College GameDay Makes First Appearance at James Madison University

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College GameDay Makes First Appearance at James Madison University

ESPN College GameDay Built by The Home Depot – college football’s longest running and most celebrated pregame show – will make its eighth appearance from a non-FBS site with a first visit to James Madison University for its showdown with instate rival Richmond on Saturday, Oct. 24. The Emmy Award-winning show will air from the Quad in front of Wilson Hall from 9 a.m.-noon on ESPN.

H­ost Rece Davis – in his first season at the College GameDay desk –  is joined by analysts Kirk HerbstreitLee CorsoDesmond Howard and David Pollack, as well as contributors Samantha PonderTom RinaldiGeorge Whitfield and Gene Wojciechowski.

College Football Live will originate from the College GameDay set Friday, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m. on ESPN with Ponder, Howard and Pollack at the desk.

College GameDay Fun Facts:

  • This is the eighth time GameDay has originated from a non-FBS site. The others – 2002 Harvard at Penn, 2005 Southern vs Grambling (in Houston), 2007 Amherst at Williams, 2008 Hampton at Florida A&M, 2013 Delaware State at North Dakota State, 2014 Incarnate Word at North Dakota State and 2014 Yale at Harvard.
  • James Madison will be the 65th different school to host the show on its campus. The previous 64 are 40-24 in their GameDay debut home game.
  • Harrisonburg is the 73rd different city the show has visited. Richmond and James Madison are the 80th and 81st different teams to be represented at a GameDay site game.
  • Corso has put on the winning mascot head in six of the seven non-FBS games GameDay has attended. His lone loss was last year at Harvard when he picked Yale.
  • Corso has never picked either team, so this will be the 53rd different mascot head he has donned.
  • GameDay has been in the state of Virginia once in Week 8. The score that day in 1999 was Virginia Tech 62, Syracuse 0. That game holds the mark for largest margin of victory in a game from which GameDay

College GameDay Features:

  • Miami Hurricanes’ OL Hunter Knighton returned to the field this season after suffering a heatstroke and spending nearly two weeks in a coma in 2014.   (Reporter: Tom Rinaldi / Producer: Kristen Lappas)
  • With just about all hope lost, how did Michigan State pull off a play for the ages? (Reporter: Gene Wojciechowski /Producer: Jarrod Ficklin)
  • The Tigers’ OL Mason Darrow was embraced by his Princeton football team once he told them he’s gay – so he took it public. (Reporter: Rece Davis / Producer: Ben Webber)

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Rachel Margolis Siegal

A part of the Internal Communications team at ESPN, I began with the network in 2010 as part of the College Sports PR team. Always an avid sports fan and not an athlete – I grew up a huge fan of the Hartford Whalers, while also watching my brother compete at different levels. I became the manager of several high school sports teams and continued that hobby into college. While at Quinnipiac, I worked in the Sports Information Department, which led me to a summer internship at the New Haven Ravens, a AA baseball team, and an eventual job with the Athletic Communications Department at the University of Connecticut. After my five-year stint at Connecticut, I spent six years as Director of Communications at the BIG EAST Conference in Providence, R.I. before joining ESPN.
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