Saturday, when O’Brien not only fulfilled a dream, but kept a promise to those who battle cancer. Reporter: Gene Wojciechowski
• You Don’t Know Jackrabbits – Odds are…you don’t know Jack about South Dakota State. What’s the Alma mater of the greatest clutch kicker in NFL history? Who is the last team to beat FCS champion North Dakota State? What does Holy Nutmeg mean? All answers lie in the best football program you don’t know…until now. Reporter: Tom Rinaldi
• Chase is on the Case – Chase Young has been a one-man wrecking crew for the rejuvenated Ohio State Defense so far this season.  Kirk Herbstreit sits down the nation’s sack leader and his coach Larry Johnson, to break down film and examine what makes Chase so dominant. Reporter: Kirk Herbstreit
• Catch Me If You Can – Last season LSU receivers had the highest percentage of dropped on-target passes in the SEC.  This year thanks to a summer where they were tasked with catching 10,000 passes – that rate is down to the 12^th lowest in all of FBS

Corso Facts

• Corso has won each of his last five headgear picks. The last pick he lost was in Ames, which was hosting GameDay for the first time and was the 59th different Mascot head he put on
• If Corso dons South Dakota State headgear, it will be the 60th different mascot headgear he has worn at the end of the show
• Corso has put on the winning mascot head in seven of the nine non-FBS games GameDay has attended
  • The two he lost: 2014 at Harvard when he picked Yale, and 2015 when he picked JMU over Richmond

Stats from ‘The Bear’

• This Saturday’s show will be no. 374 and Lee Corso’s 340th headgear pick
• This is College GameDay’s first trip to Brookings, S.D., for a South Dakota State game
  • The Jackrabbits opponent, North Dakota State, have hosted GameDay in Fargo twice before – September 13, 2014 and September 21, 2013. The Bison shut out both of their opponents with GameDay in town.
• South Dakota State is the 73rd different school to host GameDay and Brookings is the 87th different city from which the show has originated.
• This is the 10th time GameDay has originated from a non-FBS game site. The others – Harvard at Penn (2002), Southern vs. Grambling (2005 in Houston), Amherst at Williams (2007), Hampton at Florida A&M (2008), Delaware State at North Dakota State (2013), Incarnate Word at North Dakota State (2014), Yale at Harvard (2014), Richmond at James Madison (2015) and Villanova at James Madison (2017)

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