ESPN College GameDay Location At Indiana Announced For Saturday's Show

Iconic ESPN show will take place at the South End Zone Plaza at Indiana’s Memorial Stadium.

Pat McAfee Nick Saban, and Lee Corso fist bump before live broadcast during ESPN Gameday near Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C.Saturday, September 14, 2024. / Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana athletics has announced the site where ESPN College GameDay will take place on Saturday morning.

Indiana announced via its social media accounts that GameDay will take place from the South End Zone Plaza at Memorial Stadium.

Live from The Rock. pic.twitter.com/NDfl8qJoCz

— Indiana Football (@IndianaFootball) October 22, 2024

This is the same general area that FOX hosted Big Noon Kickoff last Saturday for the Nebraska home game.

Memorial Stadium parking gates open at 6:30 a.m. ET on Saturday and the College GameDay show starts at 9 a.m. ET. The game against Washington kicks off at Noon ET.

Though College GameDay is an ESPN show, the game itself is on Big Ten Network.

There was some conjecture that College GameDay might go off-site to accommodate a larger crowd or to have a broadcast background that took advantage of Indiana’s picturesque campus.

Among other areas, some suggested that the show could be held in front of Indiana’s Sample Gates just east of Kirkwood Avenue for example.

However, the noon kickoff made the logistics of having an off-campus site too difficult. Many fans would be inconvenienced trying to get to the stadium for the Noon start time (GameDay broadcasts almost right up to kickoff) and street closures would negatively impact what’s already a challenging parking situation.

ESPN College GameDay is making its second appearance at Indiana – though it’s the first that has occurred in its traditional Saturday timeslot. College GameDay visited in 2017, but it was for a Thursday night football game and did not have the same amount of glitz and raucousness that has become the show’s calling card.

College GameDay also brings analyst Lee Corso – Indiana’s football coach from 1973-82 – back to Bloomington. Corso, 89, has had health problems recently, but is scheduled to appear.

Corso famously puts the head of the mascot of the team he picks to win the featured game. His celebrity status for appearing on College GameDay, he’s been on since the show’s inception in 1987, has exceeded that of his coaching career.

Another trademark of the show is its guest picker segment. No one has been announced as the guest picker and it is often a surprise revealed on the show itself. One person with Indiana ties, ESPN play-by-play man Joe Buck, has said he will not be the guest picker.

Indiana athletics has also announced that Saturday’s game will be a Red Out. Fans are encouraged to wear as much red to the game.

Come early, be loud & WEAR RED ‼️ pic.twitter.com/bRcDjBTjRK

— Indiana Football (@IndianaFootball) October 22, 2024

Indiana’s football team is 7-0 for the first time since 1967. The Hoosiers share the lead at the top of the Big Ten with Penn State and Oregon, all are 4-0. Indiana is also ranked No. 13 in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls.

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