Could Missouri Tigers Get College GameDay For Georgia?
By Ben Brown
Next weekend Missouri Tiger fans may have some serious spirit to show. Columbia is on track to be in the running to host the famous ESPN College Game Day for the rivalry game with Georgia on October 10th.
Unfortunately, even though Georgia-Mizzou is an incredible matchup, there are a number of different possibilities on why they may not get the chance to host the popular ESPN program.
Sep 27, 2014; Columbia, SC, USA; Missouri Tigers quarterback Maty Mauk (7) during the fourth quarter at Williams-Brice Stadium. Missouri wins in the final minutes 21-20 over South Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
Game Day has an incredible history at the Zou however with its only time hosting game day being an instant classic with the Tigers beating the #3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in comeback fashion. The students rushed the field and carried the goalpost all the way from the field to Harpo’s, a bar in downtown Columbia.
This week’s game was an overlooked opportunity to assure the flagship program aired from MU’s campus.
If Missouri athletic director Mike Alden had, decided to choose the Georgia game as the homecoming game instead of week 8 vs. Vanderbilt, I could almost guarantee you the Tigers’ second appearance on Game Day. But instead, because Alden is always very cautious about the game he chooses for to give the Tigers their best chance of winning. I think he just cost himself boatloads in revenue.
ESPN scouts where they feel is going to have the best combination of matchup, fans, revenue and overall spirit in addition to national prominence for that week in college football.
Unfortunately the slate of games for week 6 in the nation is an amazing one with 5 different ranked match ups, however only 3 of the 5 have the chance at hosting Game day because the other two match ups already have a time slot for earlier in the day on national television.
The meeting between #2 Oregon vs. currently #8 UCLA, who will be playing on FOX at 2:30pm CST, may have lost its bid after Oregon was defeated at home to Arizona Thursday. Another game that could be under consideration is a big 12 match up of currently #25 TCU vs. currently #7 Baylor but this game is less likely because of its start time at 2:30pm CST and airing on both ABC and ESPN2.
Sep 27, 2014; Athens, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs running back Todd Gurley (3) runs for a touchdown against the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half at Sanford Stadium. Georgia defeated Tennessee 35-32. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
That leaves three options of ranked games for ESPN to choose from, and all happen to be in the SEC. Of these three games, none have a selected time slot or TV coverage option yet meaning that they will be the choices ESPN has.
First (And probably the lower threat to CoMo’s chances) is the match up of currently #11 Ole Miss vs. currently #6 Texas A&M in College Station.
The home of the 12th man is no stranger to the popular Saturday morning TV show having hosted it in 2000, 2006, 2012 and most recently last year when they hosted Alabama in week 3 (commonly known as Bama’s revenge game).
The big reason why Texas A&M probably won’t be the location is because the visitor is hosting game day this week (week 5) against Alabama and ESPN rarely has a team on its game of the week two weeks in a row (The one anomaly in recent memory is when Florida was the visiting team in back to back weeks in 2012).
The game that is by far the best competitor to get the show is the SEC West match up of currently unbeaten #5 Auburn visiting currently unbeaten #12 Mississippi State in Starkville, Mississippi.
The state of Mississippi has (surprisingly) never played host the traveling show prior to this upcoming Saturday when Ole Miss hosts Alabama in Oxford. The recent rise of the Mississippi State football program would definitely have gotten the respect it has wanted for so long if Game Day did decide to spend back-to-back weeks on either side of the egg bowl rivalry.
Unfortunately this game is going to be an amazing game and ESPN has a ton of reasons to choose this game as their week 6 game day location and if they are chosen, the cowbell will ring loud and proud.
Sep 27, 2014; Columbia, SC, USA; Missouri Tigers mascot Truman the Tiger revs up the fans during the fourth quarter at Williams-Brice Stadium. Missouri wins in the final minutes 21-20 over South Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
The one big piece of good news for Mizzou is that Mississippi State is playing the currently #6 Aggies of Texas A&M this Saturday and Auburn is playing the currently #14 Tigers of LSU, and if either or both teams lose and Georgia wins against the woeful commodores of Vanderbilt, Mizzou could be looking at their perfect storm.
In addition, the other good news is that Mizzou and Georgia have a legitimate rivalry and there is definitely some bad blood between the two. On the flipside, unlike Mizzou and Georgia, Mississippi State and Auburn don’t really have a big rivalry between them or as much so as their other rivalries (Miss St. with Ole Miss, LSU, Kentucky, etc. and Auburn with Alabama, LSU, Georgia).
Missouri has restored faith in their fan base with an incredible win in Columbia, South Carolina this past Saturday coming on the heels of an embarrassing home loss to Indiana.
After what was a really good showing this past week on Game Day, maybe Lee Corso and crew will make up for his choice of choosing the Gamecocks over Mizzou by coming to Columbia, Missouri and putting Truman’s headgear on.
Live Feed
South Bound & Down
In any case, overall, I believe CoMo’s chances of getting game day is 100% dependent on this week’s games and have made predictions on who will get game day based on possible results of this weekend. Unfortunately the only almost positive way that we will be hosting game day is if Miss St. and Ole Miss and Auburn all lose on Saturday, which very well could happen. The problem is, if they don’t everything is up in the air.
That being said, I’d put a Mississippi State Bulldogs’ and Ole Miss Rebels’ loss at the top of any Missouri Tiger fan’s football wish list for this Saturday if they want to see record attendance and Corso eating Shakespeare’s. I know I do (Actually. Get him something other then Shakespeare’s. We want him to like our town.)