Todd’s Take: Symphony Of Chaos Behind The Scenes At ESPN College GameDay

Indiana students, basketball players, famous personalities and many others drink in a big day on-campus.

Pat McAfee, Nick Saban, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit on the ESPN College GameDay set on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. / Hoosiers On SI | Todd Golden

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – If you know your folk history, you may have heard of the Hadacol Caravan Show of the early 1950s.

It traveled around the South and the Midwest – including stops in Indianapolis and Terre Haute in Indiana.

It featured real stars of the time – Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Hank Williams – but mixed it with a traveling circus, a fireworks show and similar fare. All to hawk a dietary supplement, Hadacol, that was later proven to be nothing more than just a tonic. It quickly fell out of favor in the early 1950s, but the Caravan was considered the last true traveling medicine show.

I’m not so sure that’s accurate. ESPN College GameDay isn’t hawking a tonic – though football is a tonic for the masses more than Hadacol ever was – but it travels, it’s wildly popular, and it certainly puts on a show.

Hoosiers On SI got a backstage pass to the festivities Saturday morning. It wasn’t quite all-access, but it opened a window into the wild world of College GameDay.

We were asked to arrive early. Very early. The sun was still sleeping when myself and several colleagues arrived around 7 a.m. If you didn’t know where to go, all you had to do was follow the beat of “Seven Nation Army.” It played like a pied piper for the Indiana faithful.

Bleary eyed some of us may have been, once we were let into the set, we realized that we had very little to complain about as far as lack of sleep was concerned.

The pit had long been full with Indiana students by the time I arrived. One of them was Gilbert Resnik from Fort Wayne. He was fortunate to be in the first row in the pit near the stage.

Indiana students stand in the ESPN College GameDay pit on Saturday morning at Memorial Stadium. / Hoosiers On SI | Todd Golden

I asked how long he had been in line to get his primo spot.

“I’ve been here since 4 p.m.” Resnick said. As in 4 p.m. on Friday.

“Three of my roommates came out, no sleep, just took a 20-minute nap, but it’s been too much energy! Too much adrenaline! You can’t sleep with College GameDay here,” Resnick said.

That’s a long time to wait without food, drink or, ahem, facilities, though you could leave your spot in the pit to use portable toilets. Those trifling details mattered not to Roessling.

“Lay on the floor, waste time, hang out with the guys. It’s amazing. It’s awesome for the culture,” Resnick said.

The on-air staff is surprisingly active when it comes to hyping up the crowd. The lanes that cut into the pens give them the chance to run a gauntlet of adoring fans. The hype never stops.

The College GameDay pit is split into multiple pens divided by lanes for camera people and on-air staff to roam. ESPN has the process of setting up the pit down to a science in terms of what it needs for the broadcast versus giving the fans a chance to go crazy. It’s impressive.

Every little detail has been refined through trial and error since College GameDay began its remote broadcasts in 1993. There’s even risers built into the crash gates in front of the main stage. These are used by on-air staff when they want to have the crowd as background to their shots.

There’s three stages. The main set where Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, Pat McAfee, Nick Saban, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit sit. Poor “Stanford Steve” Coughlin gets a very small desk to himself to the left of the stage. There’s a secondary set where they do stand-up segments and interviews. There’s another set used for overflow.

All the while, the place is hopping. Production assistants, camera people and crew buzz around like worker bees. There are VIPs to attend to. There are guests on-set who have to be whisked in and whisked out of a very confined area astride 17th Street. It’s a constant churn of activity … all with a concert-like crowd in the background.

The calmest creature in the midst of it all is Ben, Herbstreit’s dog, who has lived an entire dog’s life in the midst of this madness. He wanders around oblivious to how special this is for Indiana students who have never experienced GameDay before.

The crowd is constantly prompted by stage directions and music. College GameDay is famous for its signs. Favorite themes were Curt Cignetti, the Michael Penix Indiana-Washington connection and making fun of Purdue.

There were chants of “We Want Bama” – even though Indiana has caught and passed Alabama in the real poll. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” was sung on multiple occasions. So was “Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers.”

Signs are a popular feature on ESPN College GameDay. Indiana students were ready for it. / Hoosiers On SI | Todd Golden

Corso arrived not long before the show went on-air at 9 a.m. He wore an Indiana starter jacket from his own coaching era. For the concerns about his health, Corso looked pretty good. He was as energized by the occasion as anyone else.

Everyone wanted to be part of this occasion. A sizable portion of Indiana’s men’s basketball team wandered the set and later appeared on one of the stages.

Members of the Indiana basketball team, including Anthony Leal, Luke Goode, Malik Reneau, Trey Galloway and Myles Rice hang out at ESPN College GameDay. / Hoosiers On SI | Todd Golden

Used to being the objects of attention, players like Malik Reneau, Trey Galloway, Luke Goode, Anthony Leal and Myles Rice stood there in wonderment like everyone else.

Once the show started, the backstage pass was limited to just an observation point behind the main set. We could not go into the crowd, and speaking with any of the on-air staff was strictly forbidden.

That was a bummer. I stuck around long enough to see Curt Cignetti appear on-set before we were shooed away for good.

Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti (middle in black jacket) joins Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, Pat McAfee, Lee Corso, Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit on one of the ESPN College GameDay sets on Saturday. / Hoosiers On SI | Todd Golden

We got the point though. College GameDay is a raucous, wildly popular traveling show. College football is an undeniable tonic.

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