Sports

Cougs, Ducks and Lee Corso’s headgear pick. WSU to host ESPN’s College Gameday for the first time

ESPN College GameDay hosts Lee Corso, left, and Kirk Herbstreit confer during a 2014 College Gameday telecast.
ESPN College GameDay hosts Lee Corso, left, and Kirk Herbstreit confer during a 2014 College Gameday telecast. AP file, 2014

College Gameday has been going on the road since 1993 and in the past 15 years, a random Washington State University flag has appeared on every single show. “Ol’ Crimson” has been to South Bend, Columbus, Tallahassee and even a few national title games.

This coming Saturday, it can — finally — stay home.

Because for the first time in the show’s history, College Gameday will be headed to Pullman, for the big Pac-12 North showdown between the 5-1 Washington State Cougars and the 5-1 Oregon Ducks.

For the past few weeks, fans of the show advocated for a trip to Pullman, and with the Ducks 30-27 victory over UW this past Saturday it seemed even more possible. During the Michigan-Wisconsin game on ABC’s Saturday Night College Football producer, Chris Fallica had teased the possibility of Pullman getting the Gameday site.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">So it appears the airport code for Spokane is GEG...</p>&mdash; Chris Fallica (@chrisfallica) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisfallica/status/1051256016711618560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Even ABC sideline reporter Maria Taylor talked about how she wanted to head to the Palouse during the broadcast.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/gabemooreosu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@gabemooreosu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/askMariaT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#askMariaT</a> <a href="https://t.co/z9OyDT0dN5">pic.twitter.com/z9OyDT0dN5</a></p>&mdash; Maria Taylor (@MariaTaylor7) <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaTaylor7/status/1051273896538886144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It won’t be the first time that WSU has had a team on College Gameday as they’ve been the featured school twice, in the 1997 Rose Bowl vs. Michigan and a regular season matchup in 2002 at Ohio State.

Finally, Ol’ Crimson gets a home game.

This story was originally published October 14, 2018 at 2:49 PM.

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