ESPN’s College GameDay Heads to Sundance Square for Opening Weekend

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ESPN’s College GameDay Heads to Sundance Square for Opening Weekend

Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal Rachel Margolis Siegal Follow on Twitter July 30, 2014
Bristol, CT - August 26, 2015 - Studio F: Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit on the set of College GameDay Built by the Home Depot Preview

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Saturday Morning Show to Begin and End Season from Fort Worth, Texas

ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot – college football’s longest running and most celebrated pregame show – will begin and end the 2014 season from Sundance Square in Fort Worth, Texas. The weekly three-hour Emmy Award-winning show (Saturday 9 a.m.-noon ET) will open on August 30 in advance of the Cowboys Classic. The annual neutral-site matchup from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will pit the defending national champion Florida State Seminoles against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday Night Football as part of DICK’s Sporting Goods Kickoff Week at 8 p.m. on ABC.

SportsCenter segments will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday from Sundance Square, and College Football Live will originate from the GameDay set at 2:30 p.m.

“We can’t think of a better place to kick off the College GameDay season than the location that will host the first College Football National Championship in January,” said Lee Fitting, ESPN senior coordinating producer. “We’ve had great luck in Fort Worth with ESPN’s Super Bowl and Final Four coverage, and now we have a match-up that includes the defending national champions, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and a perennial top-25 team. These two teams are known for their passionate fan bases, so we challenge them to come out in full force on the opening Saturday.”

College GameDay will make its final stop in Sundance Square to preview the inaugural College Football National Championship, set to be played on Monday, Jan. 12, on ESPN, also at AT&T Stadium.

“We’re thrilled to have ESPN back in Sundance Square,” said Tracy Gilmour, Director of Marketing for Sundance Square. “ESPN’s College GameDay along with cheering fans always makes for a fun and energetic atmosphere; and Fort Worth is the perfect backdrop. We look forward to hosting ESPN next month and in January.”

Hosted by Chris Fowler, the GameDay team consists of analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack with reporting by Samantha Ponder, Tom Rinaldi, Scott Van Pelt and Gene Wojciechowski.

The first week of College GameDay will be the 240th headgear selection for Corso and he holds a 9-6 all-time week 1 record. Corso has picked Florida State 16 time with a 10-6 record, and has selected Oklahoma State twice, with a 1-1 mark.

College GameDay expanded to three hours in 2013, averaging 1,830,000 viewers for a 10 percent increase over the same 9 a.m. to noon time period on ESPN in 2012.

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Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal Rachel Margolis Siegal Follow on Twitter July 30, 2014
Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal

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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